[mkaiser]

I have more than a thousand cd's now.

Btw if the gear isn't the hobby we're all just sitting around listening to the radio. The gear is completely, utterly, and totally the hobby, and to look at your system and say otherwise is lunacy.

nd how could it be a fallacy? Should we all have ipods with 128kb mp3's? I hate these conversations. People who own awesome systems saying it isn't about the system. Lie!

I agree, to me it's a portion of all three: music, the gear and the status - when people spend a lot on gear or anything in life that they are proud of there is a degree of conceding that comes with it. The audiophile knows he/she spent a lot of cash and these people also know that they have the most exotic and best sounding system amongst their peers - so naturally vanity steps in. We have all done this at some time or another: it's called being human.

Mark

[Stu Pitt]

Stu, in some cultures, there aren't separate words for music and dance – they are one and the same. Introduce a child to music and that child will not reject it. Teach a child to play an instrument and watch him/her grow/glow. If I remember correctly, our daughter wasn't yet three when she started banging on our piano. It didn't take much effort or time to impart to her the basics, and it blossomed from there (violin, flutes, recorders, harps, hurdy gurdy, dulcimer and various percussion instruments – yet, I couldn't get her into the guitar ). She could read music before she could read English – there's a reason we teach our kids their ABCs with song.

Very interesting, Kevin.  Some things I didn't think of.  Much appreciated. 

[Laundrew]

Laundrew,
I found a pair of these Lazy Susan carousel type on CraigsList for 250/pr. a while ago. 
There's 4 shelving compartments per unit and the two units will house around 1500 CDs.
The seller was a woman who went with shelving and I was going in the opposite direction.

I have been looking at these over the last couple of days, it is unfortunate that my walls are not deep enough to incorporate 3 or 4 of these units inside of the them. These would be great for minimizing the wall of CD effect, thanks for sharing 

Be well...
 

[werd]

The gear is the hobby. How your music sounds is the payoff.

[jimtranr]

To each his and her own with respect to what motivates an individual to indulge in this necessarily amorphously-defined hobby. For me it's about the music and how much of it I can wring out of whatever my limited disposable income allows. I'm a classical, jazz, vocal standards, and film score ("big" scores, ala Korngold, Steiner, Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Waxman, Horner, North, et al.) nut and spend not a few of my leisure hours listening attentively to what and how composers and performers render and fashion their art. So the hobby and particularly the expense to get playback more or less "right" aren't luxuries in my book.

Living priorities forced a move of the gear from a reasonably spacious dedicated room to our far less than acoustically-friendly living-dining area, but a tolerant and forebearing spouse has allowed me to forego esthetic convention and tube-trap the heck out of the space--or at least enough of it to tame its most egregious acoustic anomalies. We have about three times as many digital discs as we do LP's, but since she also prefers vinyl to digital she didn't blanch when, given our space constraints, I proposed to store the black discs (and an RCM) in the bedroom, where I built stackable (read "easily-duplicated and capacity-expandable") modules for them, like so:     



It goes without saying that I appreciate the support Mrs provides to enable my--what did someone call it?--"addiction." If that's what it is, I see it as a healthy one.

[Laundrew]

It is interesting to see how we are, at times, infatuated with applying labels or to simply classifying our interests into neat little cubicles - metaphorically speaking of course. After recent music purchases, buying the music is the hobby for me and listening to music is my passion and been able to have great gear on the shelf enhances this experience,  I also do not consider myself an "audiophile." A previous poster's comments that many audiophiles are concerned mostly with the equipment instead of the music - each to their own. Some individuals enjoy music as an analytical pursuit of reproduction while others enjoy the message of the music.

 A thought just came to me in that would you say that Michelangelo's hobby was sculpting or would you comment on his passion for creating his art? Audio - certainly a most diverse topic.

Be well...

[Diamond Dog]

I have more than a thousand cd's now.

Btw if the gear isn't the hobby we're all just sitting around listening to the radio. The gear is completely, utterly, and totally the hobby, and to look at your system and say otherwise is lunacy.

nd how could it be a fallacy? Should we all have ipods with 128kb mp3's? I hate these conversations. People who own awesome systems saying it isn't about the system. Lie!

OK then, I am apparently both a lunatic and a liar...you cannot imagine the sense of accomplishment you have given me, Mr. Clark .
For me, the gear is a delivery system like cigarettes are a delivery system for nicotine. The more effective the delivery, the better I like it, sure. Still, I do spend a lot of time listening to music on a cheap little 40-year old clock radio when I'm not settled in with my system in the room it's in. Or in my car with it's just-ok factory sound system. I am frankly reluctant to get into discussions about my gear outside of AC...but I love talking about music with anyone anywhere.

There's lots of people here who are really into gear and that's great. It's an audio site. I'm kind of on the fringe in that, while my system may not be "awesome", it's certainly decent. Still, I just don't share the fervor of the folks who really enjoy the swapping out and the buying and the selling and living and breathing the gear. That's not my action, but so what? I suspect there are others here coming from that same place as me . That's great, too. Big world and all that.

Interesting topic as usual, Laundrew. Thanks!   

D.D.

[Rclark]

Ok, I'm the same way, to where I'll listen to the most awesome song in the world on my phone speaker if I simply must hear that song.. But, for us types, we love the music so much we also have built a main system and most of us have put enough money into it... The system is undeniably the hobby.

We ALL love music. Every person on earth.That's a given, biologically ingrained, it's in our DNA. Loving music is not a hobby in the same way blinking or breathing are not hobbies.

I stand by my statement.

[Diamond Dog]

I stand by my statement.

Of course you do. You're incorrigible. That's part of your charm. 

D.D.

[Rclark]

 

[medium jim]

This is sort of a what came first thing, the chicken or the egg.  Both are part of the hobby, without music it will all be moot.

Jim

[Laundrew]

"...For me, the gear is a delivery system like cigarettes are a delivery system for nicotine. The more effective the delivery, the better I like it, sure..."

D.D.

The best analogy to date D.D.   

Now if we can get the audio equipment manufacturers to put warning labels on their gear such as tobacco companies do.


                                                             


    "Purchase of this audio equipment will drain your bank account, alienate your family and cause you to explore "other" supportive measures to fund your addiction."

Be well....

[kevin360]

The best analogy to date D.D.   

I thought it was a great analogy as well, but the implicit addiction reference sailed right over my head until you mentioned it. 

[medium jim]

True dat, it is an addiction/disease and the only cure is to feed it and often   Is it like a guitar where you can't play it without strings, unless it is a computer game guitar?  Is it like a car where it needs some sort of fuel.  Maybe....

Jim

[nnck]

The gear is completely, utterly, and totally the hobby, and to look at your system and say otherwise is lunacy.
People who own awesome systems saying it isn't about the system. Lie!

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. But you have to realize there are LOTS of people who think the complete opposite of this. But then this is a forum mainly about audio gear, so I may be barking up the wrong tree.

I'm fortunate enough to own what I consider to be some pretty excellent gear - I would guess it is on par or a bit better than what most people on AC have themselves. But the gear being the hobby? That still just does not register with me at all. I'm not saying that some of you (maybe a lot of you?) may feel this way. But to me, it doesnt make any sense.

These threads have come up a few times in the past. I still kind of go by whether you have spent more of your disposable income on your system vs the media. As for me, I'm a music fanatic. The justification for my gear (Daedalus, Modwright, VPI...) is simple...if I'm going to spend the amount of time I am used to searching for, collecting, listening to music, why shouldn't I listen to it on a nice sounding system if I can. But if I couldnt have this system, I'd still probably have this same collection of music.

We ALL love music. Every person on earth.That's a given, biologically ingrained, it's in our DNA. Loving music is not a hobby in the same way blinking or breathing are not hobbies.

I stand by my statement.

Sorry, but again, I just dont buy it. Last I checked everyone blinks and breathes alright. But not everyone has amassed +3500 CDs and +1500 LPs (add in all the downloads and the situation gets even more outrageous). Collections like this can elicit some pretty wide-eyed stares.

Dont mean to come across as contentious, but I get a little emotional when I see threads like this. In the past, I had always assumed that other people who spend time and money putting together great audio systems must be people who are music fanatics like myself. But here on AC, more often than not, I just come across people just complaining about how bad all these recordings sound.

What are these people doing...sitting around looking at silver and black metal boxes with pretty LEDs? I always want to tell them: There is a TON of great music out there to listen to - new and old - dont be afraid to go search it out.

[Trismos]

I'm a musician as well as an audiophile. I write music but my primary strength is percussion and I play a lot for other people. Did a show tonite as a matter of fact. I love getting into a good groove and playing with other musicians who can feel their way around what's happening. And I can sit in the dark in my room playing my music collection, oblivious to the amps and speakers, and simply lose myself in what the musicians or composers are doing.

But guess what? I also collect snare drums. Sure it's about the music. But it's also about the equipment, the gear, the tubes, the snare drums. If you don't get it you're simply missing it. It's merely another aspect of a wonderful thing.

[So There]

Laundrew, I just discovered this thread and want to thank you for your stimulating and provocative questions, as well as thank those who replied for their thoughtful and interesting responses.

I would be very interested in the views of the Bryston folks, as well as others involved in the design and manufacture of the gear. What drives them?

From my view, fine audio components are precision tools, the means to our end of listening through the gear to the dynamics of the performance. As several folks have pointed out, there's a deep pride of ownership in quality gear, just as those who own superior tools or instruments treasure them (as you and others have illustrated in the Picture Food thread, Laundrew). There's a beauty in clean design and precise function. We've all felt the quality in turning a well-machined knob, viewing a beautifully designed front panel, or pressing a precisely manufactured switch. Yet, while the gear itself is pleasurable, its importance lies in its role as our gateway to the listening experience. Superb construction and design mean nothing without superb performance.

Is the same true of the media we play? Many of us have searched for the elusive performance or recording. How many of us have upgraded from our standard recording to audiophile media? Is it the qualities of that performance or recording that elicit our desire to own it, or do the external factors discussed in this thread drive us?

While some in the audio world seem to obtain ne plus ultra du jour components for bragging rights, I would submit that most of us in this hobby, as well as the manufacturers we admire, like Bryston, revere quality of performance and pursue it with passion. Some may tend toward a primary focus on the gear, while most of us may tend towards regarding the gear as the means for listening through to the music, but it's not an either-or dichotomy. There's room for all of us, and if those folks whose penchant for churning gear support the manufacturers that we want to thrive, isn't that a benefit to the rest of us? Is a true audiophile one who's on a quest, a journey to get closer to the music? Such a query may be too pat.

Which elicits the questions: How did you get started in audio? What piqued your interest to move up from low-fi? What was missing? Have you found it yet?

Cheerio,

Rich
______________
Whiney Napa Valley

[werd]

I thought it was a great analogy as well, but the implicit addiction reference sailed right over my head until you mentioned it. 

He just raped my analogy and went with it. Not to original. 

[Diamond Dog]

Lunatic, liar...and now a rapist as well. I must say I've learned a lot about myself in this thread...Ah, the power of the Internet. 

D.D.

[jimdgoulding]

If high end didn't make music sound better, I doubt there would be one.