Thinking of hanging up my hi fi shoes

Here's my suggestion. Take a break. Leave your system alone for a couple months. Maybe 'til Christmas time even. Listen to the radio in the car and whatever other method you have if you want to hear something at home. Then, when you are refreshed (or really longing for high fidelity) put on your favorite record and fall in love all over again. I feel that you will have broken the streak of feeling the need to spend money upgrading and you will enjoy what you presently have. I've heard time and time again about guys selling their equipment and never once have I heard them say it was a good decision. Just press the reset button. Enjoy your summer and fall and come back to it when the leaves change colors and football is on the tube.

 

Sell it and get a TOTL Sansui rig with some great speakers!

Q: What is the purpose of a hi-fi system? A: The ' enjoyment ' of music.

"Hi fi and constant upgrades can defeat the main objective, of musical pleasure."

Right ON!

 

I would endorse this"

The OP needs to fall in love with music again.

Better gear just makes it tastier, or more delectable, but great music should still be the focus.

The OPs "problem" is that the gear isnt making him happy, while the music should and can be.

 

@Ephi82 - well said! They say people who buy experiences are happier than people who buy things. I think enjoying hi-fi music is gratifying but also tricky because it lies at the intersection of experience and things. If you get too focused on equipment and seeking perfection, the purchase of the things (the equipment) can get in the way of enjoying how they reproduce your favorite music (the experience).

I don't say this with any judgment or any sense of superiority - I think many of us struggle with it and get into that neurotic upgrade-worry-fever thing from time to time.

Personally, I've found I can't really enjoy my music until my system reaches a certain level of quality - detail, resolution, frequency balance, clarity, etc. But once I get to the point where the sonics aren't bothering me and I don't find myself feeling keenly aware of what's missing, I'm satisfied, even though I know I could get a bit better sound quality if I laid out more money.

If I'm being honest, this is why I have so much hostility for a lot of the discussion at places like Computer Audiophile: people obsessing and arguing over whether expensive power cables and USB cables make a difference; fighting about whether playback of FLAC is somehow inferior to playback of uncompressed WAV or AIFF; extolling the audio improvement they get from powering their hard drives with battery packs instead of AC. This stuff might make a very small difference in the context of a super-expensive, very highly resolving system where speaker placement, room treatments, and gain-stage optimization already have been done. But for most of us these expensive digital-domain upgrades make virtually no difference and only fuel misery and poverty, taking us away from the music.

Okay, end of rant.

 

You haven't filled out your profile information, so I have no idea what kind of gear you are talking about. In any event, my policy has always been to never obsess about the gear, but to obsess about the music instead.

Besides, selling hi-fi does not give good returns. You are looking at 50% of MSRP, at best, and it usually takes a while to sell online forums. Trade-ins are quicker, but you are looking at about 30% of MSRP then. That doesn't give you cold, hard cash, though.

My advice: keep the gear but don't worry about speaker positioning, sound treatments, etc. Just sit back in comfy chair with friends and family and play music you like. Chances are, family and friends will like it too. The communal enjoyment should reinforce that what you have is enjoyable and worth your time, and worth the investment.

 

If you spent $10,000 on it, there is no way your system is "mid-fi"--even "mass market" brands at that level sound very, very good.

 

I'm not about hardware, it's all about music. I want what I think is a good sounding system, which is probably pedestrian to most here. Since you dumped cash into the system, keep it. Don't upgrade just let it flow as is.

Instead of equipment spend the cash on music. Sometimes the drive for perfection means missing the point, which are the tunes!

Question aside, when do I get to set a profile pic?

 

Thank you to everyone for the candid and thoughtful replies. Just to clarify, my concern is not with the desire to upgrade (I couldn't if I wanted to) but with whether my high-end set up is bringing the musical satisfaction that justifies the cost and hassle. But as some have pointed out, the issue isn't really the equipment, which is excellent, and replacing it with lesser equipment won't bring back my youthful innocence/naivety, which may be what I'm actually missing. Sometimes my stereo sounds just like I want it to sound, sometimes not, depending on the recording, my mood and whatever weirdness the audio gods work. This afternoon I switched a couple power cables, and that made everything sound a good fifteen percent better. Quirky hobby.

My recent purchases were intended to be my last major audio splurges (combination of midlife crisis and having some cash handy). Then I had to face the fact that while it's overall the best sounding system I've ever had, it's still just a stereo, and it's not perfect, and sometimes I'm just as happy listening on my computer speakers or car radio (2003 Honda Accord, great car, remarkably bad sound system even by stock car system standards), which makes me wonder why I've bothered. At other times, I'm blown away by the sound I'm getting and note that my whole system cost less than some speaker cables (granted, these would be top of the heap speaker cables), and I feel relatively sane. Note that I said "relatively."

 

1) You're listening to sound, not music.

2)You're complaining about a full belly. It wasn't until I was 46 that I was able to gather my current rig. It's the best I can afford (have a look a at my profile and have a laugh). And that was after I quit motorcycles !!!!

I know there's so much better out there but I make the most of what I got and am happy with it.

Conformist ? Nah, just realist. I enjoy my every record as if it were the last one I'm gonna listen to.

Don't sell. Don't downgrade. You'll regret it. Keep what you got, stop thinking of how much it cost and roll one/pour yourself some spirits or whatever venom you enjoy the most and start listening to MUSIC again, not your system.

And FFS, stop upgrading !!!!!!!!

 

Pray for help mate...

 

I Believe 99 percent of us feel the same.the gear i,m using now was available in the 1970,s some in 50,s and 60,s.
If I had purchased then.....
Point is that i did not know this at the time. Hence those interim purchases were necessary. !!!!

 

As many others have stated, those expenditures should be seen as a matter of perspective. I have a modest home rig relative to some folks here, and more expensive than others. I made a conscious choice to not get on the upgrade path, and stick with what I have, spending money on software instead. Again, as a matter of perspective, my dad was giving me the old parental "what the hell do you spend your money on this stuff for?" rag some years ago, and didn't much like it when I pointed out that my total audio expenditures over 3 years' time was still less than he spent a year on football and basketball season tickets.

 

To the OP, I know exactly how you feel.

Assuming you already have a great system, you just need to change your mindset and focus on the music, not on the gear. I know it's easier said than done but it's the only solution.

Downgrade if you must, but be aware that route also involves trying out various cheaper gear in addition to selling off your present stuff. The whole process will detract from focusing on the music.

 

In my youth, it was my ambition to have an expensive hifi setup, alongside a decent 'library' of music. Just enjoy it....i think you would miss it otherwise if you got rid of it.

 

This may come as a shock to some here but there are other rewarding things to do in life besides sitting between two speakers trying to find out which version of Foghat's Greatest Hits sounds the best. I don't know if you have stopped to ponder it but spending all this time and huge sums of money on such a self indulgent pursuit might not be that fulfilling in the end and leave you feeling quite empty. Just a thought.

 

I think I've found the problem.

 

Speaking for myself (and maybe others), I find more itch to upgrade when my current system sounds good to me than when it sounds bad to me. Which is weird, and seems more than little neurotic, but there it is. Why? Because when it sounds bad to me, I just don't want to think about it. But when it sounds good to me, I say, "Wow, I'm really on the track of something. I wonder if [fill in component/cable/tweak here] would get me all the way to a perfection I could live with happily-ever-after?" And then...you know the rest.

 

I've spent roughly $5,000 on my various systems since I decided to go "back to my roots", get serious (and have FUN) listening to music at home. No doubt I've spent far more than that on the music itself. Throughout this journey I've always found satisfaction with my incremental purchases, for the sonic improvements as well as for becoming an educated but discerning and frugal shopper. Much of my gear has been bought used at significant discounts.

While there is always a next step up, another exciting component one could add, there is also life, family, work, all those other obligations. I love listening to music and given the nature and place of my work (mainly at home), can listen all day long. But there are limits not only to what I can spend, but what I would spend on this hobby. Ultimately it's about the content, not the gear IMHO, keeping some perspective is awfully important here.

Like others have posted I heartily agree that the best thing the OP could do is take a break from his system for a while and only use minimalist devices and his car for listening. Once he returns to the system I've no doubt it will sound great to his ears.

At present a death in my family has taken me far from home for this month I'll mainly be listening to music off my laptop or phone played through small, but very nice desktop speakers (Audessy LES) or my ATH M50X headphones. I know I'll have a deeper appreciation for my home systems (as they are) when I return.

 

I've always said a true audiophile doesn't want to know what something sounds like; he wants to know what something ELSE sounds like.

It sounds like the problem you're having is the amount of money you've spent over the years hasn't increased the enjoyment of joy of listening to music. I've had the same problem and fixed it this way:

I still buy new and used audio items on a regular basis. About 10 years ago I realized the more I spent on a piece didn't automatically "bring me closer to the music". So, I began to spend less. My latest acquisition? A pair of Pioneer SP-B-522 LR speakers last month. $90 bucks shipped. They sound great and I'm having a blast listening to them at work. Late last year I bought a Music Hall intergrated amp to use for a while. $450 shipped. My ears have adjusted quite well.

There is no perfect sound. Now, there certainly is better sound; not gonna kid myself. But if I'm going to spend money on equipment at this stage of my life, I've experienced just as much joy spending $100 on speakers as I had spending $2000 a pair 15 years ago. It's still experiencing a new sound and stay involved in the hobby.

I like the secondary system idea. If you find as much enjoyment from it that you more expensive setup, sell it and take a trip.

 

I'm 63 years old and have been a HiFi nut for decades but it was the music that got me interested in the equipment that reproduces the music. When I was kid I had a record player and listened to 45s. When I was older, even through high school, had a simple little stereo but it was still about the music. It wasn't until 73 that I had my first component system. It's long gone but I've been happy with every piece of equipment that I've owned over the last four decades, not that there's been that many different purcashses. I've had my refurbished McIntosh preamp and amp for three years and they will be the last that I own. I also have a vintage Fisher tube system because it's fun. This hobby is supposed to be fun and bring enjoyment. If you hang up your HiFi shoes you're hanging up your music shoes too. The music that these glass and metal and plastic objects play is why we do this.

 

Wonder if there are any people who's interested in hi-fi gear but not in music or got drawn to music after they got their gear ?

 

Im going to echo the sentiments of others that say this:

Dont sell what you have, dont buy more equipment.

Work on getting out of the habit of listening to the system, criticizing the details, and just sing the songs. Just enjoy the music AS IT IS. Listen to the songs that sound great, dont listen to the songs that make you want to tweak, until you get to the point where you can just turn it on, run a song, and turn it off.

 

I think it's tricky. The best way to spend your money (all the studies seem to show) is to spend it on experiences, not stuff. It's easy to justify/ rationalize that audio hardware contributes to an experience, and therefore is a good use of funds. The question I ask myself is: how often do I really make listening an experience? Lately, I make a concerted effort to create a mood around a listening session by adjusting lighting, getting electronics out of the room, and picking a record. My goal is to spend a lot more time on experience (listening to music) than acquisition research. Easier said than done in this hobby.

 

The cart before the HiFi horse

 

So you joined this club just to say that you wouldn't want to part of any club that would have you as a member?