How do you get Happy as an Audiophile?


There’s an interesting, relatively modern take on mental health called Positive Psychology. While not without it’s faults and detractors, PP has a very interesting approach. Instead of asking questions on the axis of illness and diagnosis PP asks questions on the scale of happiness:

What is it that makes you more or less content with your life and in your pursuits? How can these actions, events or states be codified and applied as general principles?

In the spirit of PP then I ask:

How do you get happy? What advice would you give an audiophile that asks "What is satisfying about being an audiophile, and what are the approaches that get me there? Do you personally know the answers for yourself? "

erik_squires

I play Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, followed by Steely Dan's Gaucho.  IMHO, happiness is based on perspective.  Call me a happy bot.

Hi, great question and great answers so far! I can only speak for myself when I say the thing I was chasing was a level of competence and confidence in that what my system components created was thought through. 
I just wanted to know I had purposefully decided to use components based on merit and for me the knowledge of that merit came from trying different stuff. 
I also really try to have a story for the separate pieces and I think that I can hear the effect of changing out speaker cables because of the way I feel about them. 
For example, I have an armboard made from a plywood shelf out of a nice old Capehart cabinet. I also try to look at my system since for me its all about how the piece comes across when in use. 
In the end I am trying to recreate the feelings that I had when plugging headphones into my dad's system and dropping the needle when I was nine listening to Long distance Voyager by the Moody Blues for around three months in 1983. 
The emotional connection to the music should be clear and if anything is getting in way of that either by it being terrible or maybe too good even you might want to keep searching. I know thats what I do and its what keeps me trying new pieces. And man its hard when you let the wrong thing go, am I right?!!