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At a crossroads. Leaving the hobby?

techguy0192

techguy0192

Listen to the whistle of the evenin' train
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Warning – Long post ahead

So, this is my first login since 1/6/21 and my last post was 1/1/21. With that said, I’ve been away and doing a lot of thinking on this hobby. After being a hardcore “audiophile” for about 17 years now, I am wondering if I’m done and ready to call it quits.

This all started for me within the last 12 months, as I have attempted to stay off the equipment merry-go-round. At one point a few years ago, I was buying a new piece of gear ($$$$) every 6 or 8 weeks. It was fun, for a while. However, the hunt was more exciting than the catch. A perfect example was waiting weeks for a new amp to be built, that cost over $4K, finally picking it up from the dealer, putting the box in the listening room, then saying to myself – I guess I’ll unbox this thing at some point over the weekend.

Circling back to my idea of slowing down the purchases, it has caused me to stress way too much over purchases. The stress is questioning if I’m making the “right” purchase, to keep from making another quick purchase; this all just creates anxiety. It’s really made me stop and think. This should be a fun hobby, listening to music, enjoying a stereo – not creating stress. Maybe I’m tired of chasing perfection and audio nirvana. I also think about all the money that has been spent, peaking at $30K worth of gear in my listening room. It could be I have grown tired of chasing that last percentage of performance.

I don’t think the music is the issue; I’m constantly finding something new on Tidal. In fact, I’m spending more time streaming Tidal via the Roku in the living room or over bluetooth in the home office area. All the while, I have an acoustically treated dedicated room, packed with components and speakers from some highly regarded manufacturers, sitting idle for about 3 weeks now. I simply have no desire to go in there and mess with anything and/or listen.

With all this rambling said, I’m looking at 2….no make that 3 options:
  1. Sell off 90% of the stuff and call it done.
  2. Get back into DIY speaker building. I’ve done several DIY projects and really enjoyed it, felt accomplished, and took pride in what I had made. I’d also scale back, maybe to some Rogue tube gear, and call it good enough.
  3. Turn into one of the flat earthers. Active pro speakers, like a Focal Shape or Dynaudio, plus an RME or Benchmark DAC/preamp.
Thoughts? Anyone else been in a similar place?
 
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you can be in this hobby for two reasons: 1) to enjoy the music. or 2) they want the latest, greatest gear for either ego or think it will improve their enjoyment of the music. They tend to listen more to the equipment than the music itself.

Most people start with #2 but at some point realize that simply throwing more money at this hobby really doesn't improve one's enjoyment of music as much as one would hope.

One can get off the merry go round at any time if they decide to enjoy the music rather than chasing the carrot on the stick.

carrot on stick.jpg

One thing I've learned in over fifty years in this hobby is that sometimes one must spend a lot of money only to realize that one didn't have to spend a lot of money to achieve musical satisfaction.
 
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An important question. Ultimately we all have to take a step back from whatever obsession(s) we have and weigh our values.
I have a stereo in every room in the house (and outside). I'm afraid someday I'll design one last system for my coffin.

(I put a Watch on this thread. Curious to hear some perspectives and philosophies.)
 
You and I oft don’t agree on much. But, could it be that you’re fighting with a bit of listening fatigue you may not even be aware of? Case in point, my fiancé has only the last three years of listening to music with me as a reference for “ hifi” ... she has repeatedly said that I’ve spoiled her and she has a difficult time listening to the stereo in her car anymore - which she previously enjoyed a great deal.

Last week, my main stereo preamp had to be pulled from service. So, I connected as many of my sources as I could to my HT AVP to get us by (the two were in tandem via home theater pass thru). Nothing I’ve played sounds good to me with this arrangement, even with the AVP in Direct. So, I just had Tidal cooking a bit more than usual via my Oppo 205. Yesterday, I was playing some Alan Parsons for her via Tidal and she was like - can you please turn that down? It wasn’t loud. We had a chat about listening fatigue and she was like - that’s exactly it.

Today, I stole a nice preamp from another system to get back to enjoying music. Night and day. She’s absolutely shocked that a simple change of source ( Tidal to my CDP ) and getting rid of the AVP had such a profound difference but it has.

I find streaming to be convenient and a great way to find and listen to music my library doesn’t contain. But for both she and I, it’s not something we can listen to for too long before fatigue sets in. Even with the Oppo connected to the stereo preamp via XLR and bypassing the AVP ( how it is with the main stereo preamp in system ) we can only listen so much. All other sources are just so much easier to listen to ... so we forget about that crap and just enjoy the music.
 
I don’t know if this might help, but every now and then I take a break from my main system. I still listen to music but it will be in the car or tv room or off some crappy source like laptop speakers. Sometimes this break is for weeks or months. One time it was over a year.

Then I go back to my main system and I am like Wow, this sounds amazing! I get into it all over again and don’t feel the need to go buy more stuff. Or if I want a change I just open the closet and swap out the SS pre for the tube one or pull out a different amp. You get the idea.

Maybe give this a try before you sell everything and a year later regret doing so. I did that once too and it was not the answer. Hifi is kind of like a disease without a cure. Ymmv. Good luck whatever path you chose.
 
It seems that equipment isn't the problem,
you have plenty to mix and match.

Maybe a purer source ?
be it vinyl or cd ?
could be that the streaming is causing part of the listening fatigue ?

either way, forget the gear,
concentrate on music.

For me, in the last year, I've dived into classical,
no vocal, just music,
FM radio, that has a website equivalent, so I can search the title of something that catches my ear.

Take a break, rest, try something new.

Music never leaves you.
 
If you can afford the gear that you have I don't see a problem. I just helped a friend of mine set up (and assemble) some really top line audio gear that I could never afford, but I have more modest goals and after after a number of upgrades, I feel I'm pretty close to being done collecting gear. now that I've heard this really great system, I can totally understand what the fuss is about and yet I'm not really frustrated by the fact that I don't own gear like that. I do feel that my system sounds far better than what I had a couple of years ago before I got the upgrade bug. Furthermore, I think that I spent my money really wisely and likely couldn't have done any better for the amount that I put into it. Most importantly, it makes my music sound far better than it did before, which means that I get more out of it, which was really the goal all along. I'm not really chasing perfection as I know that I can't really afford to get there (or maybe not even all that close) and more than that, I don't want allow the who gear acquisition thing to overtake the enjoyment of my record collection.

It shouldn't be an all or nothing type thing, own some gear that's as good as you can afford, that makes you excited about listening to music and be done with it...
 
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There's a fourth option: just let the gear sit there, not getting used and someday you'll regain interest and be glad you have it.

That's what had happened for me. Except I stepped away for seven years.

Since 2013, I've really just been listening to music in the car or on the boom box in the kitchen. My main system, which takes up half the living room, has only been powered up a handful of times In those seven years, and never with much interest. But now I'm here with renewed interest and appreciation. I'm so glad I still have the equipment.

So I guess I just want to say just because you have the gear, doesn't mean you have to use it. And just because you lose interest for a few months doesn't mean anything is wrong.
 
Years ago I went through a similar phase of constantly acquiring gear, one day it would be speakers another would be an amp and or receiver and then swapping this one out for that one. I had gear stashed all over the place (closets, basement, guest room).

As Jonas aka @the skipper noted I got to a point where it wasn't about the music but about the gear whether it was aesthetics, perceived sound differences etc, ego and impressing others.

I wound up perma loaning a lot to friends and neighbors and settled on a simple setup and haven't looked back.
 
A lot has happened in the last year...what you are going through with the hobby may be influenced by other aspects of your life. Like others have said, don't rush to a final decision. Take a step back and focus on other things for a bit. Everyone can suffer some form of burnout from anything that they have thrown them selves into for long periods of time.

The speaker building could be a good thing. I find reading to be a nice alternative to music sometimes.

Hang in there this to will pass and the joy of music and system will return.
 
I don't think it's so black and white.
You can like (love?) Gear and what it can do for a system.
You can like ( love ?) Music , sometimes better on a less revealing system because the mastering flaws are masked or perhaps it's the way you remember it from when you were younger and you didn't have a very revealing system.
There is no right or wrong way to enjoy the hobby ( at least universally for all of us. )
My suggestion would be , don't make any knee jerk decisions. I suspect during your gear journey some things really jumped out at you and sounded "right"
Others, perhaps of high ( higher ?) Pedigree, not so much.
I'm not sure whether you have one room with "the" system or you listen in many.
Maybe over some time ( when the mood strikes?) Set up the main room the way you feel it's best.
Then in other space ( spaces?) Maybe something way simpler. Sonos, any integrated with remote and DAC?......
Convenience and simplicity. Let it go a while. If you still don't feel like sitting in the listening room you can decide then.
These are very unusual times. I can see where it could throw anybody off.
At the end of the day it's about your enjoyment and satisfaction.
I'd just hate to see you kicking yourself for dumping gear you might actually end up wanting because you went through a phase.
 
300man said:
A lot has happened in the last year...what you are going through with the hobby may be influenced by other aspects of your life. Like others have said, don't rush to a final decision. Take a step back and focus on other things for a bit. Everyone can suffer some form of burnout from anything that they have thrown them selves into for long periods of time.

The speaker building could be a good thing. I find reading to be a nice alternative to music sometimes.

Hang in there this to will pass and the joy of music and system will return.
Click to expand...
Sort of funny
We were writing about the same thing at the same time:D
 
Lately I have been having those same thoughts about just sell off everything and simplify my life and system, probably looking at my impending retirement (2 years or so) and relocation. I have been through a decent amount of changes and it was a fun journey that I am so happy I took, but the music just became secondary to the "system". Frankenspeakers triamped through an electronic crossover with stacks of separates. I felt so cool turning everything on and knowing how I had put it together, but eventually it just became tedious to get it all going.

I have been away from AK for several years and replaced all that stuff with passive crossovers and a 70's receiver. It was easy to just flip a switch and listen, then with all this stay at home and stream stuff I have gotten into the streaming scene.

I don't know where this will all end up, but I will be watching this thread.
 
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