Barriers to Hi-Fi

[rando]

2 hours ago, GUTB said:

Also, isn’t morale a part of it? If you have the coolest bike, won’t you feel better about the bike and yourself and thereby increase your confidence and enjoyment factor of riding the bike? Are you guys telling me you really don’t want these super "bling" bikes?

 

To wrap up a fair amount of the comments here.  Price is no indicator of quality in audio or cycling.  Same pricing scheme based on name brand, R&D costs, what the market will bear, and exclusivity.  A 50K amp that sounds awful using balanced outputs is just as worthless as a 15K bike on which the seat clamping mechanism design is irreversibly flawed.  Major letdowns not occurring on models without as much promise make them redundant jewels.  

 

Given high quality throughout, no audio setup or bike works the same in every situation or for every person.  If you insist on riding a climbing bike on flat ground or using speakers out of keeping with your listening room dynamics  Spending 100x as much will be for naught.  Once you are on the right path spending three times as much buys you 10%, or however you care to put it, only if you have the ability to make use of it.  This is hard to achieve because it requires everything be solid including your ability to constantly make minor adjustments for some time going forward.  Everything changes when you are going that fast all the time.  

 

So in answer to GUTB.  No you really don't want a super bike until you are assured it is the ultimate expression of where you can go.  Or you just want jewelry which isn't of much interest to this discussion or the people partaking in it.  After spending a dozen years looking for the right bike I still wasn't totally sure until around the end of the second year of riding 10K miles.  By no stretch of the imagination do I take it most of you have'nt gone through the same with audio.  It means not worrying about buying new to support impermanent standards and enjoying what works only for you. Accomplishing everything the next best thing down the pipe promises only actually doing it.