Is it the gear or the music that drives your hobby?

It's both for me. I love music and love the gear also. I'm always on the lookout for records, turntables, speakers, and amps. I listen to music every day and have been keeping things fresh by playing suggestions from YouTube when I stream.

I love the hunt and the challenge of getting gear (especially turntables) working. Gear and records also scratch an itch I have for collecting.

I think you are not alone in being into the gear though. I have a friend who is a hound. He collects gear and flips to pay for it. In his home there is no dedicated space for listening to music. He has a room where it is all stacked up/displayed and his main system is in his kitchen. There is a huge monster Sansui receiver with a tape deck, 8 track, Parametric EQ, and some high end speakers at a 90 degree angle to one another. I asked him why he doesn't have it set up in a dedicated space and he said he just loves to look at it. Different strokes I guess.
 
If equipment is the vehicle, then music is the destination... for me, anyway. Sometimes I want to drive and enjoy the mechanicals that can make a fun car fun. Other times, I want to arrive at the destination. It seems like enjoying both - the equipment and the music - is ideal.
 
Both. In the living room the main system is part of the decor but it is the system I listen to 70% of the time. The bedroom systems I just have stacked up to make it easy to run but I still love looking at them. Our bedroom is a lot bigger than our living room and those systems actually sound better in it.

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I like gear, but it’s all about the music. I could afford better gear if I didn’t spend so much money buying records and going to live shows.

I enjoy working on gear, but don’t always have time. And anyway, I probably spend more time working on guitars than on my listening gear.
 
Lavane said:
That pretty much sums it up for me as well. But I have found it's a lot of fun building my own equipment, mostly tube, and listening to music through it.
It will put a grin on your face. I keep a small note pad in my truck to write down artists or songs I've heard on the radio.or Sat. Radio so I don't forget. Then buy it. I'm one of those people that will look up a sound track to find the artist of a song I liked also.
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One word for you that’ll Save you time and help you out greatly when you use it, Shazam.

Audiofreak71
 
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It's the gear.
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For me it's always about the gear, because if you have decent quality gear then you can appreciate the many different genres of music and all the nuances of each song, or tune...
I don't like hearing music with cheap gear, I don't enjoy it in depth.... It's like one-dimensional a.m. radio just making background noise, I would rather hear talk radio in that case.
I want to hear music and all three dimensions and be transported into the reality of the music and feel it and hear it in detail on a good quality set of gear!
 
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Both for me, I have gotten deeper into the music because the level I’m at with my gear has allowed me to go there with it . If it wasn’t for such a resolving system I wouldn’t feel as if every song was like I was sitting at the studio or a concert for my own personal session by the artist . When you get to that level it becomes about both the gear and the music .

Audiofreak71
 
Totaly both , they each create a spark on there own , then combined look out ! For me it's an ecosystem.
 
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I love listening to music. In the car, when I run or bike, out in the garage when wood working, you name it. It does not need to be coming from the best system and equipment. I get as pumped listening to Zeppelin or Floyd or Bach or Davis through my tube gear or a cheap old transistor radio. Yeah music may sound better on my main tube system, but the music is still the music on a handheld transistor radio.

BUT.

I also love building equipment. Built my own amp and preamp. Modified my turntable and now planning a tube based phono preamp.

the satisfaction of sitting and listening to music coming from equipment I made. There is only so much equipment I can build (both from a time aspect and a $$ aspect).
 
It started with the gear, still is the gear. But the gear gets me the sound I want, which is the music. So A(1, 2).
 
For me, it's always been the music. Gear was always secondary, other than the detail/accuracy that goes with better equipment in time.

I still listen to the good old stuff that brings back fond memories, but have gone on to other genres/time periods, and even different countries to expand my love of music.

Some days I go heavy on vocals, and some groups singers. Other days it's strictly instrumentals.

Mood dictates for me...and time. Classical takes time.

Q.
 
Used to be almost completely about the music, but it's leaning towards the other side of the coin now. If you asked me 5 years ago would I like to listen to Diana Krall, I would have laughed.
Come to think of it, I still don't like Krall much as an artist, but man, she has some good people working with her in the studio.
 
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