When did you most enjoy the music?


I think this may be geared towards the over-60 crowd, which seems to make up a good portion of our membership.  I was thinking the other day - There is no doubt that, since I got into high end audio I am getting better, more realistic sound.  With the right recordings, instruments sound real and I think I have my system well tuned to my tastes.  But I was thinking back on when I really enjoyed the actual music the most and I came up with these - When I was in my late teens and sitting in a friend's room with a pair of JBL 100s sitting on the floor and against the wall, driven by a Kenwood or similar receiver listening to Hendrix, the Fudge, the Band and all that stuff.  Maybe in a bar with a Seeburg jukebox blasting Sexual Healing or Give It Up - 1968 driving down to the Newport Jazz Festival in a Rambler with 1 8 track tape and listening to Born on the Bayou 100 times over and digging it every time it came around again.  We all parrot the same crap now - that our systems are transparent and disappear, but do they?  The system disappeared in that Rambler because you paid absolutely no mind to the gear that was playing.  Just digging the music.  Didn't have to sit in the sweet spot or anything.  Maybe it's something that can't be recaptured, as it is with a lot of things of youth.  So be it.  And you may feel the opposite.  And no, I wouldn't want to go back to JBLs on the floor anymore because my priorities have changed.  Then was then and now is now. 
chayro

Showing 1 response by dtapo

I remember several times... sneaking up to the living room and playing LedZep ll on my Dad’s Fisher console system at 1:00 AM. Very low volume, all tube goodness. Later driving home late at night in the dead of winter hearing Bridge over troubled water on my tinny VW am radio. Every time I hear that song, I’m transported back to that night. Years later building my own speakers and loving the sound so much more than any other speakers that I owned.

I started playing guitar and in order to learn, I played Beck, Page, Clapton, Hendrix, ect on a cheap, funky mono tube powered record player and tried to play along. I spent many hours in front of that thing.

More recently, I’ve recaptured some of those emotions with the addition of a 300B tube integrated.

Right now I’m enjoying some mellow jazz on a tiny Bose bluetooth speaker and ipad. We’re in the process of moving and all my audio stuff is either in storage or has been sold. Amazing what you can learn to appreciate.