Quote:
Originally Posted by JSCC
Personally, I find the constant chase for improvement a little wild and exhaustive. The question really is: Do we know when to stop and when to start listening and enjoying the music!
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I have managed to made a complete stop on watches and able to sell of my collection and rationalise I dont need more than 4 watches. So, the AP Royal Oak PG, the Breguet and Rolexes are all gone by next weekend (of course, I wont have the balls to touch my wife's - as I believe in "dont trouble trouble when trouble dont trouble you).
Hopefully, my next goal can be achieved on hifi! And I have a full year to do so before I start moving to my new home! Reading this stirring thread really keeps me up and thinking seriously where and what my end all system should be! To me, its not about excess and obsess but rather being practical.
Easy to say .... but would it be as easy to make happen? Now I wont even know ... at least not now. How controversial life can be ... sigh!
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It can definitely happen. It happened to me in the last few months. We'll see if it lasts
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I REALLY surprised myself one day when I realized that my system sounded just the way I wanted and I had, for the most part, a bunch of components that I really craved (SF Guarneris, MDA1000, MC501.)
I'd like to say that I was smart, but I believe I just got VERY lucky. Lucky to hear a McIntosh a few years ago and realized that it had the sound it wanted. Lucky to run into you guys and to trust your advice regarding the MDA1000 and MC501. Lucky that a guy 2 miles from my house put a pair of SF Guarneris for sale on Audiogon. Lucky that KMC45 had a pair of 501s at a price I could not resist. And so on.
If there was a smart part, it was that I had a pretty clear idea of the sound I was after and did not compromise in either direction. If I bought a component that did not give it to me, I got rid of it after giving it a fair shake (a month or so). This was, at times hard to do (i.e. buy for $3,000 and sell for $2,000 a month later), but it was in the end the right thing to do. BY the same token, if I liked the sound of a component, I kept it - even if there were opportunities and temptations to "upgrade" (the C220 is a perfect example.)
Once I got the sound I liked (after several years), I decided "If it ain't broke don't fix it." But, to be fair, it's not requiring much, if any, self restraint. I just fire up the system and I am ecstatic. I enjoy reading about audio and helping others, but I've lost my cravings. Not because I've have some sort of "audio depression" or "audio apathy", but because I have satisfied those cravings.
I am not sure if the above makes any sense, but I thought I'd share it anyway.
Alberto
P.S. I went through a similar phase with watches, BTW. I kept a Patek, a Hublot Chrono, Rolex GMTII and a couple more. I stopped reading watch magazines and never felt the urge to "get back" in the hobby. Same things with guitars (went from 20+ to just a few "precious" ones) - and guitar amps (down to 2). I stopped reading guitar magazines, but I still play - occasionally.