A couple decades ago, I was a salesman at a high-end audio shop. We carried McIntosh, Crown, Audio Reasearch Corporation, Nakamichi, NAD, Luxman, Denon, the Well-Tempered TT, Duntech, Klipsch, PSB (dropped and added Paradigm), ads, and B&W, to name a few. The owner was a true audiophile, and believed in having the top models on display. I had a lot of fun, learned a lot about equipment, and even more about myself.
Listening to Duntech Sovereigns with Audio Research M300 Monoblock amps and an SP-11 preamp using the WTTT as source was an enjoyable experience that most folks never had the chance to encounter. Big Mc amps pushing Klipschorns, Crown driving a/d/s or Paradigm Studios. The Sovereigns alone were 50 grand, more than I ever hoped or intended to spend on an entire system, let alone a single pair of speakers.
One thing I learned about myself is that I am first and foremost a music lover. Okay, well, I really already knew that...but it was confirmed to me in different ways by having access to all that megadollar gear. For instance, one of my customers was a young college student who had inherited a healthy amount of cash (which he subsequently pissed away by trading cars every six months), and who was considering upgrading his TOTL Nak system to McIntosh. He brought in a stack of cd's, and I was a bit surprised to see that all of them were jazz; I had figured him more for a rock fan.
I said something favorable about his choice of music, and was rather astonished at his reply, "Oh, I really don't like jazz at all - in fact I hate it, but it is about all I listen to anymore because of the sound quality." I actually felt sorry for the guy (and I didn't sell him anything, just didn't want to).
Another thing I learned about myself was that I guess I am just a bit of a cheapskate; not a total one, but a bit of one. The systems that always impressed me most weren't the very top models; heck I expected them to sound great. What would blow me away was how good an NAD or Nakamichi receiver could sound with a pair of Paradigm 5se's with my own old Thorens TT, for example. Such systems would provide for me the same musical enjoyment as the TOTL models/brands.
I was always the top salesman during my stint there; everyone said that was because of my enthusiasm, and a decent knowledge base garnered from 15 years of reading and rereading every Stereo Review, Audio, Stereophile, etc. magazine that I got my hands on. That enthusiasm grew out of my love of music. For me, it is not about analyzing how well a system performs one facet or another of all the things we say we value in a system, but how quickly I forget about the system and become immersed in the music.
I guess I am lucky in that I don't have to own the most expensive gear in order to reach that immersion. On the other hand, I have seen some people who can't get there regardless of the price paid. It's not the sound of the system, it's the sound of music.
Well, that was too long and boring I guess, but this is a way old thread and nobody's gonna read it anyway. Besides, I was immersed in Beethoven's Third Symphony as I wrote, so it took a while and my thoughts kept wandering back to the music (NAD receiver and Klipsch speakers - yeah, I'm a cheap date).
