My daughter bought it for my wife
Returned home yesterday from a ten week visit to Spain and almost immediately fired up the big rig. Itās been warming up for a day and Iām hoping to fall in love with it all over again.
Iāve been making do with my iPhone, and to be honest, I havenāt really missed the main system anywhere near as much as I thought I would. I have learned however, itās the music that matters.
You say that but after a winter of moving the furniture to have a cosy arrangement around the fire, moving back to sitting opposite the main set up in the lounge, Its like listening to a new system all over again.
Its about hearing the music.
I love coming home after a holiday and being blown away by how good the kit sounds. Always catches me out, but in a good way!
Itās quite easy to enjoy familiar music on a much lesser system like a phone or Walkman. But I find itās hard to discover and unpack new music without a high(er) end system first.
Interesting take and thought provoking, but not my experience at all.
I usually āfindā new music on my phoneā¦
Although not 100%, I tend to get grabbed (or not) even with the relatively limited sound.
One, um, ātrickā I use on YouTube is to listen rather than watch the videoā¦a great visual can puff up a poor track way beyond its merits.
I just donāt think my ear is sophisticated enough to grasp new music without help from a more revealing system first. Every time I have to live without a system of a certain level, the quality of my purchases as well as the variety suffers.
I suspect others have more advanced listening skills to be honest.
Iāll try that thanks
I also find a great source of inspiration for new music from album reviews online from Pitchfork, NME, BBC, The Guardian and others.
And towed in to the listening position.
Same - but Iāll usually always try and hear what is reviewed (new stuff) before buying - reviewers seem awfully impressed sometimes whereas Iām underwhelmed after purchase. And vice versa of course. Lot of invisible royal clothing out there, to my old earsā¦
I donāt know FZ - I donāt think your ears are any less than mine (especially as I age, OMG, I shudder to think what my hearing will be in 15 or 20 years if I am still around).
I learned and loved new music on a clock radio as a kid. And my definition of a āhigh-endā system has evolved through the years - I remember as a young teen hearing my friendās brotherās system, a Pioneer 35-watt receiver with Fisher speakers, and I thought it was the greatest thing ever. My Marantz office system, which isnāt close to my Naim system, is probably better.
And I hear and learn about new music in my car, which only has a stock stereo system - nothing special at all.
Of course, a better system isā¦better. I donāt get to use my Naim gear as often as before since I married (domestic concerns and all), but I realize how excellent it is when I get to - but I still love music on less compelling gear as well, and I discover new stuff.
By āearsā I didnāt really mean hy hearing but my ālisteningā. i.e. my ability to understand and grasp a bit of music. Once Iāve properly āgotā a bit of music I can still enjoy it on lesser stuff.
Without the help of a good system, new music tends to gravitate to commercial poppy stuff.
Absolutely.
I fell in love with the music of Sibelius, The Doors, Love etc on a crappy (relatively! It was way better then the Crosley rubbish Iāve heard) HMV-badged mono portable. And I mean in love!
Not mine, but similar iircā¦
I have searched the internet far and wide looking for the crap Zenith ārecord playerā we had in my teen years, but to no avail. It was stereo, had a record-changer spindle, and was absolute rubbish, but I learned and, dare I say, even loved many tunes on that.
I even made tapes for the car by playing it and recording through the air into the built-in microphone on a portable Philips cassette deck, with my siblings under threat of death if they made any noise while I was recording. (It paid to be the oldest of 5 in such situations!)
I had one of these Sanyo all in one music systems. I still have the records I played on it - upgraded to an AIWA system once I had a saturday job which drew my parentās next door neighbour to come over and complain when I played Telegraph Road at maximum volume. Playing that tune super loud still brings a smile to my face.
I had rigged up an old mono Bogen tube amp and an Altec speaker that my father had, with a portable cassette deck, and played as loud as I could with the windows open. Our neighbor from across the street came over, but not to complain - he really liked āHere Comes The Sunā and wanted to know more about it!
We may not have had a TV before I was five years old, but we had a stereo! A Philips AG4956 portable unit on which I played Jan Johanssonās Bitar, Cal Tjader & Stan Getās Sextet and The Beatles Revolver. Everything else was classical and unappealing to my young ears.