Going thru stereo menopause

[strat10]

Hello all.I have been hoarding gear for years and maybe my hearing isnt what it was when I was younger but all my gear just doesnt do it for me anymore is it my ears or am I getting senile I dont have that excitement I used to have when I listened to it. I know you cant help me on the senile part but I was wondering if some of you feel the same way.Thanks for the replies.

 

[DaveVoorhis]

Hello all.I have been hoarding gear for years and maybe my hearing isnt up to it was when I was younger but all my gear just doesnt do it for me anymore is it my ears or am I getting senile I dont have the excitement I used to have when I listened to it.Thanks for the replies.

When that happens to me, and it sometimes does, I turn off my home systems and only listen to the rubbish stereo in my truck. Or, I get around on the motorcycle and don't listen to music at all.

After a week or two of that, coming back to my home systems, they sound fresh and engaging again.

 

[strat10]

Great suggestion I don't have a truck but I guess it will work with a car.jk

 

[Darren James]

Let's trade equipment.... just pack your stuff up and send to me..... I promise to send mine back!!

 

[slimecity]

I find that appreciation of listening to music can depend a lot on what else is happening in your life.

That may just be my. But sometimes I cant be bothered.

I am glad that I dont feel like that at the moment.....

 

[nj pheonix]

Ohighway opened a very similar thread a while back. Why don't you see what he found

 

[strat10]

Ohighway opened a very similar thread a while back. Why don't you see what he found

Thanks I will check it out.

 

[nj pheonix]

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....-my-enjoyment-time-to-downgrade-a-bit.818517/

 

[jdmccall]

Like Dave said. Just lay off the music for awhile and then come back in a few days or even a week or two. That will probably do the trick. Of course no system sounds good all the time. There's too many variables, our hearing function being one of them. I think that and the quality and quantity of the AC availability can have a big effect on the music listening experience.

 

[nj pheonix]

Like Dave said. Just lay off the music for awhile and then come back in a few days or even a week or two. That will probably do the trick. Of course no system sounds good all the time. There's too many variables, our hearing function being one of them. I think that and the quality and quantity of the AC availability can have a big effect on the music listening experience.

I agree about some points.
I suspect the system sounds the same all the time (unless it's malfunctioning).
I think you're right about the perception though.
I also think the variable is you.
Fatigue, stress, mood, intoxicant, loud sounds you might have been exposed to during the day.....) play a factor in your enjoyment.
Maybe I'm spoiled but the power by me is clean enough that I'd bet sound differences due to ac quality would be imperceptible
Just my 2c

 

[Grenadeslio]

It's that crappy McIntosh gear, pick up a nice Yamaha AVR and I'll haul the old away for just a nominal fee.

 

[Mystic]

Hello all.I have been hoarding gear for years and maybe my hearing isnt what it was when I was younger but all my gear just doesnt do it for me anymore

Just my two kopecks: maybe what's eatin' @ ya isn't the sound/performance of your gear or a failing in your sense of hearing; rather, perhaps you're simply bored and/or otherwise uninterested in/by the music to which you (usually) listen, and perhaps need to "get out" and explore new sounds?

 

[bluescat]

No matter what hobbies I have, sometimes I need to take a break from them, or the hobby(ies) becomes stale, and uninteresting. I've gone thru this with music, woodworking, motorcycles, cars etc., but I have always returned to them. I often have music "dry spells" when I can't seem to find anything new to listen to, and I either revert back to music I liked when I was younger, or just don't listen to anything for awhile. Sometimes it leads me to buy some new gear, in an attempt to rekindle my interest, and sometimes I just wait it out. I think this is normal, and that most people go thru these periods.

 

[Quadman2]

Just my two kopecks: maybe what's eatin' @ ya isn't the sound/performance of your gear or a failing in your sense of hearing; rather, perhaps you're simply bored and/or otherwise uninterested in/by the music to which you (usually) listen, and perhaps need to "get out" and explore new sounds?

I like M's suggestion... change genres.

Get the ears tested.

Take a hiatus for a bit, taking up a new persuit.

Get into a help/charity based situation.

Travel.

Q

 

[richamor]

As other have alluded too.......maybe it's not the system but the music. I find I don't listen to much of anything I did 10 years ago. When I go back to the old music it sounds trite and uninteresting. Old and tired. Use that Squeezebox to listen to something different.

And if that fails.....get another hobby

 

[Ken Mitchell]

Just my two kopecks: maybe what's eatin' @ ya isn't the sound/performance of your gear or a failing in your sense of hearing; rather, perhaps you're simply bored and/or otherwise uninterested in/by the music to which you (usually) listen, and perhaps need to "get out" and explore new sounds?

That was exactly my problem. I liked the collection of music I had but was no longer excited to listen to it. I got all new equipment around the end of 2015-early 2016, replacing some stuff I'd bought 30 years ago. My old music sounded better, but it wasn't until I added a Bluesound Node (N100) and started streaming Tidal HiFi that I really started using my new system A LOT. Exploring all new-to-me music, in many different genres, was the key.

 

[Mystic]

That was exactly my problem. I liked the collection of music I had but was no longer excited to listen to it. I got all new equipment around the end of 2015-early 2016, replacing some stuff I'd bought 30 years ago. My old music sounded better, but it wasn't until I added a Bluesound Node (N100) and started streaming Tidal HiFi that I really started using my new system A LOT. Exploring all new-to-me music, in many different genres, was the key.

Sounds (heh heh) like you worked it out, Ken. Yep, growing weary of hearing "the same old material" can sorta -- in a seemingly contradiction of terms -- "suddenly sneak up" on ya. And while this has not happened to me as I seem only to add content, old and new (to me) to my collection, I can appreciate how it might afflict others. Hell, I'm listening, as I write these lines, to a live performance by Howlin' Wolf & Band performed (and recorded) in West Germany, 1964. It's a tape I've listened to a few hundred times, in addition to selected Howlin' Wolf studio LPs I've been listening to @ a fairly regular clip since, oh, approximately 1965. But I collect and critically listen to "new" music as well, not as much now as I did during the 1990s but I still do here & there.

 

[Ken Mitchell]

I found that my taste in music now likes to shift. Back in the day when I got my first 2-channel hi-fi system, it was 100% 1970's to 1990 rock. Now I listen to all kinds of jazz, some classical, folk, blues, and more. Loving it in that I can truly enjoy a much larger range of music.

 

[ZR9B]

My stuff sits idle from time to time....I still buy music then one day I'll play most all of it all day all nite...it gets used alot more in the winter than in the summer for sure...I also find my self getting to picky with the sound ...changing speakers , tables and what ever else....it will come around.

 

[lokerola]

Sometimes you just need a break. Read a book, watch some movies, repaint the bedroom, change the oil on the car, go to the beach for the weekend. Don't think about music at all for a week or two.