[miklorsmith]

As a wise audioman once said (Dmason), the first golden rule of audio is you don't know what you're missing.  Some people treat this as a free pass and don't sweat their purchases after they leave the store.  Others assume they're always missing something and obsess endlessly about what it might be and how to find it.  This can be an expensive affliction and is at least partly the lifeblood of high-priced cables and accessories.

I assume most of us are between the extremes.  I try to research, hear new things, and always be planning a next step.  At the same time, I really try to hear what my system is doing well at any given time and relish that.  I try to file away the niggles and not dwell on them.  Future moves will likely be targeted at weak areas.  Dollars are targeted at speakers and room, then electronics, then others.

Does it make sense to love your system and still desire to change it?  That's exactly where I am - keep the good, improve the less-good

[zeke]

I don't think its possible for an A'phile not to change equipmt/tweaks every so often -- there is always improvement possible in some way.  The hobby would become stale otherwise, and if you didn't, would you still be an A'phile ?? .  I understand " its all about the music ", but it does take good equipmt for the music to sound great imo.

Like most of us, i have changed gear regularly. I still have way too much gear on hand. What's really floated my boat recently is the low powered SET amps with high sensitivity speakers -- increased tonality, detail, smoothness, a more real/natural sound. This type of gear is great for jazz and blues(my favs), but may not satisfy with rock/metal/large classical, etc .... ymmv

I'm sure i am not done changing yet ----- maybe some horn speakers or OTL amps ....   ??      

Audio Note CDP  > Audio Note kit 1 300B amp > Audio Note kit 03 speakers(98 db sens.)

[gary]

I'm thrilled with my system:

Samsung 841 dvd player as transport ->
Red Wine Audio digital coax cable ->
Scott Nixon NOS dacKit w/ Red Wine Audio battery mods & cap upgrade ->
DIY Silver in teflon interconnects w/ Bullet Plugs ->
Red Wine Audio Clari-T amp w/ stepped attenuators & BG caps ->
Bastanis Prometheus open baffle speakers.

The only upgrade coming any time soon is a new transport, hopefully it will be a battery-powered one from Red Wine Audio. Unfortunately all of this gear has been sitting idle for two months as I just moved in to a new house and I have no place to put it. The other day the girlfriend was away so I set everything up in my livingroom and it struck me 1) how goddamn good it sounds and 2) how much I miss listening to music. Time to work on converting the basement to a listening room I think.

Gary

[avta]

I'm enjoying mine. Magnepan 1.6 speakers, CODA unison integrated amp. (150 W), Magnum Dynalab fm tuner, Sony cd/sacd player( dvp ns500v). The weak point in the system is probably the cd player but I'm satisfied enough at this point. I've decided to wait for the next generation of players rather than change the player I have.

[hmen]

All my friends love my system. Maybe I should listen to them.

[murphy11]

I'm digging my system.

Sony 7700 as transport
Empirical Audio turmodded P3a w\SuperTurboclock3
Monolithic P3 with RAL cables
Perpetual Technologies P1a with SOCS
Osiris stands
ONIX BEM Ref1s
Onix A-60MKII
Anticables speaker cables

Good stuff  

[JLM]

Flint Dave makes an excellent point.  Much of what we hear is limited to the recording itself.  As studio typically have crummy monitors and the room setup is laughable its a wonder that even 1 out of 100 recordings have any audiophile grade quality to them.  Often I have to chose between musical content and quality of recording when selecting wht to listen to.

System building/synergy is something we each struggle with.  

The types of distortion from various components in my mind breaks down into two kinds.  One kind is obvious and irratating (clipping, boomy bass, etc.).  The other is more of omission (poor imaging, lack of dynamics, etc.).  Omissive distortions are more easily accepted as the brain fills in the blanks.  OTOH this extra brain effort leads to listener fatigue.

As Dave mentions, the recording is the most important component.  My next priority goes to speakers (the only transducer in a digitally based system).  Then the room.  Some would say, "garbage in, garbage out," and so would make the source a higher priority.  But a decent source (guilty primarily of omissive distortions) has been easy to find the last couple of years.  The same is true of amps and pre-amps.  Amazing what a good amp/pre-amp can do, but equally amazing of how easy it is to live with a medicore one too.

[Bingo]

I've been into audio because I'm a musician, my brother is a musician and so is my father.  I love to work on vintage instruments and true musicians know the complex nature of musical instruments.  I love music but I hate listening to equipment.  The playback system and the room's acoustics forever add their two cents.  The chain of abortions in the music recording and reproduction arena is endless.  My system is currently satisfying and not very irritating.  I have reverted to making silk out of a sow's ear audio.  Money is tight and the audio business, in general, closely follows the old P.T. Barnum rule(even though he never actually made that famous quote). I used to sell high end audio and I met a lot of designers and reps.  When I hear both customers and designers stroking their egos with thier hyper-audio critiques, and they don't even know how much an instrument is like a living being...moods and all, I just shrug my shoulders and shake my head.  First, love the instrument, second, love the music...

[Khorn]

I’m really happy with the present state of my system and think it is very well balanced and ‘synergistic’. Now all I want to do is obtain the music I like specially in the SACD format. The fact that I feel my system can “bring the performance to me or me to the venue” is satisfying enough.

[Florian]

I have never heard anything better, and the people that come to my house agree. The system makes me smile everytime i hear it and i have no clue what a upgrade would be.

Finally, the sonic bliss.

-Flo

[Soundbitten]

I don't  ... I do however love the music my system produces . Actually . I don't think about it that often except every once in a while something like... " wow , this really sounds good " pops into my head .

[jermmd]

I listened to George (Zybar's) set up recently and decided that it was the ultimate (that I could afford). It really sounded fantastic. Maybe the best I've ever heard. I decided then to copy his system and I'm in the process right now.  My new HT3's are being made, I've sold off most of my gear, and I should have a copycat system up by the end of the month.  Why go through all the research and trial and error when someone else has done all the work (even though many would say that this is the fun of this hobby). There are always tweaks and new gear to play with but I want something amazing as my starting point. I hope it works out. I've got a million other projects to work on after I get this up and running.

[gonefishin]

Audio Note CDP > Audio Note kit 1 300B amp > Audio Note kit 03 speakers(98 db sens.)

    Hi Zeke...dang nice system!


   One of these days we should get together some time in the future.  I still love using the disc replay store in CrestHill.  

    take care,

  dan