I need to stop testing “snake oil” claims because they keep ending up not being snake oil and costing me more money!
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it’s okay to be poor, good audio is available at every price point now!
edit - let me rephrase that.:“you don’t need to be rich to have good audio, it’s available at ever price point!”
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I’ve actually not found this to be the case. It’s just a matter of figuring out what your own personal preferences are, and then taking the time to dig through forums to see what multiple people are saying about a given product, or finding someone with a wealth of experience who you trust that’s willing to share their experience. Or better yet, both.
Obviously, that’s time consuming. But personally, spending the money I’ve started spending, that time is a sacrifice I’ve been willing to make, since I’m in that boat.
I hear what you are saying, man. I really miss the days of being able to walk into a shop and just look around. To be able to see, touch and yes, even hear on some level the gear was so cool. That is all gone now, and it’s a damned shame. It took a lot of fun outta this hobby for sure.
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One thing I will say is that while everyone loves getting new stuff etc, one of the funnest things I have done to date was cobbling together the system that now resides in the bedroom. This thing came together from a pile of old “stuff” that I was preparing to E-waste. As I looked at each piece, something just told me to give this stuff one last chance, maybe there is something here. The build began, and it ended up like this:
Pretty funny, but man, this AVR-2808 still kicks major ass! Honestly this hodge-podge system sounds great! It’s amazing how everything is synergizing. And I am not done with it yet, there are still a few tweaks I want to make. So the lesson, I guess, is never just give up on the old stuff. There could be a lot of good life left in there that is going untapped.
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If something ever TRULY sounded good, that doesn’t go away. Sure, sometimes technology moves on and can make using older stuff unrealistic or impractical, but gear that sounds good doesn’t suddenly stop sounding good because manufacturers have created a new model. Keeping that in mind can save us a lot of cash when the FOMO bug starts to bite, trying to convince us that the newest model must sound the best because otherwise they wouldn’t have made it…
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So true. The 2808ci was well reviewed when it came out in 2008 and was regarded as one of the best mid-range receivers for that time. So I did have a solid foundation to work with. But I don’t think I would have been satisfied running just that alone. The collective efforts of these pieces working together has created this great system, which I lovingly call the biggest headphone rig on the planet! 
It turned out to be a great surprise and something that makes me smile big every time I use it.
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Not an audio-audio thing I’ve learned, but close enough: I recently asked Hidizs how their company name’s supposed to be pronounced and they said it’s /haids/, so like the English word “hides”. 
Welp, not gonna hold my breath for reviewers to start calling them “hides” even if an official memo were sent out to everyone about this, but at least now I know. One more brain bug squashed.
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Haha! Those are as bad as earworms!
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