Whats the real reason you're into HIFI?

Is it about the music or is about fancy boxes so you can show off in front of your mates?

To be totally honest my interest was not just music, origialy I had always been interested in electrical items such as HIFis and TVs. Naturaly I would have eneded up with a HIFI system. However as time went ont he HIFI got me into more and more music, now my interest is mainly music, I haven't picked up a HIFI magazine for at least a year and the only thing I have upgraded this year is my CD player and that was only because it was a bargain not to me missed (a brand new CD6000 OSE LE in gold for £150).

PS The poll is very tongue in cheek

 

Mine is totally the music, and has always been. I think this is true of most classical listeners. Take our friend Titian. He has the most magnificent set-up, yet when you talk to the guy, you are hit by the fact that this is all merely means to an end, to try to reproduce what he has heard in concert halls. He is fortunate enough to be able to afford the best. I get the same vibes from GrahamN, the man who lives in concert halls. You find a man with a deep love of music, who wants to reproduce in his home what he has heard live.

My boxes are generally Quad or Linn, both of which are completely unimpressive and nobody ever sees them, except me. I have bought better boxes only to try to make better music, but that's all finished now - apart from Quad ESLs, when (a) I can find a pair I can afford, and (b) more importantly, overcome a Matterhorn-sized WAF.

 

Definately music for me. Since getting into HiFi two years ago, I spent the first year or so box-shifting to find the sound I'm after, but my system hasn't changed much, bar the odd cable in the last year now. I've always had a thing for music and gadgets - such as computers, AV and HiFi since an early age. A couple of years ago, I was after a new system for music (my small Sony micro had died) and I decided 'sod it', might as well get seperates. I'm glad I did and you don't have to spend rakes of cash to get a decent sound. To be honest, it doesn't matter if you spent £40 or £40,000 on a music-maker, as long as it sounds good to your ears, then in IMHO, that's all that really matters.

I'm working this weekend and my source for music here in the office is a £50 NEC ND-2510A DVD drive and a pair of £40 Sony MDR-CD480 headphones. Granted, the sound isn't as detailed as my NAD/Yammy combo at home, but it's certainly enjoyable enough. The Sony cans are the ones I use on my system at home - I brought them in today, as big cans aren't a problem when there's no-one around

 

the music, but more specifically, the instruments. being a musician, i like to hear a Steinway and think...yes...thats how a Steinway is supposed to sound like, or be able to distinguish between a LeBlanc and a B&H clarinet. I haven't got the best setup in the world, far from it but it does ok for me

 

I like electrical items is my vote (and I see I'm the only one who voted for it). Dont get me wrong, I like music, but would have happily listened on a cheap hifi if it wasnt for my gadget fetish. Ultimately though, I now think that my course on this journey is beginning to run to its end, because I dont really think there much more I can do to keep me interested in this hobby. For me at least, the laws of dimishing returns are already here, and perhaps its time to move on...

 

I like electrical stuff and I like music. I'm of a more technical nature, so it seemed sensible to put learning energies into the former (that, and I was never much good at playing music, gave it up when I was about 9). So I work on electronics to reproduce music. Makes sense to me...

 

Thanks Tones, what great words about me, makes me :cry:

I actually can't believe that there is anybody in Hifi (consumer side) for another reason than music.

 

My reasons, like others here are a mixture of options 2 and 3. I love music but am also interested in the technology involved in hifi.

Michael.

 

I cannot vote on this poll because the options available don't contemplate my reasons...

I always liked music and to listen music through my father's old sony boxes and I never cared about the equipment, although I've always liked electronics.

When I was shopping for an AV system I came across a stereo NAD system and for the first time I felt realism listening music through boxes and I was amazed... then I started to buy magazines like everybody else... and since then, although I stopped buying mags some time ago, I've never stopped searching for an even stronger realism feeling when listening music through boxes. That's why I care about music Hi-fidelity...

So, my option would be REALISM IN MUSIC PRESENTATION!

 

It stands to reason that if someone gets into hifi for whatever reason, they must surely like music does it not?

 

My sister has no interest in electronics whats so ever but she has a 1970's based Pioneer seperates system (proper seperates not the music centre midi sized ones) and a Cambridge Audio CD player. For her its about getting the best music system for little money (the total cost of the system was £50 for the CDP the rest was free).

My interest in hi-fi is falling but thats because it will cost me a lot of money to make marginal gains, its not like when I first started out upgrading my CDP to a £100 Sony would make a huge difference.

I think I have also found that going out is a lot more fun and buying music is more pleasurable. I some times feel ashamed to think just how much I have spent on HIFI.

I am not to bothered what it sounds like now either as longs as its reasonable.

 

Personally I've got a little dick and I just want something big and expensive to compensate.... .....but seriously, it's all just a tool (no pun intended!) in order to listen to my music.

 

Remember always Flanders & Swann's "A song of reproduction":

But I never did care for music much,
It's the high fidelity!

 

I love music but like more hifi magics

 

I see somebody has joined me now in the red corner, I just like to have nice things, it was the same with photography in my youth, mind you one thing has changed in that my collection of recorded music has grown and grown now to the extent that I could easily justify a five figure system although now I think on it maybe not that's a lot of new music.

Stuart

 

As I like a lot of electronics and music...Audio is the only discipline that take the two..

Cheers

 

It's purely a means to an end for me.

I'm very much a fit and forget kind of guy when it comes to equipment, and hate the fuss of having to continually tweak or adjust something once it's initially settled in.

Rather annoyingly, I've always noticed "sound quality" from an early age. Sometimes I just wish I could ignore it... Well sometimes I can, I mean when you hear a piece of music on a portable transistor radio and it just really grabs you...

I aim for a mixture or balance of re-creating the sound of live concert/gig at home, and the magic something that emotionally connects you with the music. I don't believe in the total and utter recreation of the live event, just something which removes the distractions that remind you that you are listening to an artificial reproduction. I think my tolerances are lot lower than some for reaching that threshold of having belief suspended, so hopefully not too much more expenditure and time threating over the details of equipment and more time purchasing music hopefully. Oh and going to the gigs of course.

 

My vote goes for the music without question, but that doesn't quite cover it. If my hifi were nicked or trashed, I'd be upset but soon recover, but if I lost my record collection I'd be in a state of catatonic shock. I want to get the best out of music collection.

Electronics don't really hold much interest for me, but mechanical engineering does, hence when it comes to hifi I find it hard to get too excited about amps, CDPs etc, but record decks and to some extent speakers can have me drooling and wanting to take them apart to see how they are put together - always had a yen for old cameras, clocks etc for similar reasons.

Anyways when you are as well provided for as I am, flash cars aren't necessary That's why I drive a 10 year old Volvo estate and a 25 year old campervan . It has nothing to do with spending too much money on records of course .

 

I've always been into music - even when I've played it on a naff mono casette recorder whilst at work (in the past), but I do (like many others) want the best sound quality that I think it possible for my budget...

but of course there are certain records / parts of films that I do show people that show my system in an even better light...!