Good old days

@rvpiano ..I got my musical inspiration and love of classical music as a child listening to radio stations in New York. I always endeavor to recover that feeling.
Expressing myself through this forum has been helpful to me in diagnosing the pitfalls of sound addiction. I also hope it relates to others who have the same experience.

We are similar in some ways.

I can relate as I sit here right now listening to "Any Colour Your Like" Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary Remastered. The stuff I grew up with, as you noted, "listening to radio stations" in Northern California. 98.5 KZAP it was. Is the new remaster/reproduction of the old album better, maybe, I don’t know. Listening right now as I type this, awaiting the next random song to pop up on the lossless 16bit streaming service I use for the music itself more than the most transparent sound.

Yep - There are days I want to take all of the amps, devices, cables, and simply box it all up and put it away in the rafters for a couple years, or just get rid of all of it, and go back to simple radio tabletop system just to listen to the music, as you do in your car.

I recently bought a new car, there were two levels, this time around bought the car which had the next-level-down audio system almost for similar reasons - to just listen to music. It’s "good enough", sounds nice, back to music. Is simple, better? Maybe.

Perhaps I had a split brain some days where the complexity of it with my former-version larger main system would not allow me to sit and listen to the music more than the components. I’ve tried to come up with ways to effectively "reverse the clock" so to speak. Slowly inching back to that former familiar sound with tweaks.

There are a few ways I tried to deal with this same type of thinking and mental blocks. Maybe my system had gotten to the point where it became too transparent at one point. I lost some of the magic you mentioned when we could just sit and listen to the music. At first I could not figure it out very well. Was it me, the gear, the newer recordings, my hearing. Again, different ideas for each of us. dealing with it in different ways - I’ll share what I did, maybe one idea for you somewhere:

• Went back to building speakers with a familiar sound closer to what I remembered growing up. Other members mentioned similar ideas.
• Other sources, like you I missed that radio growing up. Some days I enjoy firing up my Magnum Dynalab FM Tuner, sounds glorious. Fun.
• For streaming, I have an audiophile critical listening play list. When that’s on, I do tend to do more critical listening. Other lists I’ve created are "all music", it triggers something to simply "enjoy" music.
• Cables - the cable naysayers will thrash me about this. I’m an OCD cable nut. Tried too many. Went back to a cable designer I grew up with, recapturing the "comfort food" thought mentioned. Like it more.
• Tubes - I won’t go there, plenty of threads on this topic, separately.
• Recently picked up an older backup SS amplifier, had it refreshed, upgraded it. Rotating through in once in a while. I intentionally went back to an older design, older output OPTs, full-true class A 50w. It does trigger older memories, trigging some old synapses maybe. :)
• DAC: if you play digital, I grew painfully tired of hi-rez content and hi-rez dacs. Went back to a non-over-sampling 16/44 NOS dac, done.

@hilde45 touched on something about the little speakers he cannot seem to forget. My take is its the "music" that grabbed him with those particular speakers. And, my other random thought about all of this situation, sometimes "less" is "more". :)

I now believe some of this has to do with the sounds we grew up with, and what we remember most about our own type of feel-good music. Maybe I don’t like overly transparent systems as much as I originally hoped, some times a little imperfection is "okay!" And, the famous quote, "don’t let perfect be the enemy of good". 🤔

Decooney,

Thanks for your detailed response. I see the similarities between us.
I’m now not so sure however that the nature of my system is the problem. I’m thinking that perhaps, as frogman suggests, relocating myself in the listening space, so that imaging is not a factor, may help considerably.
Also, for the times I’m really into the music, the good qualities of the set may enhance my enjoyment.

we are all sitting on the curve of diminishing returns, in different spots. Think about what else you could do with the money, and what would make you happier, 

You have a great system and you obviously know how to enjoy music with or without cardas cables, that's what matters the most.

@rvpiano ...relocating myself in the listening space, so that imaging is not a factor, may help considerably.

It’s interesting you mention this.

A tube amp buddy who geeked out for decades on several different designs of tube amps and large hoards of tube collections, has a saying an old mentor told him once "at the end of the day, it’s just your stereo".

Sometimes I do get a kick out of SG’s videos. The simpleton videos he does once in a while can be refreshing too. One video he sort of came out and said, forget all of the fancy room formulas, "try sitting closer, or spread your speakers out, just try different things". And, everyone’s room is different anyhow. Easy, low cost, fun. Try the simple stuff first. I'm going back to this mindset myself now. 

As long as we don’t take it too seriously, should be just fine.