Anyone else grateful that they got hooked on this crazy addiction


I got home tonight after a 12 hour day of busting my ass for the IT company I work for and sat down in the single chair in my dedicated listening room and turned on Dido’s “Still on My Mind”. As I sat there listening with the lights off, I thought about the fact that the majority of the people in this world will never get to hear anything close to this kind of sound and I get to hear any track, at any time, at any volume I choose. Please don’t think that I am bragging about my system as I know that the majority of you have systems that put mine to shame. I am attempting to express how very grateful I am that I got into this amazing hobby, especially with all the crazy things that are happening in our world today.

 

As a lurker on this forum for a couple of years, I have read the great majority of the posts. Some with a chuckle, some with great awe and some with disgust. We all enjoy an amazing hobby that allows us to escape from the realities of life right in our own home.

 

My system consists of a Devialet Expert 250 Pro, Dynaudio Contour 60 speakers, a pair of REL S510 sub-woofers, AQ William Tell speaker cables, an Uptone Audio Etherregen, SOTM ethernet cable, AQ Tornado power cords, an AQ Niagara 1000 power conditioner, GIK acoustic room treatments and an SGC i5 Sonictransporter running Roon with 5TB of hi-res recordings and streaming Tidal and Qobuz. Once again, I am not bragging, and I am not looking for any comments about how good or bad my system is or could be. My goal is to give you some perspective about how lucky we are to be “audiophiles” in this crazy world.

 

When I sit down with a glass of scotch and put on whatever it is that trips my fancy that night, I can easily put the world out of my mind in under 5 minutes. Listening to what I think is an incredible soundstage and how I can be transported so quickly to the artist’s location is sometimes beyond belief. The best is those nights when you audibly mumble “holy sh-t” after an especially dazzling track.

 

We are a very lucky group of people to be able to sit down with our system that we have built with our own hands and hard-earned money. To think how much time we have spent reading forums and reviews as well as the never ending tweaking. Who would have thought that moving speakers ¼” would make that big of difference?

 

So, who else out there is grateful that we have these amazing systems in our homes and it would almost be welcomed to be quarantined for a couple of weeks?


desert38
First off, your set-up is awesome!  Kudos to you 👍

I also was obsessing over our current situation but it gets depressing so more, now than anytime recently, I am so appreciative of my stereo.  I have been listening everyday, all day.  
Its interesting how things have become more enjoyable for me lately.  When you don’t know whats going to happen you start living your life like it could be your last day and all of a sudden all the bs doesn’t matter anymore.

Great thread!  We are all blessed to have our health at the moment and even more blessed to be able to have something that brings us joy like our awesome stereo’s!!

Dave Brubeck has never sounded so good 😎
Music, for me and I'm sure many others on here, is absolutely in a class all by itself in it's ability to take us to another place. With other media nowadays doing nothing but attempting to brainwash us, the option to pick our own form of entertainment apart from that is surely a blessing. 
Like Miller, my attraction to music seems to have begun at a very early age so maybe yes, an inborn trait. That hand held transistor radio my father finally bought on Christmas Eve '61 was my first personal music device. I was as obsessed with it as I am now with the system downstairs. The Admiral radio in the kitchen was always on and I was fully in tune with all the hits of the day. 
It is with great comfort and appreciation that I can indulge this hobby to the extent my circumstances allow. I'm so grateful. 
Music saved me while serving in the Army in the late 60s.  I bought my first system of separates then and have been hooked ever since.

It has been a long magical journey from Sansui SP-100s to 3.6 Maggies.  Music has always been my refuge.  I am now listening to four of Cream's last live concerts, just released from their Goodbye tour in 1968, amazing talents all.

Stay safe all and embrace the music you love
Audio is not a hobby its a way of life . Enrichment for the soul . Best dollar return for use to cost .