Emotional rollercoaster


I think I've been slowly improving my system over years. Starting with garage sale finds and tip finds to eBay and ultimately spending serious dollars on some decent amplification and speakers. I was even going to post recently about how the journey has been worth it.
Then this afternoon I tested an old Akai AA-5200 that I'd retrieved from under my ex's house (left it there 8 or so years ago) and I connected it to some old magnat 10p speakers I picked up for about $40 ages ago.... and behold.... I was listening to about $60 of hi-fi equipment that sounded extraordinarily nice and made me wonder why I'd spent a hundred and fifty times that much "improving" my main system over the years. 
It's left me disillusioned and fragile. Is spending big bucks a sham. Where have I gone wrong. It's an emotional rollercoaster. Help.



mid-fi-crisis

Showing 4 responses by boxer12

cd318,
To clarify, I'm not a shill but an audiophile looking to get the most out of my system.
A few (there are many) of the better recordings for ambiance:
   Wax Poetic / Istanbul
   Larkin Grimm / The Last Tree
   Starlight Mints / Built on Squares
   moe. / Wormwood

I hope this helps
Good point atdavid (robertwhatever). I wasn’t there, but the ambience is there in spades in the recordings. BTW, it took a far amount of tweaks & cable changes to finally hear it (across the same speakers & room).
Lots of good information here. I agree that a properly treated room is very important, in fact it's a prerequisite. After that, I'm with mill in regard to everything being important. Obviously speakers will bring a dramatic change to the sound, but if they are transparent, they are only as good as the equipment (including cables, power cords, etc.) upstream. High end audio isn't a sham. The sound I have now is something I could only dream about 20 or 30 years ago. The stage is wall to wall, deep, with ambiance accurate to the recording. I don't regret any of it & typically listen to music 4 or more hours a day.