I am posing a question out there. A lifelong goal to achieve audio nirvana, how many people find it, truthfully, or do we just love the obsession like a drug to just keep buying and adding in the hope we can reach that sound we all aspire to? Just recently I myself questioned this. Most of our rooms are not in any way perfect so we have to buy equipment that will improve it even before treating the room , spending ££££ In the process. Did you have a sound in your head that would be the goal and did you reach it? Did you hear the perfect system then try to recreate the sound in your own home or was it just what you had hoped it would sound like in your head? For many of us the first time we heard a budget hifi it blew us away and to get the same high it took me many years to get even close although I am of course sure the system I first had would not have come anywhere near. Do you play the same test tracks over and over or do you just play music? Naim always used to have the ethos music first hifi second. If I get my system to sound perfect with a test cd it will sound terrible with most tracks as they were not made with hifi in mind. So my system is made to sound musical, not perfect and that’s the way I want it. Are you a perfectionist? Or is this insane hobby a trap? Therapy ensues!
Note: I have a great system I wouldn’t part with ever unless I moved. I got this by careful matching and Down sizing boxes and getting rid of everything in between so the signal was a neat as possible. I use Ethernet and I have found what I wanted (room dependent) if I wanted better maybe I would have to pay £££££ to get that sound, or would have been better just as it is? As a musician I firmly believe in the musical experience even if I had spent a fraction of what I have spent. But would I change a thing? Probably not I would have needed another hobby maybe possibly a cheaper one! thankfully I am finished and it feels great. Good luck.
It’s an interesting question. The first time I heard Naim kit in the very early nineties, with a simple Naim amp into IBL loudspeakers, it blew me away compared with what I had at the time. The clarity, instrument placement, the reality of it. But, of course, I wasn’t satisfied for long. Some records sounded great, many simply didn’t. And where was the bass? And that sent me on a never ending upgrade path until a couple of years back until, yes, I feel I have reached audio Nirvana. BUT it’s cost an awful lot of money to get there, although I’ve happily stuck with Naim. Now, with all 500 series equipment, on Fraim and into gorgeous maple SL2s I cannot wait to get up into my loft music room each evening for a couple of hours of the world’s finest classical, and a bit of rock at the weekends. I never feel even slightly dissatisfied, everything I play sounds great, although the super lumina leads and the Fraim took a while to settle in and it was interesting to hear the sound just getting better and better. The room, with sloping ceiling and lots of angles also seems to play a part. I’m pretty certain this kit will see me out until I go off to that great HiFi room in the sky.
I naturally suffer from OCD (although it is under control with the appropriate treatments), so I was the perfect candidate to fall into the audiophile trap! I recently took a deep breath, and sold off all of my expensive gear. I am in the process of selling off a few remaining accessories.
I removed the ultra expensive cables, the cable lifters and silly contraptions, I deluded myself into believing improved the sound. I now just listen to the music without obsessing over silly details.
I have met other audiophiles, and I have seen full blown OCD in a few of them. There probably is a correlation. I met one gentleman I actually sympathised with. He was older than I, and his OCD was not under control. I went to his house a few times, to sell him some gear. I instantly recognised my old behaviors.
I am delighted to be out of audiophila nervosa. It feels really good!
My first Naim amp the original Nait along with linn turntable and speakers came from seeing a six pack linn Naim system on Isobariks at Penta London 1980 playing led zeppelin who I had thought were playing in the room. It started there.
Started small’ish with Naim (202/200) with LP12 and Cyrus Signature Phono 4 years ago.
The madness didn’t take long to set in. First a HiCap, then a Streamer. Soon after came another HiCap and a Streamer Upgrade. This was followed by another PSU for the Streamer and some Chord cables.
Then a major moment of madness caused a whole new system to be created and the old one to be handed down to my wife, along with another LP12.
Problems with both streamers and our network then occurred and more madness ensued to try and remedy.
Around this time my grandson stuffed my wife’s speakers by pushing his fingers through the drivers when nobody was watching him for a moment.
More madness in search of speakers.
Then we cried ENOUGH.
All the kit went, with the exception of my wife’s Linn Ninkas and both LP12’s.
New Linn DSM’s were purchased for both systems and a pair of 350’s were added to the main system along with a pair of Linn 150’s.
Sound Nirvana. Everything sounds like it should.
Audible bliss is achieved with the simplest (if expensive) of systems and the end of the road is reached.
Is there a moral to this tale, who knows?
I did feel like I was in a trap for quite sometime. I was chasing something, but I honestly couldn’t tell you what now, but whatever it was, I think I found it.
Now it’s all about the music and that can be a pretty deep “Pit Trap” all of its own, but that’s a story for another thread…
I am very scared of this also. Currently having 500 and a big Focal but I must said I am still not satisfied. I am in the process of thinking to get a pre-loved Statement thinking it might be the final one. But I am also afraid of sinking in more and more.
Wow! I had it all over the years but ended up as you with a simple system upgrade in my words. Less boxes and to have been lucky enough to try it out at a local (dealer) to find the best equipment at a still eye watering but modest amount by careful matching of components just like the old days.
I have often wondered about what we are searching for with our HiFi. I guess it is to find stuff that “sounds good”, whatever that might be.
My speaker based Hi Fi has had 4 big upgrades over the 45 years, since I bought my first HiFi with money from a Saturday job. I have always been pretty happy, and have upgraded when things broke and could not be repaired (my beloved Quad 303), or I wanted a change. Here I am in the “sounds good enough camp”. My XS3 and PMC, speakers are as far as I really want to go. I do not have the space for a dedicated listing room.
I use headphones a lot, and here unfortunately the quest for that ultimate sound quality has led to a collection of cans. But with the Sennheiser HD800s and Heddphone GT2, I think I have arrived. Headphones all have different tunings, and the temptation for something different is great. My biggest upgrade was when I bought a SLP Phonitor SE. Coupled with my Heddphone GT2, it sounds pretty sublime. I do not think spending huge amounts on the really top end cans would bring much to the table.
Audio gear is generally great sounding these days, even cheap stuff. My Astell&Kern which I won on Ebay for €400 and my Shure Aonic 5 which cost €500 sound superb and I could live with just these.
I spent some time years ago photographing Jazz concerts. I have seen and heard the sound equipment they use at concerts. It is no way “Hi End”. This has tempered my lust to go “Hi End” and get involved with expensive boxes and cables.
Not a dream but also not an obsession. I like the sound of Naim gear over any other I’ve tried so that is about the sound I like. Going up the Naim ladder has improved the Naim sound that I like in each case except one, so still about the sound. The hobby aspect is strong though. I really do want a Nait 50, not because I expect to be better but because I just want to hear how it sounds. If I do get one I suspect that then is becoming an obsession. Similarly however I justify keeping the spares I have ‘just in case’, that may be bordering on obsessive behaviour.
I had a similar thread. A lot of it has to do with pursuit of perfection, which can be a compulsion. I spent two years upgrading at a whirlwind pace.
While I have no desire to upgrade my NC system/Luxman CDP and Rega P10 or speakers or cables any further, I am finding that just learning to listen to the music is more an adjustment than I thought it would be.
Well what to say… I still maintain that access to funds easily to purchase what might be considered the dream or perfect performance plays a major part in the obsessive nature of this game
I have had the same base gear for many years, my Hicap is a CB 1984 model fully serviced and I have never hankered after a DR model no matter what it is supposed to do. My CDX is getting on in years still giving sterling service and all I added was an XPS which has raised the performance to my ears
The only items I have changed were some quite old cables, HI Line for CDX to 102 and Power Line Lites.
I was having a conversation with Henry from TomTom today reference replacing the remaining older cables and maybe we are lucky, it suddenly struck me that we are listening more during our down time and to a bigger variety of music than before. Surely this is the test, sure some stuff when it comes to recording quality is naff, but one of the biggest tests we have tried is to listen to say an artist like Mary Chapin Carpenter’s oldest album and compare to the latest. If you can enjoy the maturity of the song writing and the natural changes in the voice as we age, then the system has done its job
It took me about 45 years to learn but in this order.
1/ Your Mood
2/ Yr room
3/ Yr Music
4/ Yr equipment .
I used to listen to John Peel as a kid , Am radio under the bedcovers . Even now at my workplace late at night pc speaker . If the music is good it’s good.
I’d rather listen to a Denon mini system in a nice room ventilated than some dank room playing high end gear.
Of course when yr in a good mood, good room , great music & nice reply equipment , you got it made.
The room is more important than the equipment .
I’m currently happy with my gear ( yes there is mild turntable flirtations ) but my Naim cd5si through my Kylne pre amp, Tannoy Sr 840 Power , Wharfedale Super Linton sounded superb.
I don’t get upset about cables , tables , Audiophile pressings power supplies etc
I’m also a perfectionist but have somehow managed to build two systems that perform well in a couple of key areas that I’m particularly sensitive to. They are certainly not perfect and I’ve had to accept that I can’t have my cake and eat it.
Therapy ensues!
thankfully I am finished and it feels great. Good luck.
