Barriers to Hi-Fi

[PeterSt]

Derived from ~50 years of experience (the majority not fed by Internet ideas - just saying), I think this is practice :

 

You live your audiophile life by your budget. Have a 500 only ? then logically you won't be looking into - or auditioning 500K speakers. You also won't even appreciate them (at shows) because you wouldn't know what to listen for. You may not even go to shows because you'll meet gray 50-'ers and don't associate with them or that. At least I don't recall any of it. In my past I  read audio magazines and read about the ultimate low bass of Peter Gabriel together with Kate Bush and tried it. I was sure I could do the same. My system was thus perfect.

 

My system has always been perfect and outbettered everybody else's, although I did not know them. I was sure.

I still am.

But things changed.

 

Today I'd have infinite money to get myself that ultimate system. But I trust nothing. Still the good old audiophile. My system still is the best although I think it can be improved upon. With money ?  no. Not for me. Shows only tell me shyt. I have to do it myself.

 

On the latter : OK, I really do that. But I still think that the real audiophile inherently is like that. The real audiophile is DIY. He does not buy amps - he makes them. Or tweaks.

 

(side note : 25 years ago my system comprised of ~100K - today it is about half of that and infinitely better; it is not about money at all but about the investment in time to sort out things)

[PeterSt]

2 minutes ago, Shadders said:

Also, can you tell me what special resistors are ?. Why they cost more and what their special properties are ? Here is a secret - there are no special resistors

 

No Sir. Investigate their properties. Start with the obvious accuracy and next learn about more. Capacitors no difference but more obvious.

Farnell, Digikey, Mouser ? ... if that is where you looking I understand where you come from.

 

PS: I purchase 95% from there. But that is not the specialty stuff. You buy that directly from the manufacturer. And 5% is crucial. And FYI that manufacturer can even be Crystek (well known to said resellers but not for niche products). Pardon me saying it, but you could be "rusted" in old school stuff. Audio is being ahead of things. And no way this is about Digikey  etc. It is cheaper alright for logical reasons, but that is en entirely different matter.

[PeterSt]

1 hour ago, Benji said:

The biggest barrier to being an audiophile is home ownership.

 

I did not think of this, but for me this is / has been so much true;

When I was a kid, living with my parents, we lived in an apartment on the 4th story. My own made/assembled (including turntable) stereo played the same all over (my first bought album was Black Sabbath's first) ... with the window open. I played it as loud as I'd think the flat opposite to ours (a 300ft away) could all hear my music. I always had this audience at my proposal of 200 or so other apartments maybe even a 1000 people in them. I played all the hardrock coming about and never thought that neighbors possibly did not like my music. Smoke on the Water had to be great because it sounded great to me. So here already, "my system is the best" surfaced.

 

I recall vaguely that at 21, my first own (row)house's doorbel rang regularly with complaining neighbors at the doorstep.

At 25 I had my own built free standing house and the doors which opened to the terrace only faced a highway 1000ft away. I started to play music for myself instead of for others. There just were no others (except for a wife of whom I don't recall how she was in it).

 

15 years ago, when I was investigating the again new (house) place I live currently, the first which came to me was loud music from the garden of the only neighbor around, some 600ft away. I knew this was the right place because I could not disturb neighbors with my by then quite loud music. Yes, I had to take care not to disturb others. I also learned that "the wife" should not be disturbed and the only solution to that was making the SQ better. Better to the sense that even your wife would ask you to turn UP the volume instead of the other way around. And it really went like that. Since 4-5 years she's even turned into an audiophile herself - amazing.

 

This is not about ego's. Not when you're old enough to realize that this is nonsense. My ego is merely about my house. Costs a tad more as well. The house I owned at 25 was so large and beautiful that persistently people rang the doorbel asking whether my father could come to the door. I am still proudly telling this regularly, like I am doing right now. So in my book, you achieve something by means of the house you live in. And, what I get from it, if you live in a city like LA, you start telling your visitor that although the apartment is not thaaaat large in absolute sense, it costs a fortune because this is LA. So you still are proud and have an ego on that. And to close the circle of this post, that same guy will tell you next that his neighbor is Ozzy Osbourne.

And now my ego could be telling you that I have been in the house right next to the guy creating my first bought vinyl album. Who can say that.