This is an interesting and quite well-written article on the condition of being an audiophile.
You may have noticed my choice of words
The illusory quest of a musical reproduction that would reflect reality.
A mixture of Sisyphus and Don Quixote…
The quest for new cables, new electronics, new speakers, a new treatment for the listening room, etc…
Like a junky looking for his next fix
I’m off for three days of hard climbing in the Mont Blanc massif. Climbing, and especially high altitude climbing, is an even more addictive drug A nice way to get some balance.
The ratio of words-to-interesting/useful-thoughts was higher than I would have preferred, but I found the Patrick Dillon quotation about the natural state of the audiophile being one of eternal acoustic paranoia (I’m paraphrasing) insightful. Most of the time, I consider myself quite lucky in that I don’t suffer from this as much as many seem to (and not just on this forum) and tend to just spend my time thinking ‘gosh, I do like my system’ rather than ‘could it be better?’. Nonetheless, I do sometimes wonder what it would sound like with a 282/252/300DR/etc. but, for unarguable financial reasons, such thoughts will ever be theoretical for me. Maybe that’s a blessing.
On the other hand, I found the incessant sexual metaphors in the article quite tiresome after a while, but I’m sure a psychotherapist could get a lot of material from it.
Yes, I agree.
Quite a short article that seemed more intent to try stirring and agitating a tenuous link to ones sense of self.
With upmost disregard for sanctuary.
(Work of the devil)
I can tell you frr try on experience that a 252/300 will offer more detail, separation, frequencies etc. but might not actually increase the enjoyment of the music- besides which just as extra performance from the next level of sports car becomes un-noticed after a honeymoon period so does perceived increase in sq, meanwhile your bank account will remain depleted
I’ll take a look later but the quest can be motivated by dissatisfaction. Some things in Hi-Fi can be quite sensitive and throw the music off, leaving you not fully engaged. You can end up chopping and changing gear when in fact it might be something silly like tonearm or speaker setup.
I’ve also taken a wrong turn or two and it’s taken a while it find out where I went astray, with several gear upgrades during the process. Plenty of scope of mistakes and lessons in a lifetime of Hi-Fi ownership but, when you get where you need to be, it’s worth the hassle.
Spend some of that black box money on concert tickets and note just how little live music tends to sound like any hifi. Does your hifi sound like the original recording? After all of the multitracking and tweakage that the original recording gets, the question is not answerable. Buy a system that sounds good enough and find a cheaper way to scratch your OCD itch.
That was a pretty wretched article, so sneery and relentlessly middlebrow (while aspiring to intellectual heft) that it could have been published in The Guardian.
You don’t have to apologise.
These photos are beautiful in their own right. It’s only when comparing them to previous years that they become gloomy.
I have seen rock falls the size of a three-storey building.
The Trident, one of the peaks you see in the photos, is no longer climbable since 2018. There used to be routes there that were known all over the world. People came from every corner of the world to try them.
I suppose it’s the same in the arctic, antarctic, himalayas, ocean floors, etc.
But what’s crazy is the massive change in three years…
Well, back to our trivial matters.
Music is a comfort for the soul
Well I dunno… started reading it and after a few paragraphs I found my eyes glazing over and all I was registering was “blah blah blah blah blah blah”.
Got bored with it. Went back to listening to Lana Del Rey on my expensive hifi system.
Not quite as good as sex but it’ll do 'til the sex turns up…
A nice way to get some balance. 
