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

It's the music since I listen to most of my music on my desktop, Kitchen radio, and car.  Lately, I'm futzing around more with my audio setup; it always seems to be down rather than hooked up and running.  I don't know why. Oh and I've been playing around(fixing) my young neighbors "Danfi" turntable with Bluetooth, basically a Crosley type of thing that while I'm familiar with what they are, have never seen in the flesh and it's been sitting in my dining room.  It does have a full size belt driven platter(god, I can't believe I'm spending this much time with it).

I kind of wish the offending post from @faustuss had been left up because I never got to see it.  Not because I’m in favor of online incivility – to the contrary, I feel it’s a gigantic problem—but because I’m wondering if what @faustus had to say was a measure of his exasperation with the OP bringing up the age-old topic of music vs. gear in the first place. A few of the responses that are on the thread are, I think, wry, winking acknowledgements of this.

"It’s all about the music" is one of the great pieties of the audiophile endeavor and I think we should all own up to what @larsman  noted – that a love of music and a love of audio gear are two separate pursuits. "It’s all about the music" is a great example of "virtue signaling" in our hobby, and it can get tiresome.

I attend a lot of audio shows and the choices of music and the response of attendees to those choices can be telling, especially the response to music requested by others in an exhibitor’s room. The best example is classical music. I have a couple of relatively brief selections that I find helpful in getting a handle on an unfamiliar component, pieces by Shostakovich and Brahms. When the music ends, I turn around and it’s usually just me and the guy with the iPad.

There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes, people will ask about the music I’ve requested or take a screenshot of the album cover. Some exhibitors will cycle through an interesting and lengthy playlist and if people leave, so be it. I do think that, when they’re on their own, people are more interested in exploring what Leonard Bernstein called "The Infinite Variety of Music" (the title of a 1966 book by the conductor) but in a communal audiophile setting, musical content often seems to take a back seat; it’s Dire Straits, Diana Krall, and "Fanfare for the Common Man" that puts audiophile behinds in the seats.

I’d also respectfully ask that you not talk so darned much when the music’s playing, whether that music is Nielsen or Nirvana.

Someone want to paraphrase what @faustuss had to say? A redacted version is fine!

@aquint ,

It was a bit of a kerfuffle over not much, really. If I remember correctly, it was a clash of ideologies about how a member’s worth here is directly proportional to whether they have a systems page in their profile or not. Wasn’t even that harsh. Then it took a bizarre turn about how after we all croak there won’t be a forum anymore, and how certain members here are nothing but old men and apparently impotent ones at that. Don’t ask me how he came to that conclusion, there are some things I just don’t want to know. You didn’t miss a lot, but you can catch a bit of it if you read @newton_john ’s copied tidbit.

And yes, I snickered when I wrote ’members’ and ’impotent’. 😆

Thanks to @thecarpathian.

The whole thing was worth it because you put "members" and "impotent" in tye same sentence. Wish I'd thought of that...