An Open Letter to All Members

[Florian]

Well, it all down to how much you care to spend. This hobby really doesnt need much brain power at all, if you want to go "All out Assault" then you simply need money. You dont even need skill in this hobby and there are no wrong answeres.... exept cheap NAD receivers... lol

[Ajani]

Well, it all down to how much you care to spend. This hobby really doesnt need much brain power at all, if you want to go "All out Assault" then you simply need money. You dont even need skill in this hobby and there are no wrong answeres.... exept cheap NAD receivers... lol

LOL.... Good point actually..... I think the biggest challenge in this hobby is trying to put together a great setup on a more modest budget.... with a total buget of say $3k, try putting together a great 2 channel setup... do you buy new or take a chance on used? Do you go for reproducing the full range of sound (floorstanders) or just concentrate on the mid - hi frequencies (bookshelves)? Do you buy a good source or just 'borrow' or buy your friends $30 Ratshack DVD player and spend the entire budget on amp and speakers? How do you split your budget between components? Do you buy fancy cables or just use the freebie RCAs that come with the amp or cd player?

With lots of money to spend, all you need to do is walk into your nearest shop, listen to the most expensive setup and if you like it... buy it.... Then people see your expensive setup and think you are a real audio expert (or lunatic... lol)....

Anyway, I think sometimes we loose track of the point of having a hobby... to have fun...

[Florian]

Exactly, who the hell cares if my sound is colored, or too large.

I love having a big fat speaker where i have to rent a crane just to move it to my new apartment. Mmmh..... all i care about is blasting my ears out with a huge soundstage and slam attacks that make me shiffer....

[Feanor]

LOL.... Good point actually..... I think the biggest challenge in this hobby is trying to put together a great setup on a more modest budget.... with a total buget of say $3k, try putting together a great 2 channel setup... do you buy new or take a chance on used? Do you go for reproducing the full range of sound (floorstanders) or just concentrate on the mid - hi frequencies (bookshelves)? Do you buy a good source or just 'borrow' or buy your friends $30 Ratshack DVD player and spend the entire budget on amp and speakers? How do you split your budget between components? Do you buy fancy cables or just use the freebie RCAs that come with the amp or cd player?
...

Anyway, I think sometimes we loose track of the point of having a hobby... to have fun...

The fun is so many variables, not the least one's taste in music and personal preference.

I know my present system is extremely well balance and tuned to my tastes, but where's the fun in that? I know that my current components deliver great performance and are amazingly good value for the money; still, I spend plenty of time thinking about possible improvements.

In that regard, it's useful to have multiple systems to play with: the HT set up, the family room TV system, the bedroom system. I'm going to work on getting my daughter interested in a system for her bedroom -- right now she listens only to earbuds her computer or Creative MP2 player. Sad, really

[hifitommy]

...of saying that one is afraid that their firmly held beliefs might be proven wrong when depending on one sense alone?" (mark w)

nope. its a tension thats added that subtracts from concentration. other opponents of routine dbt cite the same. and as i stated before, proper dbt is quite difficult to set up and carry out. it turns into a waste of time and effort for picking between products.

long term listening is more revealing and productive.

[markw]

...of saying that one is afraid that their firmly held beliefs might be proven wrong when depending on one sense alone?" (mark w)

nope. its a tension thats added that subtracts from concentration. other opponents of routine dbt cite the same. and as i stated before, proper dbt is quite difficult to set up and carry out. it turns into a waste of time and effort for picking between products.

IOW, they can't hear any differences in a DBT. QED

long term listening is more revealing and productive.

Perhaps, but who says long term listening has to be sighted? These can just as easily be done without the listener being aware of what item they are listening to, can't they?

[Ajani]

...of saying that one is afraid that their firmly held beliefs might be proven wrong when depending on one sense alone?" (mark w)

nope. its a tension thats added that subtracts from concentration. other opponents of routine dbt cite the same. and as i stated before, proper dbt is quite difficult to set up and carry out. it turns into a waste of time and effort for picking between products.

long term listening is more revealing and productive.

The problem I find with the concept of long term listening, is that if you're already prejudiced by 'price tag' then I don't see how continuing to listen 'with your eyes' will make any difference.... If I've already convinced myself that a more expensive component/cable sounds better/different, then no amount of listening is likely to convince me otherwise...

Though I see some merit to the point about performance anxiety... keep in mind that ALL people face some kind of performance anxiety, whether at work, in social situations, in romantic encounters.... the way to get past performance anxiety is to practice... it's what athletes do to ensure that they can run their best race with millions of people watching them and actors do to ensure that they can still do that amazing performance on Broadway, with critics and fans alike watching their every move....

Though, performance anxiety is a factor in dbt... it certainly does not make it useless...

[Florian]

Try to get her an iPOD and then the new WADIA docking station :-)

[Ajani]

Try to get her an iPOD and then the new WADIA docking station :-)

Or get her an iPOD, a Krell KID and Krell Papa Dock... lol

[Feanor]

Try to get her an iPOD and then the new WADIA docking station :-)

Flo, Aj, for starters she's anti-iPod and chose against the Apple product. (Despite that I have an iPod myself.) What might work would be a nice USB DAC+headphone amp combo plus decent 'phones.

The real point is that she, like so many youth and not-so youth, just doesn't care about the sound quality.

[basite]

The real point is that she, like so many youth and not-so youth, just doesn't care about the sound quality.

if I may ask, how old is she? Younger kids (under 12 years old, for example) are more influencable, so here easier strategies could help. if she's older (about my age), it takes more work...

Here's a 'strategy' I also suggested to Slippers On for his son (and which eventually worked...): find a genre of music that you both like (or that she likes and you can live with), then find something decent recorded there, buy/download it , and play it on your system to grab her attention. (or whatever it takes so she'll listen to you system, without directly asking her to come listen to your system. Buying the cd, leaving it somewhere for her to see, and later on asking if she would have seen it somewhere. Causing her to know it's your cd usually works well.), so show interest of somekind. With a little luck, she'll appreciate both the music and how it sounds through a decent system, and might just be interested in having better sound quality for her music too. (she won't be an audio enthousiast at once, but there's a chance that she'll start to appreciate good sound quality)

(it's a rather simple explanation, but I hope you'll get the point...)
what kind of music does she listen to btw?

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[Ajani]

if I may ask, how old is she? Younger kids (under 12 years old, for example) are more influencable, so here easier strategies could help. if she's older (about my age), it takes more work...

Here's a 'strategy' I also suggested to Slippers On for his son (and which eventually worked...): find a genre of music that you both like (or that she likes and you can live with), then find something decent recorded there, buy/download it , and play it on your system to grab her attention. (or whatever it takes so she'll listen to you system, without directly asking her to come listen to your system. Buying the cd, leaving it somewhere for her to see, and later on asking if she would have seen it somewhere. Causing her to know it's your cd usually works well.), so show interest of somekind. With a little luck, she'll appreciate both the music and how it sounds through a decent system, and might just be interested in having better sound quality for her music too. (she won't be an audio enthousiast at once, but there's a chance that she'll start to appreciate good sound quality)

(it's a rather simple explanation, but I hope you'll get the point...)
what kind of music does she listen to btw?

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

Good strategy...

@ Feanor - Be careful what you wish for.... next thing you'll find that she feels the need to 'tweak' your main system to make it sound better!!!! lol

[Feanor]

if I may ask, how old is she? Younger kids (under 12 years old, for example) are more influencable, so here easier strategies could help. if she's older (about my age), it takes more work...
...

(it's a rather simple explanation, but I hope you'll get the point...)
what kind of music does she listen to btw?

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

Bert, thanks for the suggestion. Thing is, my daughter is no 12 year-old, in fact she's 21, (older than you, eh?). She's not interested in my music, (or hardly so), and I don't really know what she listens to because I never hear it -- she only listens on headphones. (I could snoop her harddisk, but at her age I don't have the right to snoop for such a trivial reason.)

Note this: I'm not that keen to have her set up speakers in her room because her mother and I don't want the noise at 2-3 AM when she is quite likely to want to listen.