Are you a Sharpener or a leveler?

[Questortapes74]

Great article. Thanks for sharing. I see myself as a sharpener and my casual friends simply do not understand the “madness.” No worries as this is all part of the hobby.

Regards

[PHC1]

It’s pretty obvious most “audiophiles” are sharpeners. One can easily be a music lover or even a musician and not own any high end gear. Music can just as easily be enjoyed in a car, computer speakers, iPhone/iPod, etc.. If one is engaged in constant tinkering and upgrades then by definition of the article that individual should be labeled as a sharpener. The timeframe of upgrades is irrelevant and mostly budget limited. Without a budget constraint the flow of gear in and out is simply accelerated. That’s an “audiophile” and denying that one enjoys lusting and swapping gear is simply not being honest to oneself and the rest of the folks reading these articles and or posts on forums. We love the gear and for an audiophile it goes hand in hand with enjoying/loving music.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by jimtranr

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I have to move my bedroom system's second-reflection-point acoustic panels two inches further back to get the porridge just right.

. . . .

[ariess]

Got to learn to balance being both. If you were never a sharpener you’d never spend the kind of money, time and energy you have on your system and you’d be happy with earbuds and compressed MP3’s. But if you can’t switch to a leveler when listening than you will never enjoy your system. Since we are often upgrading, the trick is to learn how to move between the two as appropriate. It’s not always easy but it’s worth the effort.

[jdandy]

There was a time in my life nearly 38 years ago when I was such a Sharpener that I literally burned myself out on my sound system. I was at a point where I did not play music for joy, I played music as a research tool. There was no digital in those days, it was all vinyl and reel to reel tape. My mission was to dig for inner groove distortion, tonearm resonance, tracking error, cartridge alignment error, EQ impact, standing waves, wow and flutter, and on and on. Music did not relax me, it wound me up like a spring in my constant search for audio gremlins I knew must be there, and I was going to locate and solve every one of them. The experience drove me nuts.

One day I decided to stop listening to my sound system, not just for a day or two, but indefinitely. The experience of turning on my sound system just pissed me off. It wasn't fun anymore. I went nearly two months without music in my home, not even the radio. The experience gave me peace and time to reflect on what I had been doing to myself. I realized the problem was not the sound system, it was me. I was an out of control Sharpener, although that term had not been created yet. It was so important to never stop tweaking the system, constantly searching for phantom anomalies, that I no longer found music pleasurable. Albums and tapes were only tools that served as a means to an end.

In the nearly two month period without music in my home I was going out at night several times a week and enjoying live music, mostly jazz in bars and small clubs settings around the city of Portland, Oregon. Portland had a fine live jazz music scene in clubs and bars all over the city in the late 70's. Enjoying live jazz gradually rekindled my excitement for music and how the experience of hearing music lifted my spirits and soothed my soul. Music is good.

One afternoon I came home, turned the sound system on, placed an album on the turntable, lowered the stylus, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening spinning LP's and enjoying the music. I mentally chastised myself each time my mind would slip from the music to the equipment. I did not want to return to the Sharpener, I wanted to be a Leveler. My sound system was sounding great, the music had me engaged, and I wanted to remain in that state of mind. From that day on I have been able to recognize both aspects of listening and have taught myself how to engage and disengage the Sharpener at will. It was a bit of a struggle in the beginning but as time passed I gained control. I have never again experienced the same situation I faced when I walked away from that sound system almost four decades ago. I will never forget how happy I was to reconnect with music reproduction in my home.

[Msegal]

JDandy, you were lucky that it only took you 2 months to get back in. It took me 10 years to reset.
I noticed I had become very critical to the point of only noticing the deficiencies in my system.
When I returned after 10 years I put together an entire system to avoid nitpicking through the cables and other minutiae. I know some enjoy this task and all the power to them. I had done this too many times in the past.

I have become very satisfied with system over the past 5 years only making occasional changes when I stopped enjoying my system (went back to an all tube system) or something broke and an upgrade was an option (replaced my Benz Micro with a Koetsu).

Perhaps it is unfair to polarize between Sharper’s and Levelers and a spectrum would be more appropriate.

I would say I am currently 80% Leveler, 15% Sharpener and 5% other.

However, there are certain qualities I can never overlook. I have been reluctant to mention this to other audiophiles for fear of giving them my phobia. It is like teaching someone how to see the rainbow artifact in old-time color wheel DLP projectors.

So you have been warned.

I cannot tolerate the sibilants that occur with “-s-“ in digitized music. It is omnipresent in any music which has been run through an early Sony ADC. It can be heard on most off the shelf DAC’s as well including ESS’s latest. I find it less apparent with custom DACs and digital filters such as MSB and DCS. Old Thetas and Wadias managed to avoid it as well.

That is why I have forsaken all digital media. I find it too bothersome.
I also notice it on vinyl pressing of digital masters but it is variable.

So I sharpen on this issue but level on others. Perhaps an inverse superego lacuna.

Mike S.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by jdandy

There was a time in my life nearly 38 years ago when I was such a Sharpener that I literally burned myself out on my sound system. I was at a point where I did not play music for joy, I played music as a research tool. There was no digital in those days, it was all vinyl and reel to reel tape. My mission was to dig for inner groove distortion, tonearm resonance, tracking error, cartridge alignment error, EQ impact, standing waves, wow and flutter, and on and on. Music did not relax me, it wound me up like a spring in my constant search for audio gremlins I knew must be there, and I was going to locate and solve every one of them. The experience drove me nuts.

One day I decided to stop listening to my sound system, not just for a day or two, but indefinitely. The experience of turning on my sound system just pissed me off. It wasn't fun anymore. I went nearly two months without music in my home, not even the radio. The experience gave me peace and time to reflect on what I had been doing to myself. I realized the problem was not the sound system, it was me. I was an out of control Sharpener, although that term had not been created yet. It was so important to never stop tweaking the system, constantly searching for phantom anomalies, that I no longer found music pleasurable. Albums and tapes were only tools that served as a means to an end.

In the nearly two month period without music in my home I was going out at night several times a week and enjoying live music, mostly jazz in bars and small clubs settings around the city of Portland, Oregon. Portland had a fine live jazz music scene in clubs and bars all over the city in the late 70's. Enjoying live jazz gradually rekindled my excitement for music and how the experience of hearing music lifted my spirits and soothed my soul. Music is good.

One afternoon I came home, turned the sound system on, placed an album on the turntable, lowered the stylus, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening spinning LP's and enjoying the music. I mentally chastised myself each time my mind would slip from the music to the equipment. I did not want to return to the Sharpener, I wanted to be a Leveler. My sound system was sounding great, the music had me engaged, and I wanted to remain in that state of mind. From that day on I have been able to recognize both aspects of listening and have taught myself how to engage and disengage the Sharpener at will. It was a bit of a struggle in the beginning but as time passed I gained control. I have never again experienced the same situation I faced when I walked away from that sound system almost four decades ago. I will never forget how happy I was to reconnect with music reproduction in my home.

Dan....

What you wrote here is so enlightening for most of us that it should be made a sticky.
There is a huge lesson in your story.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Msegal

I cannot tolerate the sibilants that occur with “-s-“ in digitized music. It is omnipresent in any music which has been run through an early Sony ADC. It can be heard on most off the shelf DAC’s as well including ESS’s latest. I find it less apparent with custom DACs and digital filters such as MSB and DCS. Old Thetas and Wadias managed to avoid it as well.

That is why I have forsaken all digital media. I find it too bothersome.
I also notice it on vinyl pressing of digital masters but it is variable.

So I sharpen on this issue but level on others. Perhaps an inverse superego lacuna.

Mike S.

Mike Moffat of Theta is creating very analog sounding DACs at Schiit Audio these days. https://www.audiostream.com/content/...t-schiit-audio

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by jdandy

There was a time in my life nearly 38 years ago when I was such a Sharpener that I literally burned myself out on my sound system. I was at a point where I did not play music for joy, I played music as a research tool. There was no digital in those days, it was all vinyl and reel to reel tape. My mission was to dig for inner groove distortion, tonearm resonance, tracking error, cartridge alignment error, EQ impact, standing waves, wow and flutter, and on and on. Music did not relax me, it wound me up like a spring in my constant search for audio gremlins I knew must be there, and I was going to locate and solve every one of them. The experience drove me nuts.

One day I decided to stop listening to my sound system, not just for a day or two, but indefinitely. The experience of turning on my sound system just pissed me off. It wasn't fun anymore. I went nearly two months without music in my home, not even the radio. The experience gave me peace and time to reflect on what I had been doing to myself. I realized the problem was not the sound system, it was me. I was an out of control Sharpener, although that term had not been created yet. It was so important to never stop tweaking the system, constantly searching for phantom anomalies, that I no longer found music pleasurable. Albums and tapes were only tools that served as a means to an end.

In the nearly two month period without music in my home I was going out at night several times a week and enjoying live music, mostly jazz in bars and small clubs settings around the city of Portland, Oregon. Portland had a fine live jazz music scene in clubs and bars all over the city in the late 70's. Enjoying live jazz gradually rekindled my excitement for music and how the experience of hearing music lifted my spirits and soothed my soul. Music is good.

One afternoon I came home, turned the sound system on, placed an album on the turntable, lowered the stylus, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening spinning LP's and enjoying the music. I mentally chastised myself each time my mind would slip from the music to the equipment. I did not want to return to the Sharpener, I wanted to be a Leveler. My sound system was sounding great, the music had me engaged, and I wanted to remain in that state of mind. From that day on I have been able to recognize both aspects of listening and have taught myself how to engage and disengage the Sharpener at will. It was a bit of a struggle in the beginning but as time passed I gained control. I have never again experienced the same situation I faced when I walked away from that sound system almost four decades ago. I will never forget how happy I was to reconnect with music reproduction in my home.

Thanks for sharing the story Dan. Like many things in life, sometimes we just need a good break from it all only to come back to it with an even greater passion.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Thanks for sharing the story Dan. Like many things in life, sometimes we just need a good break from it all only to come back to it with an even greater passion.

Serge.......I agree with your comment 100 percent. My passion for music reproduction in my home is as strong as it has ever been. The best part is I am able to control my state of mind so that I am not destroying my listening pleasure with an unobtainable quest for the perfect sound system. I am comfortable with the level at which I play.