Is this about music or equipment? Am I crazy or am I such a wise man lol.?
Dear Friends,
Few years ago I decided that I'm happy with my system.
Actually I love it.
In a few words:
I'm the owner of the first version of Martin Logan CLS speakers (panels have been changed twice) that I'm powering by VAC Renaissance amp. The source is a Dell touchscreen computer running Windows 10. The signal goes to the old Denon CD player that was modified by APL 20 years ago and that I will upgrade soon (maybe not). The power to the the most of the system is (horror of horrors lol.) cleaned by an old Tice Powerblock.
In addition I'm using additional Aperion Ribbon Super Tweeters for the high frequencies (ML CLS are quite soft in the high frequency department) and an old Velodyne 18" subwoofer that I'm running through Rolls SX95 filter to limit its' frequency to 32 HZ. Over 32 HZ two Martin Logan Depth subwoofers limited to +/- 45 HZ take over. The signal from DAC to the amp goes through Yamamura 6000 interconnects. I tested the system several times on different frequencies and the curve is almost flat with regards to few spikes and valleys (please pardon this non-technical description) - the only "room treatment" as you could see from my profile photo are bookshelves filled up with books I love, placed on bookshelves behind ML panels. The custom stands for ML speakers I designed and built wit a help of cabinet maker. I'm living in an apartment.
This leads me to the point of my post. A dear friend of mine is at this moment in the phase of improving the sound of his system. His step now is to get new power cords to make his system sound better. And my question is - Is this about music or equipment?
Please see the copy of my email to him and please let me know your thoughts.
"I just did the calculation. My entire system costs me about $50,000 including the changes of tubes. This is is a price if I paid a full price. Taking into the account the discounts and the lower price for used equipment such a VAC amplifier and Yamamura interconnects it would be somewhere around $40,000 spent 20-15 years ago, so considering the inflation, nowadays it still stays around $50 k.
Because I went through 5 changes of vacuum tubes that are costly (8 main driver 300B tubes and 4 6SN7 steering tubes) that were around $2,500 per change.
Now - I have in my collection around 2500 CDs. Some of them are single CDs for the cost of $15 a CD. Operas and other collections such as complete rerecordings' of Bach organ music are between $80 - $150.(I'm not mentioning Rammstein, Dr. Dre ant French hip-hop I love depending on my mood ;-)
So let's round the average cost of CD to $25 (very low estimate).
Please multiply that by 2500 CDs and we are around $60k for CDs.
To me this makes sense - the proportion is +/- 1:1
Now please talk to your "audiophile" friends.
Are they music lovers and are they are listening to the music they are passionate about, or are they the equipment lovers and they are listening to their system?
You'll be surprised by your findings.
I'm not going to comment."
I'm certain that this discussion will be entertaining.
I'm looking forward to hear your opinions - let's have some fun guys.
Love
I'm music first and has always been.
Reasonably more immune to FoMo as luckily I have a system that is nigh impossible to replace for all the great ways it makes me just eager to go listen to some music without tinkering
Cos I've done the tinkering early on and well without falling for useless BS.
I breathe music lol. That's how much music I listen to daily both passively and actively @lucian-sf |
You shouldn’t worry at all about this question. It’s very insignificant. If you have enjoyment and your toes are tapping, you shouldn’t have worries. The equipment is not that important. I think audiophiles make the experience of listening to music far more complicated than it has to be. My two cents.. |
