AUDIOPHILE OR JUST CRAZY ?


FELLAS,
I have been building and putting together systems since the sixties when I build my first health kit FM tuner ! Yes it was a father and son project my dad got me for my 11th birthday in 1967 .I have been in pursuit of the best sound system ever since, thanks to my dad who had the loudest HIFI in the neighborhood ! None of the neighbors ever complained ! i could mow the yard and hear Elvis, playing at the same time ! I have spent fortunes, in audio equipment ever since my first job .I was that kid who could spend all day at the audio superstore, looking watching listening to the systems in the speaker audition room ! The audio stores are far and few in-between these days, but here is my problem ! In the early nineties i purchased an Onkyo Grand Integra M-508 power Amp @ 225 wpc and a Onkyo P-308 pre amplifier .Went solid state, got my first R2R pioneer 909  audio reverse and a Thorens td 166 mkii turntable with a shure mm cartridge ! A Nakamichi dual Cassette deck , oh yes ! I forgot to mention my Klipsch Cornwall speakers with 15 in woofers and horns ! I was on top of the world ! None of my friends or family could touch the sound that came from that system !  
In the early 2000, i felt last decade, and got back into the tubes, with Conrad Johnson ! Since 2004 I have spent over $45,00.00 k on nothing but the best equipment money can buy ! I am still not as Thrilled as I was over Thirty years ago !
discussed , I sold everything for penny's on the dollar ! Everything except my old Onkyo m-508 and p-308, an old ADC graphic EQ , kept my old AR turntable one of Eric's Sound of the wood, and my klipsch  La Sacla's ALL Vintage Audio old ass equipment and I am the happiest i have ever been ! It is music to my years after spend $$$$$$ and never being satisfied !!!! Am I crazy or what ? I call myself EXPERIANCED ! 

128x128geurds
You are batsh*t crazy....
I'm just kidding with ya'😋.

It's all in what YOUR audible hearing prefers.
I've heard highend audio systems that I thought sounded mediocre;
But a friend or friends thought those  particular systems were worth a second mortgage.

I can't thoroughly explain it. 
Very interesting though.
@Geurds If you can remember, what was the first audio system that made you want to pursue Hi-Fi? What was so special about that system?

Apply what you enjoy most about music to your current system(s). I will admit to owning accurate gear - and it’s not always pleasant to listen to. Mastering errors - yikes!

The ideal speaker system is warm-sounding, detailed enough (not too transparent) has bass and midrange not competing with one another. .. Overall, the system should sound natural and not strained or congested.

Above all - enjoy the music. The emotions and how you connect to artists and lyrics on a personal level. No system in the world is capable of helping you achieve that rush unless you believe it.
I'm with you Geurds. As a young man I would venture off to the local HiFi store here in Phnx. Spent hours there. Purchased my first component system there. I found McIntosh and JBL there. Many yrs later duplicated that system for my personal use (X3). The brain is a wondrous thing. There were many more extraneous variables effecting your feelings (there, I said it) at that time in your life. I now follow the rule of diminishing return. Happy New Year to all. AB
Reading all these posts about audiophiles confort me in my journey...

I succeed it seems, upgrading seems to me unnecessary, in contrary to the beginnings of my journey 7 years ago where i think frantically for the best product possible...

 7 years ago i was thinking that being an audiophile consist in looking for the greatest brand name possible...I was confusing S.Q. with price...

2 years ago i embarked in intensive listenings feed back expetiments with homemade low cost devices...

My audio system was put on another level of S.Q. deemed impossible  to reach ,even by me many years ago...





Dont upgrade, learn how to embed everything right...

After that it is even possible that any costly upgrade will appear a complete lost of money...

This is my experience...

Happy New Year...




geurds,
If your system sounds good to you, that is the #1 thing.
Great you are satisfied.
Maybe, by definition, that makes you a non-audiophile.
After all these decades of upgrading, I still think of what I can tweak.
AUDIOPHILIA-THE SICKNESS!
ALL THE BEST MY AUDIOPHILE BROTHERS AND SISTERS !
BLESSINGS TO THE NEW YEAR !


right on! 
THANKS TO ALL WHO HAS SPOKEN ! I AM CONSIDERING SOME OF YOUR POINTS ! I AM NOT DEAF, BUT AM GOING BLIND ! HENCE, ALL CAPS ! I LOVE BUYING S#IT AND TRYING S#IT ! MY REAL PROBLEM IS CHASING THE DREAM, AND WISHING i HAD THE FUNDS i HAVE NOW VS. HOW HARD i HAD TO WORK THEN, TO GET THE BEST OF TIMES !
ALL THE BEST MY AUDIOPHILE BROTHERS AND SISTERS !
BLESSINGS TO THE NEW YEAR !


« Syntax and rethoric are the clothes the beggar or the rich, the healthy or the sick take when they wrote their words; ignoring that veiling a part of ourself with our language, we also unveil another part of ourself using it... Language is the best hiding place and the most open one for us to be seen at the same time. »- Anonymus Smith
Get RID of the ADC graphic EQ. Really. Send it off to electronics recycling. If your speakers need that to get sound you want, you have the wrong speakers. But then, the Klipsch LaScala was intended as a PA speaker. No decent low end to speak of either and an edgy mid-range to boot. Other than that...

So you unloaded everything and are left with this? The Onkyo gear is OK. If the AR table is serving you adequately, then fine. I hope you’ve changed out the tone arm. A lot of people made that change.

But for speakers, there are so many, many better choices available. Your power amp has enough sheer muscle that it can drive anything. I have no idea what budget you might have, but these Avalon Acoustics Opus loudspeakers would make you happy in a way you haven’t felt in decades.

If "getting your hands dirty" in audio is fun for you, then I’d encourage you to consider the SEAS Thor kit from Madisound. By the end of the project, you’d have dropped about $2500 and would have something similar to the $13,000 Joseph Audio Perspective 2.

One more thing.  I'm as old as you are.  I built a Heathkit AJ-14 FM tuner back in my junior college days, then Dynaco kits when I went off to UC Berkeley.  Built Hafler kits later.   When I bought my first record, Lyndon Johnson was president.  You really can do a lot better than the La Scala.
Well, I'd also say you NOT crazy, at all - but very lucky your sound memory is not based on some 60s battery driven transistor radio, or equally sad, some 60s black and white (neither black nor white really) television, watching out for the English pop 'revolution'. Beatles et al. 

I did, - so I might be lucky in that sense, as ANYTHING hifi I than owned was absolute trash by today's standards. Junk - period. 

My present system is between 15 to 20+ years old, all vintage hi-end by now (see my system page) and with some degree of tweaking, jolly, bloody fine for a long time yet to come. 

Yet... People taking note of my music passion, quietly think that I AM crazy 🤪 
Michélle 🇿🇦 
The music of my youth has never ever sounded better than today at 69 years old.
Mine sounds better now. But not really. Technically, absolutely. But not the same as hanging with pals and girls. 
Bottom line is that high end gear from years past is still high end gear.
My Sansui AU 7700 was considered one of the best amplifier in the world at his price level (450 dollars in 1978) Today there exist better BUT at a very higher cost but even then with NOTHING  at any price that mimic his flexibility...

I paid it peanuts and i am amazed by details retrievals and tube sounding for a S.S. amplifier.... No fatigue, only ecstasy... I even bought another one in case....😁
guerds, I feel the same way about my current system. Here it is.
My current system is a Victor (JVC) two arm TT from the early 80's, an Audio Research SP8 MkII preamp from 1983 a set of restored Mac MC40 monoblocks from about 1961 and my speakers are 1971 HeathKit AS101's (Altec Valencias in much nicer cabinets).
Most of the high dollar gear that I've heard leaves me unimpressed. Very detailed, almost clinical, but lacking soul, missing the musical aspect of it all. My system engages me as I'm sure yours does to.Bottom line is that high end gear from years past is still high end gear. I wouldn't trade this old stack of gear for new stuff of comparable value, I'd be getting ripped off.

BillWojo
The music of my youth has never ever sounded better than today at  69 years old... No comparison at all.... It is my audio room that make that happen... Not my inexistant  bat ears or low cost system....
Thanks ! Very interesting testimony and unortodhox one indeed...

You are not crazy!

All  audio forums are about selling and buying to so called " upgrade"....

 My personal experience with the same system for years:
 
Mission Cyrus speakers781 (50 bucks used)
Sansui Au 7700 amplifier (100 bucks used +recap for the same amount of money)
Starting point systems NOS dac ( too low price to be mentioned ny bid on Ebay)

 Why i dont give a dam for upgrade?

Because the worst half-truth there is in audio is the supposed fact that costly electronic components will buy you the audiophile experience...

An half truth is worst than a lie....

Electronic components design is mature and gave to us many high quality components in the last 60 years... Then buying used and vintage is the way.... New costly coponents are better, yes, but the truth is the improvement is not worth the money invested most of the times for the majority of people... WHY?

Because the greates improvement in audio instead of an upgrade is most of the times these modifications in these 3 dimensions where an audio system is immersed in, what i called"embeddings controls:

  A-How much noise pollute the electrical grid of the audio room coming from the house grid...high noise floor destruct the timbre and imaging...

B-How much vibrations and also resonance affect my speakers, and even the rest of the gear? Same negative effect, these uncontrolled vibrations and untamed resonance will decrease S.Q.

C-And the very fundamental fact to add to these very 2 important one: is my room acoustic good? This factor, so much important were the others, this one is crux of the matter...

 then you are perfectly sane to prefer to listen to music instead of spending big money.....
 




If you've  never heard a Marantz 7C feeding into Model 9's driving Klipsch Horns you have not lived. I was only 13 years old when I heard that system. It looms large in my memory as the best I have ever heard even though it was not. But the memory of a 13 year old is very hard to divorce and I have been chasing that memory for 55 years. The next system is going to be the one:-)
It's all about building a system to satisfy yourself and it sounds like you are doing that. Good job.
You aren't crazy, but you have to keep in mind that a lot of this is like judging food based on mom's home cooking. 

Make yourself happy, but also realize that "mom's home cooking" tastes very different to a lot of people. :)

Be true to your own ears, it's what matters more than anything, and allow others to do the same.

I sometimes think that my system in the 70’s sounded better on Rock than my 2 systems do now. But then I put on a Pink Floyd CD and realize my systems do sound much better.  I think it is more the nostalgia from the past than the actual sound.