The Absurdity of it All

mijostyn4,

... agreed and perhaps this "feeling" aspect is most evident when it comes to PRaT. For some listeners, this is a crucial aspect of enjoyment and speaking as one such listener, my impression has always been that this is much more of a "whole body sensing" experience than an "aural" experience. Above all, I want to feel emotionally involved in the listening experience and given the above, it would appear that my body must be involved in order for my emotions to be engageded. I'm sure this is not the case for everyone. 

I'm very curious about the nature of the "thrill" you associate with live perfromances. What is different about live music?  Most obviously, the audience occupies the same space as the muscians and we experience the music in the company of others. 

At first I thought it must be the presence of visual information -- the ability to see the expressions on musicians' faces and their body language, for example, that might account for the "thrill". Then I recalled that if I'm really absorbed in the music at a live show, I habitually close my eyes, to screen out visual distractions. 

I'd be very interested to hear more about what you believe constitues the "thrill", if you care to expound...

@cd318"

 "...absurdity and audiophilia seem to clearly go hand in hand."

This could explain a lot, in terms of what goes on in these forums!  

  .

I meant to say "Arguments over whether the hobby is more about "music appreciation" or "gear appreciation" could be seen as an expression of the discomfort that can be generated by the tension OF this convergence".  

@cd318"

I very much enjoyed youir post. 

You mention both "passion" and "critical faculty" and it occurs to me that perhaps the defining hallmark of this hobby is a convergence of right and left brain activities. 

Arguments over whether the hobby is more about "music appreciation" or "gear appreciation" could be seen as an expression of the discomfort that can be generated by the tension by this convergence.  

We may prefer to veer to one side or the other, rather than hang out in the "no man's land" in between the polarities. And of course this has implications regarding your broader comments regarding society and culture wars.  

But, back to my main focus, audiophilia would appear to require a willingness and an ability to rapidly shift our primary focus from one lobe of the brain to another. 

There is also the very masculine, logical drive to pin things down-- know what's what--to organize and rank our experience (and by "masculine" I don't mean "male", necessarily). 

Contrast this with a more ferminine (again, not necessarily "female") 
impulse to approach experience from a more intuitive, global perspective that tends to be more focused upon what's arising in the moment and seeks to perceive what unites rather than differentiates, aspects of experience. 

I won't make generalizations about others, but I tend to operate more in the masculine mode when it comes to evaluating gear and more in the feminine mode when listening. I do realize this is not necessarily true for everyone!

Having said that, I'd venture to guess most of us tend to generally rely more upon one mode than the other. Consider the arguments that continue to erupt regarding whether cables sound different !  

How about this: 

Which aspects of this hobby are subjective?
Which are objective?

If we cannot even reach concensus on these questions, how can we hope to communicate? We end up, in effect, speaking two mutually indecipherable languages with the result being, as you suggest something like...

And you say "Well, what does this mean?" and he screams back "you're a cow-- give me some milk or else go home!"

cd318: 

I'm in agreement with your observations. 

I rarely "listen to monitor" except when evaluating potential purchases  I usually find upgrades very stressful although I've managed to make good choices. Having to re-establish system synergy after upgrading a component can be dicey but again, I've done allright. 

I don't have the funds to regularly channel many thousands of dollars into audio, but the mere fact that I can afford modest upgrades every so often renders me suceptible to the very same syndrome you describe affecting the frustrated audio dealer. If one "listens to monitor" (or, said another way, pays more attention to sound than to what is being communicated by the music) one can easily miss out on the simple joy of listening for pleasure. 

I find that after an upgrade,there's a "honeymoon period" during which I tend to spend more time listening, due to the novelty of "better SQ" and over time, as my ears become habituated to the improvements, I tend to listen somewhat less. Inevitably, the upgrade bug bites, and at that point, I have to decide whether to ignore it and deliberately focus more upon connecting with the music or give in to the desire for novelty, in terms of resuming the ongoing quest for "better sound". 

I guess it's actually a blessing to not have too much money to spend on this hobby. Otherwise, I can see how one could spend all one's time chasing novelty, which would evaporate more and more quickly as one increased the frequency and cost of upgrades. One could end up like a hamster on a wheel, chasing something impossible to catch. 

I guess what I'm suggesting is that it's a matter of mental discipline to manage the part of us that craves novelty and try to keep ourselves (mostly) focused upon that "child-like" pleasure, if in fact, that's one's top priority. I recognize it's not this way for everyone. 

@mijostyn: many thanks for the detailed response. I've grown to accept my system's limited bass response (monitors without a sub). If I had a dedicated room, I'd treat it, but that's not an option at this point. 

@tonywinga: " Making decisions about what gear to buy or changes to make is exhausting and stressful- like a building project".

I gave up buying gear I couldn't demo at home with a return policy a long time ago. While this does somewhat limit my choices, it also eliminates the risk of costly mistakes and therefore, reduces, to some degree, the level of stress.