New Year Resolutions Hi-Fi wise...

[Marco]

Lol, thanks, Rob. Very kind of you. And that's an interesting remark... But AoS will always be bigger than any one person (even me), and continue to thrive accordingly

However, I fully intend to contribute more in this section of the forum. I've still been listening to lots of music during my 'hiatus', but on my second system downstairs, where I also watch movies, and in the car on the bad-ass 'gangsta' one

I've also got around 120 brand new and unopened vinyl albums to listen to, so that should help motivate me to 'awaken the beast'!

Marco.

[rmcin626]

Lol, thanks, Rob. Very kind of you. And that's an interesting remark... But AoS will always be bigger than any one person (even me), and continue to thrive accordingly

However, I fully intend to contribute more in this section of the forum. I've still been listening to lots of music during my 'hiatus', but on my second system downstairs, where I also watch movies, and in the car on the bad-ass 'gangsta' one

I've also got around 120 brand new and unopened vinyl albums to listen to, so that should help motivate me to 'awaken the beast'!

Marco.

120 albums that will take a bit of listening too.

[Marco]

Yeah, I was just buying stuff I liked and stashing it

Not much more room now though for vinyl, as I'd already got around 3500 albums, stacked on shelves...

And that's not including CDs, must be a more than that again.... Thing is, I've also got 3 hard-drives downstairs, filled with around 8TB of music files, plus a monthly subscription to Tidal, so that's been keeping me 'rather busy'

Marco [a man can never have too much music].

[Pharos]

Why, Andy? You're an integral part of AoS, and AoS isn't *just* a hi-fi forum...

It surprises/amazes me sometimes how some of our regulars (and long-term members) rarely engage in the off-topic, more 'human' areas of the forum, where others get to know more about the PERSON behind the hi-fi system. I've never understood such 'aloofness'.

Therefore, if I may be so bold to suggest, why not make your new year's resolution to engage more in the community side of AoS, or music section, and reduce your discussion of hi-fi?

Marco.

It is an inevitable aspect of life that when we perceive things external to us, we engage all of our faculties, including our memories and our development.

This applies to our passion of Hi-Fi, and so it cannot be regarded, as it is by so many who think they can be entirely objective, as detached from our own experience.
Measurement attempts, in its limited way to do this, and with some success.

But what this reality does, is expose that our human nature is bound up with so much which affects our pursuit of objectivism, and we therefore inevitably have to deal with our human nature, even when we think we are being entirely focussed on something. Nothing we do is absolutely isolated from (or decoupled) from any other aspect of ourselves, there is always interaction with that to some degree, and this can be regarded as crosstalk.

I suggest therefore that dealing with our humanitarian concerns, particularly the area off psychology, gives a clearer and more complete understanding of ourselves, and ultimately the effects our lives have on our minds, and hence on our pursuit.

For me this pursuit is a hard one because I am aware that I can find a system with which I can find contentment, but which I later realise is just a comfort zone, and from which I have to further pursue reality, and if perfection is the aim then there is no resting place. But of course time, mental exhaustion, and money are limiting factors in progress.

As the system gets better, so much of the art becomes revealed and its craftsmanship and errors laid bare, and many would say that this spoils the enjoyment of music, but I cannot deliberately choose a lower resolution system in order to pretend that I have not heard performance details which I may not like.

[Shovel_Knight]

My New Year resolution: keeping things real. Otherwise I tend to get involved in too many projects at the time (and predictably, none are completed on time!)

[RobbieGong]

It is an inevitable aspect of life that when we perceive things external to us, we engage all of our faculties, including our memories and our development.

This applies to our passion of Hi-Fi, and so it cannot be regarded, as it is by so many who think they can be entirely objective, as detached from our own experience.
Measurement attempts, in its limited way to do this, and with some success.

But what this reality does, is expose that our human nature is bound up with so much which affects our pursuit of objectivism, and we therefore inevitably have to deal with our human nature, even when we think we are being entirely focussed on something. Nothing we do is absolutely isolated from (or decoupled) from any other aspect of ourselves, there is always interaction with that to some degree, and this can be regarded as crosstalk.

I suggest therefore that dealing with our humanitarian concerns, particularly the area off psychology, gives a clearer and more complete understanding of ourselves, and ultimately the effects our lives have on our minds, and hence on our pursuit.

For me this pursuit is a hard one because I am aware that I can find a system with which I can find contentment, but which I later realise is just a comfort zone, and from which I have to further pursue reality, and if perfection is the aim then there is no resting place. But of course time, mental exhaustion, and money are limiting factors in progress.

As the system gets better, so much of the art becomes revealed and its craftsmanship and errors laid bare, and many would say that this spoils the enjoyment of music, but I cannot deliberately choose a lower resolution system in order to pretend that I have not heard performance details which I may not like.

Deep and I hear / feel ya

In terms of system and what it needs to be personally, the highlighted part is spot on, hence I've never been drawn to components of any kind that have a very obvious dominant character/colour/flavour or overly energised / hyper way with the music. Neutrality and components that let the music come through by not imposing their own character all over the performance. 'Accuracy' then and almost forensic detail retrieval, taking me right inside the recording absolutely does it for me - really revealing the music/performance. (No gloss over, make everything sound nice - please!) All the things my musical draw drop moments have been made of and I give thanks for that - Amen!

[Jimbo]

Dust down and switch on my main system for the first time in about 2 years!

Marco.

Good to hear that happening .

[paulf-2007]

Going to clear all the boxes of bits and bobs, tone arms and super tweeters I've accumulated over the years along with a gainclone amp I built, to clear out my office. I've started by buying a project ds2 digital phono, dac, preamp, although I got that at the end of December, but have a Bakoon 11R amplifier coming from Australia.
Just sold a pair of aurum cantus G2 ribbons and pcb's and xr2206 ic for a lenco speed controller. So a start has been made.

[Marco]

Good to hear that happening .

No worries, mate. I guess I just fell out of love with the continual 'dicking around' with boxes and cables side of the hobby and prioritising of sound quality over the enjoyment of music, and the nerdy/geekiness of it all. The focus is the complete opposite for me now, and so when fired up again, the main system will simply be used to reproduce music, not be the basis of an unhealthy hi-fi obsession

Maybe there's a message in there for some others?

Marco.

[Jimbo]

No worries, mate. I guess I just fell out of love with the continual 'dicking around' with boxes and cables side of the hobby and prioritising of sound quality over the enjoyment of music, and the nerdy/geekiness of it all. The focus is the complete opposite for me now, and so when fired up again, the main system will simply be used to reproduce music, not be the basis of an unhealthy hi-fi obsession

Maybe there's a message in there for some others?

Marco.

HAHA Mate, you are absolutely right sometimes its just a pain "dicking around" with stuff only to find you have either just gone round in circles or ended up with just a different sound which you can sometimes convince yourself is better!

Ultimately for me it is way more important to simply enjoy the music. If you continually pursue something perceived as better you find it is a journey that never really ends but absorbs way too much time and money.

I realised this a few years ago. Its a bit like an artist who paints a painting or a musician who composes a piece of music and then finally stands back and says 'Its finished'. You can always do more but it does not necessarily mean its better usually just different IMHO.