My Poop theory by kublakhan


I’m willing to bet all of you have had this experience and keep on having it, am I right? Have I said what the experience is yet? (Reading back, reading back…no, I didn’t). Ok, here’s the experience: You get a new piece of gear, be it some new cables, new speakers whatever, and the sound difference is extraordinary. You can’t believe what a beautiful improvement the item has made. Then, days, weeks, months later you find yourself remembering back to the good old days when you first got the piece and smiled ear to ear every time you listened to music through it. What happened, you say to yourself? I LIKE my system, but I no longer smile as I used to.

So okay, you go to audiogon.com and search out some answers. Answers which almost always cost money and a lot of hassle with research and this that and the other thing. Then you fixate on the new ‘solution’ buy the item and WOW, that is what was missing! And you write your ‘gon review of how stupid everyone is for not having used this xlr cable or that capacitor, etc….you get my drift. But the cycle continues. And continues.

Thanks for all of you who are still with me because here is where my ‘poop’ theory comes into play and it’s what we call in scriptwriting (and good sex) ‘the payoff.’ The poop theory (I’d use a stronger term for ‘poop’ by the way but audiogon already deleted one of my posts for vulgarity. I wrote a synonym for ‘posterior cavity’). Anyway, the poop theory says that if you put someone in a room full of …poop… they will cringe from the smell. But after a while, they will no longer notice the smell. At all. Can this theory be at work with us freakish audiophiles? I think perhaps so. After a while some part of our body gets accustomed to the poop (which in this case would be good, like a new preamp) and we no longer notice it. We need the poop back and we search for the poop (this time read like, you know… ‘the skinny’) on audiogon. We spend our money and time and finally, shazam! Once again we smell the poop …but the sh*t starts right up after a period of time. When will it all end? When will we all stop to smell the poop?

I write this because I’m now bored out of my mind with my system. And I’m refusing to pour more money into it. So now what? Look for new music I suppose – that’s the cheapest poop I can think of. I don’t know. I just know I miss the stench of a pair of newly retubed ARC monoblock 300s.

We’re all doomed. The cycle continues. I’m willing to bet all of you have had this experience and keep on having it, am I right? Have I said what the experience is yet?
kublakhan

Showing 3 responses by psychicanimal

The answer it's simple, man: LIVE, UNAMPLIFIED MUSIC. LOTS OF IT. Then, and only then, will you realize how bad your stereo really sounds no matter how much you have spent. Acceptance or denial will come as a result...

Just happens that last night I was talking on the phone to one of the owners of an audio store whose page is in Audiogon. His name is...(I'm not saying). Having worked at audio stores to get me through college, I noticed a pattern: people who really got into classical music did not buy outrageous equipments. They FLEW to concerts several times a year. Period. The audio shop owner agrees. Live music listening is the way they spend their money. One of these persons' father was Pablo Casals' best friend. They are millionaires. They bought a very modest system from me. But they fly to Europe to listen to concerts. That's why I don't believe in the Voodoo. No offense, but it seems to me the Voodoo is for wannabes.

Hope you learn.

Peace to all.
Well chosen words and nicely put, Detlof. Especially the analogy of the musical instrument. Live, unamplified music is THE reality check.

In my particular case, I listen to most any kind of music. From orchestral to salsa/merengue/cha-cha back to chamber ensembles. From jazz to rock to electronic to Celtic. Creating a system that will be able to play ALL these genres and variations in recording quality is, in my opinion, the most challenging.

What do I do? I have programmed my mind that once I finish setting up my system what I get is what I get. Period. I have to optimise sound quality and musical enjoyment. Beyond that point the system will start becoming ruthlessly revealing and the defects of my not so great recordings (a good chunk of them)will stand out. The resolution of the system will interfere with the enjoyment of the music. I learned this working at an audio store while in college. We had B&W 801s wired to a McIntosh rig. The only two rock groups we could listen on those speakers were Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons Project. They sounded awesome, indeed. But what about the rest? Those Dahlquists on the corner, however, were sooo sweet with any kind of music...