When do you decide it's OVER !!

J

James_1D

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Like many here I suspect, I've been into Hi-Fi for as far back as I can remember....and dread to think how much I've spend on Hi-Fi mags..

But when do you decide enough is enough and you have a good system and time to stop thinking of that amp, this cable, that rack........when do you just stop and tell yourself perfect solution does not exist...as in room, system, cost etc

Well for me, I've hit that point in the last week or so, I've got a system now where by to get a good improvement I need to spend probably 3 times as much per component...and that would just be silly !

What do I do now ????? Garage convertion...home cinema....would do, but a lot of garbage films coming out these days...only so many times you can watch star wars !
 
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when I see that its going to cost me 30% of the total system value to get any significant gain ....to put into perspective I'd need to spend about 3k on say a pre amp to make any significant improment over what I've got ....and to be honest I've not heard anything thats better than I already have ..for that sort of out lay ...

If you've not considered the smaller tweaks .....then when you have plateaued financially on the larger items..you can get small improvments. ie changing the material of the suports or shelves ...most people would be suprised to find that changing from wood to glass or glass to slate can make a significant contribution to music enjoyment.
 
I think it could be time to stop when you realize that you are working on your third system.Main,office,and now the garage.Mind you the garage system has been the most fun,and the cheapest..
PS I haven't bought a HI-Fi mag since 1979,(they make it all up you know).
 
I've now reached a plateau too.

Can't afford to improve anything, would be £2k per box at least to get a
better sound.

In fact I don't want to.

Really happy with the sound I have,
just waiting for something to break!
 
IT is over when you decide it is over, no one can tell you that hi-fi interest from any point of view, it is over when you want it, my self view i do not think you will .
 
nando said:
IT is over when you decide it is over, no one can tell you that hi-fi interest from any point of view, it is over when you want it, my self view i do not think you will .
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Well you see, years back...I always said if I could get a £500 per component (cd/amp/speakers) system - I'd be happy...with some decent cables job done....if only !
 
i know, but you can get items etc, that could give you VFM and give you satisfactory sound
 
I think most of us chase that first big upgrade buzz that we got hearing our favourite music well reproduced for the first time. Trouble is, after a couple of upgrades the improvement is smaller and smaller and we never feel quite the same buzz again.

I now find my interest from building the stuff, and helping other people to find that buzz.
 
Hi-Fi and sound preference is so personal that I don't think there is a natural goal for many people.

I came to the conclusion pretty late in the day (I'd say 4-5 years ago) that most electronics box swapping was pretty pointless but there are huge differences to be found with electro-mechanical devices at each end of the chain - and of course room acoustics which most definitely is part of the system.

So I like the naturalness and subtlety of electrostatics but they are never going to give realistic bass impact or be good for high level listening. I like BBC monitors for their natural ease and tonality, but they can be a little dynamically flat. I like super accurate mini monitors for their basic honesty and lack of artifice, but miss the scale and 'niceness' of more tailored designs. Really good horn systems give superb immediacy and sound great at low levels.
I enjoy a good Linn TT/arm/cart for its bounce and liveliness but prefer the better basic accuracy of a Michell, or the power and drive of a Garrard.

And so on.......

Have lots of kit and more than one system because no one system does it all right.
 
I decided it was over when I realised I had thousands of pounds worth of Hi-Fi and no new CD's to play on the bloody thing. I realised I was bored with all of the CD's I had and had nothing new to listen to. That was when I gave up.
 
Tenson said:
I think most of us chase that first big upgrade buzz that we got hearing our favourite music well reproduced for the first time. Trouble is, after a couple of upgrades the improvement is smaller and smaller and we never feel quite the same buzz again.

I now find my interest from building the stuff, and helping other people to find that buzz.
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Exactly, so when you reach this point, surely it's time to quit.....I've posed my kit, I have Living Voice and Moon electronics. For my taste, the Living Voice gives me that buzz...much more than a lot of the other speakers I was able to locally listen too....a contracting scum bag mate of mine (so called because he gets paid too much)....copied my system....but he went 2/3 levels up the lines...so he got the top of the range LV, and got the moon kit just under the reference level....and similar in cables....and yes, it is better than my set up.....but the law of diminishing returns does kick in here and I don't think his system is worth spending more than double what I did......so I am happy to sit back now and enjoy the music rather than the system !
 
All you can ever ask of a hifi is that it gets out of the way of the music as much as possible. If you found that you are listening to the music and not the hi fi most of the time, you have cracked it.

Spend your hi fi budget on more music, sex, drugs & rock 'n' roll.

And keep dropping in on the fora to have a chuckle at the poor buggers who have not reached your state of nirvana.

Chris
 
To be able to hear music out of many of the Hifi system I heard, you need to have an extreme selective audio perception so much noise comes out with the real music.

Anyway for those who cannot hear the noise that comes with and cannot notice that there is a part of music which was covered (erased), be happy in believing that you are hearing music. Important is enjoying life and believing in something.
 
titian said:
To be able to hear music out of many of the Hifi system I heard, you need to have an extreme selective audio perception so much noise comes out with the real music.

Anyway for those who cannot hear the noise that comes with and cannot notice that there is a part of music which was covered (erased), be happy in believing that you are hearing music. Important is enjoying life and believing in something.
Click to expand...

Horsefeathers. I can enjoy music I love from a cheap transistor radio. The music is far, far more important than the kit producing it.

A halfway decent setup certainly improves things, but reallty, is not essential.

Chris
 
Mescalito said:
Horsefeathers. I can enjoy music I love from a cheap transistor radio. The music is far, far more important than the kit producing it.

A halfway decent setup certainly improves things, but reallty, is not essential.
Click to expand...
But just don't forget you're listening mostly to noise. Of course you can enjoy noise with a bit of music in it and of course your brain will try to select the parts which he thinks is music out of the noise but that doesn't mean you're listening and enjoying only music.
The better the system is, more music and less noise is there. Of course this could cause though less enjoyment because the "more music" doesn't stimulates the chemical and biological reactions in the body. In most cases it does though if you like that music.

But just go on and believe you're enjoying music...
 

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