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I'm done chasing the illusion

GChief said:
If you haven’t pulled the trigger yet I also looked at those for my daughter. The permeant headshell was a deal breaker for me and she now has a Fluance.
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Fluance was in the mix but when I found they were Made In China it soured me. That and I can't even get the one I was interested in. The U-Turn will be an experiment and end up a secondary deck eventually. First we'll listen for a couple months. Then an elliptical stylus on the AT91. After that we'll see what's next cartridge or platter. Maybe even a tonearm if I'm bored. :D

Looking at all the stuff available and the differences made me think I should see how good my ears still are. I haven't spun a record in decades. Then there's the Sanyo TP-600SA (owned since new) that's been stored for all that time I'm going to try and resurrect too. Has a Shure M95ED. Life just became way too busy and stupid for me. I have an Akai receiver,cassette deck and CD player as well. They will all be drug from storage and revived if possible. Time is hard to come by right now and I want to listed to music again so some new stuff w
 
I think that part of the issue with this whole "chasing and illusion" thing is that, at least speaking for myself, is that we don't always have a good sense of just how much improvement that we'd be able to get. Like if hypothetically you were in a situation where you could audition every kind of gear that was in your budget, in some sort of space that was close enough to what you'd be setting it up in and you were to realize that for the type of sound that you like, you couldn't really do much better, you might end up throwing in the towel and quitting the whole upgrade game, right? Maybe if you heard gear that you can't even afford, you'd hear such a small improvement that you could easily talk yourself out of spending 3-5x more than what you already have, even if you had the cash to buy it...
 
grillebilly said:
Every hobby is addicting and it's easy to lose sight of why you got into it in the first place. My addiction is the music, I spend a lot of time and money looking for the next "fix". I'm sure you have some killer gear and to most people on the planet it would be a dream rig.
Hopefully you can take a break, come back and realize how lucky you are.
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Seconded: The addiction, from the start (age 7-8?) was music .... this kind, that kind, LPs, 78s, tapes, eventually digital media and now files. Millions -- no **** -- of hour of musical material covering hundreds of years. The playback gear, while important, was never an obsession (same cannot be sad about music-making gear, namely geetars and electric geetar amps & effects, but that's another matter altogether). So much music to find and hear I really never had the time to spare / devote for (too much) concern for the playback gear. Guess I lucked out ... in a way.
 
Well after some thought considering I would have to wait (and other things) for the Orbit I ordered a Fluance RT80. Should have it by end of the week.
 
Looks like I found this thread late. I feel like I should be at the point where I stop chasing the next component ( the dragon). because I’m quite happy with the way that my system sounds. I’ve been able to enjoy listening to music for hours on end due to Covid. I kind of think the chase now has more to do with fighting the boredom of staying home all the time.
 
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geezin...you probably got a better table that the orbit. the Fluance has the universal headshell which allows easy cartridge mounting, inspection, and swapping. having more than one cart already mounted can be advantageous. you can have your everyday cart and a premium one for brand new and special LPs for critical listening.

download an alignment protractor from vinylengine.com or enjoythemusic.com under free stuff. you then can confirm or correct cartridge alignment for yourself.

get a couple of headshells, the best of which are Jelco for ~$60 on ebay. it may seem like a lot of $ but they are very high quality, magnesu/aluminum alloy, adjustable azimuth, Allen key hardware and high quality Litz wires to the cartridge.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAEegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw01d1aajBv_sHuPO5T9s1kB
 
I used to have a stereo system and record collection that I spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars on, and then lost it all in a house fire. I didn't want to listen to anything for a long time, but then bought a nice set of powered speakers and just hooked them up to the computer. I enjoyed that for a few years, then the bug hit me again and I started building a new stereo system, but this time on a very limited budget.

I've really been enjoying buying fairly inexpensive gear and trying to get the best out of it.

It's amazing what comes up when you aren't in a rush and just wait for deals to show up.

It can be a good thing to step away from the hunt for perfect sound and just enjoy the music on run of the mill gear. I know quite a few people who have taken breaks from big gear and really refound their love for music without the clouded mind of critical listening.

Too much critical listening will ruin the experience for anyone. All of the professional sound engineers I know don't listen to music when they aren't working because they just can't relax and enjoy it without mentality analyzing everything.
 
I grew up in the 70’s and I went to concerts all the time. My first and best stereo was a kenwood 9600 with pioneer Hpm 150 speakers. I only had them a couple of years as I lived at home and well mom and dad weren’t too cool with me blowing the walls down. Anyway I’ve been chasing a sound and I just figured out what it is I’m looking for . The music was in the air I mean you could actually feel the music blowing in the air like a breeze . I don’t know if that was because of the wall of speakers at the concerts or my big Hpm 150 being pushed by a 160 watts but you could actually feel the music ! And maybe when I get that I can be happy.
 
Thought I was post this gem from my glory days . I think they call it a dream box or something. My wife got it for me at a craft store. So I had all these concert tickets in a shoebox, check um out ! Do any of you guys have some old memorabilia to show ?97A9CFA2-0694-4292-9531-C56A48CA0CD3.jpeg
 
I do, sadly I didn't save most of mine. However my old childhood friends did keep theirs. We were at my nephews wedding, Aug, we visited my old brothers, we went thru every ticket. We laughed, we cried, we toasted brothers and sisters whom are no longer with us.

We went so far as to ask, why us, what did we do to deserve the honor of growing old. Lastly we prayed for all our friends who pave our way!. May God bless em all. Know this friends, you are missed, daily.

Dirk
 
Personally, I can't see how you could just give up everything. I had to give up virtually all my best audio equipment, including the room a year and a half ago! I doubt I will ever get over it.
 
Dirk Willims said:
I do, sadly I didn't save most of mine. However my old childhood friends did keep theirs. We were at my nephews wedding, Aug, we visited my old brothers, we went thru every ticket. We laughed, we cried, we toasted brothers and sisters whom are no longer with us.

We went so far as to ask, why us, what did we do to deserve the honor of growing old. Lastly we prayed for all our friends who pave our way!. May God bless em all. Know this friends, you are missed, daily.

Dirk
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Amen brother well said . But there’s a reason we are still around we just haven’t figured it out yet .
 
each week at discover new music on YouTube and I want to listen to it in all of its glory, so I'm going to keep my very large speakers. very powerful amp, and enjoy each and every note,...and not listen to it on 2 in diameter speakers with extremely low fidelity ,that just ruins it for me.
 
Kybronco said:
Thought I was post this gem from my glory days . I think they call it a dream box or something. My wife got it for me at a craft store. So I had all these concert tickets in a shoebox, check um out ! Do any of you guys have some old memorabilia to show ?View attachment 2086297
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Yeah I have a bunch of them. Like Pink Floyd for $4!!!And here's Ted a couple years ago still ripping it.

DSC_2112.JPG​
 
I tend to creep up on things making small gains here and there. I'm in no rush for dramatic improvement and don't need the best to be satisfied. I want to understand what works and why. I study things and want to see the big picture. I think I know what I like but tend to be open minded and can try different things. I can be impulsive but tend to prove things out and progress in a linear fashion. I always am budget minded but will spend a bit if it's a great deal. Am I talking about gear? Well yes and talking about who I am and what has worked for me, it applies to almost everything I do in life.

A few months ago I figured some things out with my gear. I proved out some things and found a source that i thought I trusted to be not so good. My system made a nice improvement. Then recently I picked up some low priced used gear and wow another nice improvement.
I am happy and glad to read the OP is also!
 
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