When is your Hifi good enough?


Just wondering what makes people tick in regards to determining when things sound "good enough"?

For me I have a vision in my mind of how things should sound based on what I have heard over the years.  Once it sounds that way, I am done.   I can still enjoy listening to other sounds or sounds that omit some things I might want otherwise but if I do not get regular samplings of "that sound" I probably start to wonder.
128x128mapman

Showing 1 response by oregonpapa

Mapman ...

If I had a dollar for each time I thought I had reached nirvana with my system, I could buy ... well, another system. *lol*

First and foremost, this hobby is about the music. The more revealing the system is in an accurate musical sense, the more in touch we are with the artists and to their artistry. 

I think a lot of us desire periodic "fixes" that allow for more information from our music collection to be revealed. This may take the form of a high-end fuse in the preamp ... or a new and better sounding preamp. Spikes under the speakers ... or new speakers. 

Personally for me, I continue to experiment with tweaks to get the best out of what I already have. There are advancements all the time in this industry. 

The curse is when a person continually buys and swaps out expensive equipment in an effort to find what they want without knowing what it is they really want. We all know the type ... credit cards maxed out buying equipment, only to sell the equipment, pay off the credit cards and then start all over again. One thing I've noticed about these sorts ... they never seem to have an extensive collection of recordings. Maybe fifty CD's and a hundred records max ... all "audiophile" releases. 


onhwy61  commented above about his Fisher 400. I had one at one time as part of a bedroom system. Loved it. If I had it today it would be sporting a SR RED fuse and tube dampening rings. All tubes would be replaced. Every contact area, including the tube pins would be treated with Caig Pro Gold. A qualified tech would have tested all components to be sure the Fisher was operating at it's best. Then, I'd be using high quality cables and  good footers. Oh .. and a pair of the small Harbeths would be nice too. And now for the CD player ... Bottom line, one great Fisher 400 transporting me to the world of great music while enjoying my morning coffee and a magnificent sunrise while listening to Bach's beautiful "Air On A G-String."

In other words Mapman ... I don't think it's ever "good enough."