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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

lucian-sf
ghdprentice's avatar
ghdprentice
9,398 posts
 

I’m an equipment lover during upgrade cycles looking forward to the destination, when my upgrade is done and then for seven to ten years I am a music lover who pays no attention to my equipment.

OK... I have to admit, when walking past my system during the day... I have a wave of appreciation pass over myself as I admire how beautiful the speakers are and all the electric components. That feels great.

robeffy's avatar
robeffy
79 posts
 

It has always been about the music for me.  I have over 15000 tunes ripped to my music server.  I have bought nearly every one, not downloaded off the net.  There are a few CD's that I have borrowed and ripped, but, then, I don't support the musician and if I have to reload the songs, I am beat.  So, I buy the CD, rip it, put it away.  I even put my YBA CD player away.
A music server is the best money spent.  I am done with flipping records. I turn on the DAC, Pre and AMP, let it play on my "Mainlist" of songs (over 14k songs on that list ) and let it play at random. Jriver is dirt cheap and works super great.
I keep hearing about people with streaming issues.  I have Spotify, Lossless, not the worlds best, but a minimum of CD quality, 44.1K, is fine with me. 
My turntable is gathering dust. 
I love my gear, not knocking it, the best I have ever owned. 

randymaqp
29 posts
 

For me, it began as the equipment. I had maxed out the home theater in the den, per the Big Boss (aka my wife), so I converted a guest bedroom into a listening room.  I moved my streamer, power conditioner, a few cables and my “good speakers” from the home theater. I am retired and the stock market has been good to me, so I started acquiring equipment.  
 

My system really sounds good to me now and somewhere along the way I started really enjoying the music.  I still have some additional room treatments to do, and I plan to upgrade a few things as budget allows.  But I look forward to a couple of hours daily just listening to music.  

bbarten
95 posts
 

Different things satisfy different people.  I say live and let live.  It's certainly a good practical point nonetheless. 

kerrybh
668 posts
 

For some reason, this issue comes up from time to time. Presumably, just about everyone who spends much time at all on a forum like this cares about listening to music. And I would be pretty skeptical of someone who says it’s all about the music and the equipment doesn’t matter if that person spends a lot of time on this forum and has taken the time to post hundreds or in some cases thousands of times over many years about audio equipment. A person could listen to a lot of music in the time it takes to create all those posts. So why can’t it be about both? I love listening to music but I’m also happy to confess that the equipment and the system building aspect of the hobby is something that I find fascinating as well. False choice. 
 

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