Like the finish on those red towers.
I have learned that with experience, knowledge and an improvement in your own technical abilities to better appreciate sound reproduction there comes a depletion in the funds available in your bank account to purchase anything not related to audio…
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I think there are too many things to cover… but one of the core ones is about the media, reviewers, and any audio product influencers. Where there is money, there is corruption =)
Keep this in mind. Many of these people will not help you in any way and will make you feel insane when you cannot correlate with their poetry explaining these huge differences in sound… “poetry” because they do not back up words describing sound in any way, thus making them poets.
2. You will feel like a black sheep if you listen to music. That is, if you listen to music over the gear. Quite ironic because this is a hobby that should be about the experience of listening to music, not listening to gear.
3. You don’t always have to share your opinion, especially if it is heavily conflicting with others. My opinion and experience is usually completely contrary and opposite to the so-called “reviewers”, but I do not share it for the sake of my sanity. I don’t have the need to argue with anyone, and at the end of the day, I am in this hobby because I care about my personal experience of enjoying music… which means that I can keep it private and personal — so can you!
4. To connect to the previous one — you can lose your sanity if you get too into it. Whether that’s trying to hear these significant differences that reviewers talk about, or whether you are just trying to fit in. If you have an open mind and can see through the bullshit, you will find yourself in conflict with many people… it will definitely wear you down if you keep getting convinced that you are insane. Thankfully, my sanity is still here, but I can imagine that many people will just forcefully fit in and agree with something that they don’t truly agree with, and that’s just because they do not want to face the backlash.
5. Psychology plays a major, if not the most important role in this hobby. Our brain, mind, and our psyche has a key role to interpretation of sound. Understanding the psychology greatly helps you understand both sides of this hobby, but be aware that just because you can see the two sides, not everybody can.
That’s my little rant. Make sure that YOU are enjoying your gear and that no outside force has an impact on that. If music listening is your priority, reviews and other opinions will tend to throw you off and make that experience less enjoyable.
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Love it! No.3 and 4 are such understated points. On other forums it easily turns into a jousting match over who is " the best" connoisseur. Just enjoy the music and the hobby man.
4 made me laugh, reminds me so much of the management on my job lol. I am constantly having to remind myself , I’m sane and stay that way just don’t try to engage them at all D:
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On some forums it seems like this hobby is the least about music…
But I do not get that vibe from HiFi Guides. It’s mostly all positive on here =)
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@voja You have learned a lot! Congratulations! As someone who has worked with music as a tool for healing and transformation, as well as joy, I like your insights.
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Endgame and chasing the dragon are 2 different things.
I recently learned that MY endgame amp is the Bottlehead Crack with speedball.
I enjoy music the most out of this amp and they make my headphones sound like how I like them.
Found my endgame headphones very early in this hobby and they are the dt880.
Everything I buy is to complement the dt880’s. New headphones are for different flavors to my dt880.
Will I experience better past the 1k price range? For me, this would be chasing the dragon and i’m already addicted to that Crack with Speedball soo…
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Shouldve went with towers from the jump.
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Why is that?
Share your experience and journey. I am curious myself!
Hi my name is flac, its 4 yrs since i fell off the hobby wagon.
It all started with a zeos, “better than any soundbar” bookshelfs and cheap amp combo. Promised myself id downsize my junk. “dont buy nothing, one gets a new car the other buys a mink coat”. Now im surrounded by chi-fi speakers, looking at german brand floorstanders and intergrated 70lbs AB made in japan intergrated amps.
Towers got built-in stands and you can play them “full range” in a 2.1 or least use the high pass filter on a entry level audiophile amp like a parasound with selectable 40hz high pass filter.
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Know the reviews taste. Figure out what you enjoy and what reviews enjoy, so you can transfer their opion on your taste.
I know my taste is very diffrent from Zeos taste, knowing this helped me a lot to not just jumping on everything he says is awesome.
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OK.
Dealers, well heeled audio friends, magazines/sites, and your ego will lead you to all sorts of incorrect choices. But without exposure you’re in tough shape, see if you can locate true voices vs non true. Listening to non amplified music in non concrete envs helps you understand what sort of sound is accurate.
Rooms, furniture, seating are usually thought of as fixed and not important to sound. If you are using Minimus 7’s or Bose 901’s stop reading. Otherwise rooms are nearly as important as the equipment - when you are nearing SoTA which I did several times.
Cables? Tend to find no difference in power cords, differences in speakers with exotic speaker loads only, balanced equipment cables - no. SE interconnects quite different, that along with the fact balanced is better is why I use balanced only. Headphone cables yes - quite important, they are quite different. Lots of ABX and AB blind testing over past 30 years to arrive at these opinions.
Headphones outside of limitations vs speakers are a great way to cheaply get into very good sound.
Cheapest: BHCs and HD-600 (get used for cheaper, new pads for 600)
Nearly as cheap: HFM HE-500 used ($380), 5 mods($100), EQ, Schiit Lyr 3 ($500). You have to go to a Maggie 1.7i to get sound in this quality bracket.
I am always right. audio is entirely subjective and if I like it, I like it, even if others don’t.
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Most recent:
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Switching from shielded to unshielded ethernet cable to reduce noise floor and elimitate ground loops
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Swtiching from wobbly banana plugs to very tight fitting hollowed banana plugs
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Using room correction try to eq only the lower frequencies and give it a listen before dumping 20+ filters in a full range frequency response curve
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Don’t run switch mode power supplies in the same power strip as the rest of your stereo system
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Power supplies matter. A bad power supply is likely to mess with your sound.
Number one thing I have learned so far… This hobby should be about the love of music. Gear is fun to play with, it’s fun to talk about and share with people and so on and contributes to that love but it should never rule it. I see this far too often where the music takes a back seat to chasing that elusive piece of overpriced equipment. It’s bullshit. A person can drown in all the snake oil that is out there.
I was starting to get sucked into that ridiculous behavioral pattern until recently I looked in the mirror and said "What are you doing, man? This shit stops now. Be happy with what you have, which aint too bad by the way! " Now I am back to just loving music. Life is good. Lesson learned.
One other thing… work on the foundational things first. It won’t matter what the gear costs or how good it is if you’re feeding it bad power over an even worse network connection. A house needs a good foundation. Same thing here.
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That’s something that gets overlooked far too much. No-one listens to a sine wave coming from their gear (at least I hope not 
), everything should be about enjoying the music that you like to the best that you can.
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I dont have experiance with audio components above $800. learning now for speakers the space plays a noticable role in getting the most out of a budget system. its the journey, not the destination.
And world peace happy holidays.
New music is a better way to spend your money than new gear.
Room treatment is massively important.
Streaming is actually brilliant.
Your mates will think you’re a mental.
Making cables is easy, cheap and highly rewarding.
Cables DO matter.
Cats love subwoofers.
PCs are terrible source components.
Subwoofers were the “thing that was missing”.
Playing the same track over and over again is an okay thing to do.
Turntables are terribly sexy.
Surround sound gaming is how it was meant to be.
If it’s too loud you’re too old.
Cannabis use doesn’t decline with age.
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mmm…I also learned that you never have enough money for your hobbies. 
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Well said, Sir.
As much as we like to jaw about the gear, which is fun and educational, folks here also dig music. You can tell by looking at “what we are listening to tonight.” You guys listen to some great stuff. I think I have learned as much about what music is out there as I have about gear etc. I think that is pretty cool.
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