A companion thread to the “Would you downsize” one, this is trying to get an indication of proportions of people who have downsized or are considering downsizing in different circumstances, or not. Downsizing in this context means reducing the physical size of your hifi system to a material degree.
In first creating this I didn’t think of an option to cover anyone who goes back and forth, down and upsizing (and I am aware there are a few). As far as being meaningful to the subject I guess that counts as not downsizing (the system won’t let me add another option as the poll has already been running).
The option “do you presently feel that you won’t downsize” as written has been felt by some as more limiting than I intended it. Please read it as if it said: “Do you presently feel that you won’t downsize unless for the same either unless for the same or better sound quality or unless either “forced” by factors not of your choice or to fit a change in circumstances (e.g.house downsizing, impaired hearing, etc)”
Have you downsized or are you actively thinking of downsizing your system, out of choice, regardless of whether it involves a reduction in sound quality?
Have you downsized or are you actively thinking of downsizing your system, but only if there is no reduction in sound quality?
Have you downsized or are you actively thinking of downsizing your system, for one with lesser sound quality not through your own personal preference?
Do you presently feel that you won’t downsize unless for the same or better sound quality or unless “forced” by factors not of your choice?
None of these choices really reflects my thinking correctly. I may or may not downsize my home. If I do I will likely downsize my system too, and I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it in regards to whether or not I can preserve sound quality. I suspect I can have something that sounds different but it still musically satisfying, and it might well be as good or better (e.g. with a 3-box Boulder system).
I’m still up-sizing, so voted for option 4. Though I do have a Nova and will keep my SN2 for when I need to downsize as well. Well, that’s this years plan.
Moving from four box system to eight box system. Although four of the boxes are not full size, one HiCap DR, one Headline and two NAPSC’s.
If and when the time comes that my wife and I have to leave the house to some other, most likely smaller, living arrangement then moving to a smaller system may be the step to take.
I downsized a few years ago. At least with the number of components.
I had a fairly decent moon nova CD player. Cyrus preamp plus psu, and a pair of Cyrus monoblocks. I sold the 4 Cyrus boxes and bought a Nait XS.
I later had the opportunity to upgrade from the XS to a Supernait 2, but that was 1 to 1.
I then had staff privileges and bought a hicap and an ndx2.
So definitely down and more recently back up again. Though in the Naim hierarchy it’s still low level. I wouldn’t have bought the ndx2 and probably the hicap if I wasn’t staff.
Far happier with the current system than with the Cyrus. At one point I had 6 boxes (I had a 2 box Cyrus CD player before the Nova) to play a cd. It felt too much complexity for a simple operation, and that was the main reason to replace a 4 box amp with an integrated.
No, that still doesn’t really represent my thinking all that well, IMO. I don’t think I’ll ever be “forced” to downsize. And if I decide to downside, a loss of sound quality might be acceptible. I am getting older too, and that might not be as noticble anyway. There are just too many variables.
The bottom line is I may or may nor downsize by choice, and if I do a loss of sound quality may or may not be important. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I suppose eventually I will downsize just to stop dealing with all the boxes and aracana of cables dressing, etc. The Boulder gear I’m looking at uses balanced connections for everything and I believe that cable dressing becomes less of a factor. Not to mention I would have at most three boxes then, and maybe just two.
Forced is definitely too strong a word. Situations, life in general may happen to change how we live and it might be a wiser decision to downsize but not forced. I can see anyone forcing me.
I’m actually thinking of upsizing. I have a Nova currently but I’m getting more into vinyl and want to have a good analogue sound, using the Nova for a secondary system in the study or elsewhere.
I am thinking on downsizing, but more in the future. With better sound than I have today. So it would be a 5) choice not listed here.
My idea would be to go for Aries Cerat integrated amp in a few years.
By forced I didn’t mean a person forcing you (though not excluding that!), but anything causing you to decide to downsize even though it would not be your choice if all things were equal. I put it in inverted commas hoping that would make it clear it didn’t mean exactly force, and related it to factors not which is much wider than some other person.
I just went to try to change to make clearer but it won’t let me. Please read it as if it said: “Do you presently feel that you won’t downsize unless for the same either unless for the same or better sound quality or unless either “forced” by factors not of your choice or to fit a change in circumstances (e.g.house downsizing, impaired hearing, etc)”
Subjectively, I suppose, is the only relevant measure in this context. Downsizing despite subjectively experiencing that it sounds worse. Why else would one care
Yes but when downsizing from a larger hifi system with more power and more punch, to a smaller system with less punch but for instance better/faster transient response, how can you even compare that subjectively? It’s just different, not better or worse.
An analogy is asking someone who drives a large SUV if they would “downsize to a smaller car if it was the same or better quality”. What does that mean? It’s an impossible question to answer, even subjectively.
Is it about speed, comfort, space, safety, grip, cost, ego, all of the above?
Which smaller car are we comparing it to?
The only reasonable answer that anyone could give is: it completely depends on the circumstances, and on the specific choices available in those circumstances.
Do I like it more overall, yes/no? I had different cars in my life and different bikes after this. They all had their pros and cons but I can nevertheless make up my mind to have an overall opinion on which one I liked most
But the choices you made were arbitrary and based on the specific circumstances at that moment, including budget, space, taste, social situation etc. That’s not something you could define as ‘better quality’, only ‘better suiting the circumstances’.
