The thread has certainly mutated... :-) My love has always been for the music, first and foremost. A huge and constantly growing CD collection that irritates my wife, as well as having been a hobbyist (and mediocre :-) percussion player, vocalist and songwriter attests to. I haven't been in a hifi shop in ages, I am not subscribed to any gear magazines. I will however go try to find new music once a week at least!
Given the fact I love to play percussion, I do think -and have been told- I have a good ear for it, and know what to listen to. Thus my conviction that a vast majority of recordings do not merit investment in the type of gear even I own. You'll just hear a mediocre recording with higher resolution, but it'll remain mediocre. I thikn the average hifi system is superior to the average recording the music industry produces. Oh, but those jewels, when great music and great sound engineering converge - they make it all worthwhile. Admittedly, they may represent about 5% (and I am being generous) of my collection. As to cables, and several other things (green markers, esoteric vibration isolation etc)... I think it's mainly about the due diligence of making sure the setup is put together with attention to detail. A cheap cable is more likely to provide a mediocre connection, so I have invested in good cables - but not esoteric ones. I once listened to a $2k loudspeaker cable, and to me it sounded worse, and that's if there was a different. Also, clean power is worth investing into, but at a judicious level, too. But then again, a huge part of listening is psychoacoustics, and some people feel better by doing certain things, and it makes their listening experience more rewarding - who am I to take issue with it, at the end of the day. I will roll my eyes and tell my friend who bought B&W Nautilus speakers with his dotcom money "dude, you're nuts", but then again, whatever rocks his boat. -- pablolie ------------------------------------------------------------------------ pablolie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3816 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=21173 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
