What have been your audio epiphanies?

[hometheaterdoc]

surround sound for movies and regular TV watching is my exception to the sound quality rule.  It's so all over the board (but mostly bad) that I've conditioned myself over the years to just put up with less than stellar... in those instances I try to find something warmer sounding and that isn't too detailed.  Masking some of the crappy soundtracks is the goal moreso than anything else.  Too bad I couldn't condition myself on the music side of things... 

[richidoo]

Nowadays I listen mostly to old bebop recordings from 1940-1960 on Pandora 128kbps.  

Satisfaction is high, system anxiety is low. The 300B amps and BuffaloDAC cured most of the sound quality issues and Pandora makes listening meaningful again.

Have you ever tried SET amps Shane? Is it your attention span, or aversion to sound quality that prevents you from listening to music for extended periods? Would you listen to music as art if you weren't bothered by the sonic distraction? My SETs are not powerful enough for your speakers, but there are variants that make plenty of power. Mastersound, Cary, etc. To me, the amp is the most important piece of the system.

[JLM]

I've learned to slant towards the musical/non-fatiguing/emotional versus the detailed/analytical/highly resolving.  I tolerate sins of omission much easier than sins of comission in audio.  The highly detailed systems distract and don't allow for the emotive experience that I seek from music.

And yes the 20/80 principal works with many things in life.

[mdconnelly]

I also three ways of listening to music:

1) as an neurotic audiophile 

2) as background music around the house, in the car, playing through headphones at work -- that all works and couldn't live without it, but I try to set aside the neurotic side of my brain at these times (not always successfully)

3) Live music!

And this last one is likely where one of my earliest audio epiphanies came from.   When I was in college (mid 70s), I had the opportunity to work sound for a couple bands.  Great music, free beer, drunk groupies - who could ask for more!

What I discovered during this time was two critical factors that measured the success of the band - how well they performed (often tied to the amount of beer they drank and attractiveness of the groupies) and the quality of the sound (often tied to how much beer I drank .  So I acquired a very good mixing board, an excellent equalizer, and learned how best to set up the equipment and mics.  The easiest measure of success was if people would start dancing.  Bad hum, bloated bass, feedback, etc... drove people away from the band.  Good sound and great music (and vast quantities of beer) brought them back!

Those factors hold true to this day!

[bmr3hc]

surround sound for movies and regular TV watching is my exception to the sound quality rule.  It's so all over the board (but mostly bad) that I've conditioned myself over the years to just put up with less than stellar... in those instances I try to find something warmer sounding and that isn't too detailed.  Masking some of the crappy soundtracks is the goal more so than anything else.  Too bad I couldn't condition myself on the music side of things... 

Shane I think I understand where you are coming from. The pain of having so much good stuff for so long its hard to settle or compromise, especially when you don't have to. You have constant access to some of the best equipment out there. Your journey to audio nervosa, I suspect. is likely without the usual stops and pauses along the way. My money just happens to run out way sooner which creates my stops and pauses more frequently. Of course, that's when I have another epiphany; hey my system sounds much better when I stop comparing it to better stuff.

Henry

[JLM]

I'm to the point in my audio journey now that I rarely prefer other systems.  This is due mostly to my precepts and how well my system fits into those precepts. 

Credit also goes to having a decent room.  So many shops and fests use the suckiest rooms imaginable.   

[bmr3hc]

I'm to the point in my audio journey now that I rarely prefer other systems.  This is due mostly to my precepts and how well my system fits into those precepts. 

Credit also goes to having a decent room.  So many shops and fests use the suckiest rooms imaginable.   

Awesome. How long did it take you to get to this point in your journey? Send me  a PM if you would of your equipment.

Henry