Some 'audiophile' (musically involved) people are getting annoyed by the sound of their hi-fi stereo sound systems!

I can understand this completely...I could have kept going on that road to "the perfect sound" but that was not what I was after. I was after a type of sound. Detail and separation, yes...but also a warmth and feeling. One of the reasons I went on an exhaustive search through tubes. Finding the best NOS for ME.

I notice that about this hobby. Some people take it to the point (I swear someone posted this) he could hear the cutter head bolt on vinyl was off...and my question...why ? To me it would be like watching a large screen tv in 1080p and spotting one pixel not as vibrant as the rest...if you can see that and spot that, you are not enjoying.

I listened to music 3 times today.

Once on my Concept table. Sounded awesome.

Once on my backup table as I worked in the house. Sounded awesome.

Once with my Surface tablet/Xbox music playlist on my garage self built pre and Motorola console amp through a pair of small kenwood goodwill speakers (cost $5 for the pair). Sounded awesome.

My point? ENJOY the music. Not everything needs to be aligned electrons that reduce s/n by .001% :D
 
Mortsnets said:
I can't understand the logic behind: my system is so good I can't stand to listen to it. That pretty much defines a bad system to me.
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I think its less of the perfection of the system as the listener has worked himself to the point of noting every single deficiency. So if the material is not perfect, his system shows no mercy.

Good example. Ever listen to old Beatle recordings? Not exactly stellar quality...and amazing all the same...if you are listening to the music and not the poor studio,,
 
I can relate. I had to cycle thru many amps sources and speakers and cables before I landed a system that thrills me every time I listened to it. When a system is not balanced and synergistic, and it leans toward transparency to source it can be unengaging and actually unpleasant to listen to. Now when I listen I find I don't want to stop and i get lost in the music - a good sign.
 
Age (time consumed; years and years) is another factor. ...With age, our mind is wondering more.

And on course the music we're listening to. ...Always good to investigate in new music.

* The gear is not necessarily the issue. ...Our mental state has more to do with it, I think.
 
Accurate systems always sound good. If he thinks his room is so accurate, he should post some measurements so we can see what he calls too accurate. I bet his room isn't at all accurate in FR or time domain. Having said that, flat line FR isn't accurate sounding. Typically, a FR sloping slightly downward is most pleasing to the way we hear music. But clean impulse response is also important.
 
I can understand where the guy is coming from. There is a lot of poorly recorded music or music from the 50's, 60's, and 70's the was made for radio. I have several systems in my house and the really poorly recorded music sounds better on my less resolving systems and that is what I play it on. Although my reference system does make most of my lesser recordings sound good as long as it is not too bright. I suppose if your taste in music leans toward rock, metal, motown, ect, then you are going to be disappointed with the sound on a reference system for the most part imo. This is why I would love to have some tone controls on my high end system, too bright, turn down the treble, need a little bass or warmth, turn up the bass. I am not an accuracy freak, I just want my music to sound good to me.

What my reference system has done for me is open up other genre's of music such as Classical and vocal music which just sounds fantastic.
 
I know exactly what the reference is to. I have had a system that was actually half the price of the one I have now. I wanted detail, no signature & to hear warts & all. Well I did & hated it after about 3 months flat. The bad recordings were "bad", the good were "sustenance" . From there it took me a while to realise the real sound that I wanted, part of that was a slightly warm & musical sound, no listening fatigue. Now I choose wisely & take into account of my preffered sound
 
I really think a lot of guys listen to gear more so than music. I agree with the person above who said he was looking for a certain sound. I also knew what sound moved me, so I built one to give me that sound. But I kept in mind ...it's a synergy thing...one component doesn't make music by its lonesome...it's a unit of components together, and that's where the synergy has to be found to make that connection with the listener. We may have to learn to build a system but after 25 years you would think one has it down to a science...but only if he is a music lover first. If one is listening to gear, well he will always find himself not enjoying his music.
 
sharkmouth said:
I know exactly what the reference is to. I have had a system that was actually half the price of the one I have now. I wanted detail, no signature & to hear warts & all. Well I did & hated it after about 3 months flat. The bad recordings were "bad", the good were "sustenance" . From there it took me a while to realise the real sound that I wanted, part of that was a slightly warm & musical sound, no listening fatigue. Now I choose wisely & take into account of my preffered sound
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Kev, that's exactly what I did in setting up my music system. I went with speakers, sources, and electronics that allow me to enjoy "all" my recordings, not just some !!!
 
Well I guess Brett does not like his Viennas anymore. He loved them when he bought them.

[h=2]Help me position my Vienna Acoustic Mozart Grands[/h]http://forums.audioreview.com/speakers/help-me-position-my-vienna-acoustic-mozart-grands-38095.html

In his case, it is probably the speakers and his room and all the windows right behind the speakers sucking the bass out.

But the other guys issue is somewhat understandable. There are several disks I won't play on my main system because they are recorded so bad.

But I have 3 different systems and my lesser ones are very enjoyable for almost any music or youtube or Pandora. Recently, I have been using my middle of the road setup and really enjoying it even tho it does not have the resolution of my main rig.

One of the ways I always used to cure myself from Upgrade Fever or thinking my setup was lacking, was to go for a ride in the car and play a cassette. An hour later when I returned home, my system sounded really good again.

The first guy really did not say what his related gear was or what types of music he was listening too so not to easy to assess his issues.
 
As to the first one, I'm not familiar with the Steve Hoffman forum. However, to me it sounds like that person could be lamenting that they could not afford a system such as the one they have on loan and feels upset about it in some way. It could be that perhaps seeing or experiencing the end goal so soon proved to be the opposite of what they had in mind. It could be something else entirely. If the focus is on the recordings themselves, then I consider it a good thing perhaps. (I too experienced the same when I got my Paradigms. Even on my lackluster Onkyo CDP there were discs that sounded good before and then were horrid with the new speakers, fortunately, not a lot. I've since run into a couple more with the new CDP, but only a couple thank goodness. Still plenty of CDs to enjoy for me). So I understand where he is coming from at that point.
As to the second one, I have read most of that thread. This is a somewhat different scenario in my mind. In this case it seems to be that the person is pursuing something unattainable by natural counts, that something is perfection. Granted “perfection” is different for each of us, so that means that the person is chasing their tail so to speak. This is a trap most all audiophiles and non-audiophiles alike can easily fall into. (It happens more often with audiophiles). Being a non-audiophile myself, I have almost fallen into this trap once.
This person in scenario two is not listening to music. That’s part of the trap. They are listening for flaws in gear on a consistent basis. They are over-analyzing it all and getting in their own way, thus not allowing themselves to ever be satisfied. They are not letting the gear do it’s job. Twenty-five years of trying gear is a long time and an enormous amount of gear. It sounds to me like this person has not given any appropriate amount of time to let the gear do it’s job, almost sounds like they listen for 10 to 20minutes and move on. That’s a very short period of time even over a one year span.
So frustrated has this person become that they desire to chuck it all away and settle for something they know they will hate instead of putting something together from what they considered the best pieces and just enjoy it. The problem is that they are in such a trap now that they cannot decipher what they like. This is a result of not spending time listening to music on the gear they have at the time and becoming familiar with it. Its also the result of a pursuit of desperation (keeping up with the joneses, being the first adopter, etc),instead of enjoyment.
That’s what I make of it anyway. Only my opinion.
(My personal approach is to always let the music play.Let the music and your ears dictate the gear. If you can feel the music when it plays then you have the right gear, simple as that. When you can’t feel the music or when you stop feeling it, first check yourself and if that checks out then a change in gear may be in order. For me, it took 20 years before I stopped feeling the music and discovered a change in speakers was in order. After that, I was satisfied until my CDP started acting wonky, then the solution was obvious. Thanks to Joe here, I now have the best CDP I’ve ever had and heard and my CDs have astonishing new life. I nearly fell into “the trap” beyond rope or ladder depth when I started to pursue vinyl again on my main system. I just recently pulled myself out by deciding to use the more appropriate gear to play vinyl which for me, is my vintage system).
I think Spock said it well: “After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.”
 
Just give me an all Marantz reference system and a pair of PSB Synchrony speakers and I would be happy. The warmer sound of Marantz is forgiving and pleasing to the ear and mind. I also find that the PSB Synchony's have a forgiving tweeter and sound but is detailed with good musicality and slam.

Marantz SC-7s1 preamp, MA-9s1 amp and a Marantz Sa-7s1 SACDP. I think that this would be the only system that I would need and that I could play just about any music on it.
 
Some 'audiophile' (musically involved) people are getting annoyed by the soun...

Mechnutt said:
Just give me an all Marantz reference system and a pair of PSB Synchrony speakers and I would be happy. The warmer sound of Marantz is forgiving and pleasing to the ear and mind. I also find that the PSB Synchony's have a forgiving tweeter and sound but detailed with good musicality and slam.

Marantz SC-7s1 preamp, MA-9s1 amp and a Marantz Sa-7s1 SACDP. I think that this would be the only system that I would need and that I could play just about any music on it.
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That would be a greatly musical system for sure.
 
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