Confronting your own realities...

[Dominic Harper]

Some of us enjoy changing cartridges, whereas for others, it's dressing gowns

Marco.

Fathead lololololololol.

I like listening to different types of equipment. I don't tinker because I don't really know the first thing about changing a cart or changing tubes. But I do know what I like the sound of and when I like the sound of something. I mean it's true you do have to change things around and have a listen to different stuff. I love looking at the different carts we get coming and the variety of turntables, arms etc. I guess we are lucky in that respect because we get to hear so many different things for example we have a Graham Phantom that is going to be fitted to Clearaudio, and a Kuzma arm that we received today. I haven't heard any of these arms, so in order for me to have a listen, this involves tinkering. So I understand why some people do tinker, and others like to listen to the music.

Just a little off topic, anyone ever heard a Shelter 9000, I heard one for the first time last week, and thought it sounded lovely. That is the first time I have even seen one. Bloody lovely, Dom has also received 3 EMT 948, again something I have never heard or seen before. Now, the EMTs will need some fettling and tinkering because they do need servicing, but I am looking forward to have a listen to one.

My point is that sometimes it's good to tinker, but other times when I am listening to a very enjoyable piece of vinyl and Dom has to check something, I wanna scream lol

Natalie

[pete_mac]

Interesting topic!

I'm a massive music fan, but I also love my equipment - especially the stuff that I've had a role in tweaking or rebuilding/restoring. Just as one experiences an emotional response to good music, I develop an emotional attachment to the gear that I work on, and it heightens my overall enjoyment. This is particularly true of the vintage amps that I restore and modify. Personally I wouldn't experience the same pleasure by purchasing standard gear off-the-shelf - no character, no soul. It doesn't evoke the same emotional response in me.

All of the above is IMHO of course... each to their own, horses for courses etc.

[MartinT]

Just a little off topic, anyone ever heard a Shelter 9000, I heard one for the first time last week, and thought it sounded lovely. That is the first time I have even seen one.

Hi Natalie

If it's like my Shelter 5000 only 'more of', then I guess it must be really superb. I've hankered after upgrading to a 7000 or 9000 but not just yet.

[Welder]

Sometimes it's just really nice to sit down and have a good listen to some great music. Just a little point I want to make and please dont all shoot me down. I asked a question on here a couple of weeks ago asking why do hifi enthusiasts/diyrs/hobbiest need have so many different things like various carts etc. Now if some of you guys are saying that you just enjoy listening to the music, then you obviously don't need a variety of different pieces of equipment, because you are obviously happy with your system as it is and have no reason to change anything. So why do people have so many diffrent pieces? Gotcha

Don't get me wrong. I like the idea that you can swap and change things about. I also enjoy listening to various sounds from different equipment. But if everyone or most people are saying that they just enjoy listening and don't bother tinkering, then why have something you are not going to use. I will tell you why, because you hifi buffs love having bits and pieces, you just enjoy having your items just incase you fancy changing and tinkering.

Natalie

I think one needs to look at the tinkering and collecting from a different angel Natalie. Think more of boys, toys and peers.
Men tend to define who they are and their position in peer groups by what they possess and in this respect boys don’t really grow up.

There will be those who always want the newest toy, or those who have a few models of what to a casual observer look to be pretty much the same, only to be told that such and such a model is series E while the other is B etc.
Some boys take their toys to pieces while others put them on shelves still in their boxes. Some men grow out of this to a greater extent than others. Some men do eventually come to realise that possessions don’t define who they are, sometimes when life strips the material away, sometimes through a growth in confidence.

Perhaps learn to smile sweetly and say “yes dear, that’s very nice” and get on with the important things in life and just accept that in some respects little boys just don’t grow up.
Maybe you do this already.

[morris_minor]

Men tend to define who they are and their position in peer groups by what they possess and in this respect boys don’t really grow up.

I agree totally with this John. In my formative hi-fi years (the 70s) I knew hardly anyone with "good" hi-fi, but avidly read the Hi-fi press (rags that they were) to find out what to aspire to. (This is of course a time waaay before the internet ). Little did I know what a hatchet job they were doing on Japanese gear - and some British manufacturers who didn't fit in - in their mostly uncritical promotion of, er, cough, "certain brands". Brand snobbery at its most blatant IMO.

The internet's opened up the floodgates of information and opinions, but I think there is still a tendency for folk to go with the flow. Anyone alighting on AoS will soon get the impression that modded 1210s are "the" way to go. And before you all pipe up - I KNOW that's not how it is, but it would be easy to form that impression. Not that I've gone with that particular flow, though my first good TT was a Technics - an SL7, new in 1980.

I've spent time on a number of forums - most get my back up within a month and I never revisit them, and the fact that this hasn't happened with AoS is a testimony to it's fair-mindedness (when discussing hi-fi). However I think the fact we all post here shows we have an interest in kit, of whatever flavour. I would like to think though, that ultimately, it's the music that counts for all of us.

If the house caught fire, I would grab the wife and kids and tell them to grab an armful of vinyl on the way out (not too sure how that would go down) while I rescue a NAS drive. The music's important, the kit's not.

[Welder]

Oh dear, I wish I could say it was all about the music for me when it comes to Hi Fi.
My Hi Fi doesn’t do music, it makes a lovely sound, but music....well, it plays a recording and that is a far cry from what music means to me.

I don’t understand this emotional connection with recordings, its a bit like having an emotional connection with a photograph of your wife or kids. I think there is something seriously wrong with people who find emotional satisfaction in recorded music. Recorded music doesn’t even provide a soundtrack to my life, barring perhaps some of the recordings I have from when my friends and i used to organise gigs.
The last time I checked I had memories and the important ones are burnt in deeper than any vinyl cut, or optical drive, or picture can manage.
I’ve done without all the “stuff” before and strangely I didn’t disappear or feel any less adequate; much the opposite in fact.

My interest in stereo systems is to do with the reproduction of sound and more recently the computer side of this. I guess I was and still am one of those “took it to bits to see how it works kids”.
If I want to hear music i either play some, or go to a live venue. It doesn’t matter how well recorded something is, 90% of the music just isn’t there; you need people, space, reality......

It certainly reads well when people write its all about the music for them, but frankly, all the other stuff they write leads me to believe otherwise.
Take the recent show; that was all about music then? Erm, I rather think not. More about equipment and people trying to make friends and impress others with their toys.

I don’t have a problem with it, It’s just not for me, I’m not really interested in what others have and I certainly don’t want to meet most of the AoS contributors. I have enough problems being polite to many online, never mind face to face.
I have music playing pretty much all the time I’m at home, but its background tunes and when I do sit and listen intently, I’m listening to the reproduction, ie the equipment.
I listen to music when I play, or go dancing, or attend one of the mainly small venues I get to these days.

All my kit can be replaced as can the recordings. Most of the music I like to listen to isn’t of any notable merit and as file data has no intrinsic value thankfully.

So, I’m probably one those soulless DIY types Marco wrote about in the OP. I’m interested in sound when it comes to Hi Fi; music is something else, somewhere else, belonging to real people in real environments with real emotions.

[MartinT]

I don't even know how to respond to that except to say that my approach is different.

As much of my conversation at the show was about music as was about the hardware.

As for playing music as background, I don't do that. I put music on to listen to, not perform any other task in parallel with. If I can't concentrate on it, I have a quiet house.

Music inherently links to the emotions: it's art after all. I can't really separate the enjoyment of listening from the emotions it generates within me.

[Marco]

Indeed - a most depressing post, John - and one which contains sentiments completely at odds with both my own values and also those at the heart of the AoS ethos.

As for peer groups, I'm completely immune to them in my adult life. Like I've said before, I've always been more of a leader than a follower!

Marco.

[ursus262]

As for peer groups, I'm completely immune to them in my adult life. Like I've said before, I've always been more of a leader than a follower!

= Bossy!

[ursus262]

I look at Welder's post above, and it reminds me of a post I put up recently about valve amps, as I'm considering buying a valve power amp.

Well, my five-fingered friend from Tring suggested that my Naim Uniti was a cheap pc in very expensive clothing (for which he apologised, I must say) and it did set me thinking.

I love music: I sing in a choir and my partner is a musician who plays the mellotron, so we are a musical house. My hi-fi is a conduit and through experience, I have moved from being an objectivist into choosing components that I actually like the sound of! I'm not interested in having something that looks blingy or anything like that; I just want something that entertains and moves me. I think there is an element of snobbery in our community, I think, where music is secondary in importance.