What is your reason for hi-fi?

[Rare Bird]

I had a feeling this topic came up before but could'nt find anything.

I know lots of people buy things for different reasons. I don't buy new hifi, nor to sit down & painfully scrutinise throwing heaps & heaps of money at in the hope i can get blood from a stone.i don't do that nor do i have the desire to recreate a live performance in my living room, i'm neither intrested in that.

My heart has always been with vintage (60s/70s), vintage sound, asthetic design/build quality.Modern hifi doesnt give me the joy i get from old gear.

Yes my casual listerning is all done through lossless music files but i no way called this my main stereo listerning even though i spend more time with it.

So you know it's the whole vintage theme for me.well you may all call it vintage but i actually live my life in the times back then so it's all upto date

[Ali Tait]

For me,music pure and simple.The kit is secondary.I have what I have because it gets me emotionally closer to the music.A friend put it very well-A hi-fi will let you stand outside the music,listenng in.A great hi-fi will put you inside the music,make you a part of it.That's what it's all about for me.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I chuffed on about this in another thread, it's about the music and the kit for me, I like my music sounding good, I like owning nice things... I also like having a hobby to ocupy my huge brain!

[John]

For me,music pure and simple.The kit is secondary.I have what I have because it gets me emotionally closer to the music.A friend put it very well-A hi-fi will let you stand outside the music,listenng in.A great hi-fi will put you inside the music,make you a part of it.That's what it's all about for me.

Yes agree sums it up for me too

[Haselsh1]

I love and adore certain types of music. My first passion would be Prog Rock and to that end, I want my music to sound a certain way. If I had no preference I would buy a JVC music centre but I have to listen a certain way and therefore for me, it has to be Hi-Fi. I guess if the truth is admitted to I am a bit obsessive about fine detail and that is why I prefer vinyl and valves.

[jandl100]

I chuffed on about this in another thread, it's about the music and the kit for me, I like my music sounding good, I like owning nice things... I also like having a hobby to ocupy my huge brain!

Me, too. ... although I'm not so sure about the large brain in my case!

I wouldn't be interested in hifi if it wasn't for the music, but I do enjoy playing with different kit and trying different things. The arrival of a new box is still a thing of excitement for me.
I know, I'm a sad case (but happy).

[Themis]

For me,music pure and simple.The kit is secondary.I have what I have because it gets me emotionally closer to the music.A friend put it very well-A hi-fi will let you stand outside the music,listenng in.A great hi-fi will put you inside the music,make you a part of it.That's what it's all about for me

.Yes agree sums it up for me too

+1

I'm into hifi because I'm trying desperately to find the kit which will provide me with the sound I enjoyed when I grew up (before -say- 16) : I never really listen to recorded stuff before this age, only live, not amplified music.

[Mike Reed]

Whereas I can enjoy my transistor radio whilst listening to my cereal (!?), when I have a session I expect, and need, to totally immerse myself; often to the point of halucinatory images and colours, esp. after a glass or three.

I therefore need a very big sound (not loud, necessarily) which is very dynamic regardless of material. There should be inky backgrounds, apart from vinyl noise. However, no hardening of string tone or other negative artifacts should be apparent.

I guess I look for control, speed, a large dynamic range and a wide soundstage in my kit. Pity valve bass doesn't plumb the depths in the same way as solid state, but what you lose on the swings........

[Marco]

For me, it's very simple: I enjoy my favourite music sounding as 'real' (to my ears) as possible!

When my system (to me) all but successfully replicates the sound of real instruments and voices, it is *this* effect which puts a big smile on my face - and for me that musical 'realism' is only available from the very best hi-fi systems. This is precisely why most of us here strive to 'go the extra mile' with audio, as that extra 5 or 10%, sonically, is often the difference which separates a merely good system from a great one, and thus one that succeeds in reproducing 'real' music rather than a poor 'second-class citizen' of such....

It is also precisely why we are members of an specialist audio forum such as this, and what separates us from 'Joe Bloggs' who's quite happy listening to his tunes on an iPod or a micro system from Tesco!

The Lockwoods, with their 15" Tannoy drivers in huge cabinets, help in respect of creating the 'realism' I strive for, as indeed Shuggie related during the discussion after his recent visit, chez-moi:

One highlight was playing my Decca SXL LP (1959, Ansermet, Speakers Corner reissue) of Adam's Giselle, which really showed off the amount of air that Marco's Tannoys can shift. There's quite a bit of bass drum banging in that recording, and it's clear that for natural dynamics, there is no real substitute for speaker cones with sheer surface area!

Quite - and incidentally, the above was played on a vinyl recording from 1965, via the Techy

When the drums kicked in during crescendos it sounded and indeed 'felt' scarily like having the orchestra right there in the room (I've been to enough classical concerts in my time to know exactly what this effect is like), as the room (and indeed our chest cavities) shook with the palpable motive force created by the Tannoys shifting huge amounts of air - that was a truly grin-inducing experience, and it can *only* happen when using speakers with the largest of drive units... Sheer surface cone area rules, chaps!

Similarly, Del and I went to a recent Rammstein concert at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester, and we were sat in one of the upper tiers overlooking the stage below. It was a fantastic spectacle, as these guys really know how to put on a show, but the sound was so loud and had such physical intensity, that even being so high up, the bass caused the bottom of my jeans to flap and the structure of the stand to shake!!

When we got home, I couldn't wait to play the same tracks from their new album 'Liebe ist für alle da' on my system at home and try to replicate that trouser-flapping experience and sheer sense of 'physicality' we had just enjoyed at the M.E.N....

Well, of course, it was never going to be exactly the same! *But* I still managed to create a very believable snap-shot of the physical, indeed visceral, musical intensity of the live concert we had just experienced, so it was satisfying that my system suceeded to deliver the goods in precisely the right way

Having a system which simply sounds adequate or 'inoffensive' playing unchallenging 'background music' just isn't for me!

It is creating that perceived musical 'realism', and thus emotional connection with the performance, whether it's balls-out rock music or the spine-tingling intimacy of a small-scale jazz ensemble, or similar acoustic-based performance, that for me personally is what having a top-notch hi-fi system is all about.....

Marco.

[electric beach]

I want to be moved by the musicianship of an artist playing, the dynamics, emphasis and shading that carry their passion and ability. A high fidelity recreation gives me access to the subtleties of their performance that imparts this.

The illusion of a real instrument in a believable acoustic is not essential to this as I've been entranced by a performance on a car radio, but the connection is magnified by the level of detail, tonal balance, note decay - all the things we say to describe the suspension of disbelief.