Sometimes I wonder what the meaning of all this endless chasing of the perfect sound is. Looking at it objectively, it is a pain. First of all, one has to put a lot of effort into acquiring the knowledge, because it requires hundreds of hours of reading and digging into the subject. Then come the hours of voluntary work spent modifying or creating components. I’ve spent weekends braiding cables, making custom wooden compartments for filters, adjusting speaker damping material, soldering cables, gluing and sanding wood, and so on. Sometimes I ask myself why I didn’t spend this time doing something more sensible.
The other painful part is the financial aspect of this hobby. I’ve spent nearly all the money I saved during the last year on gear. Every cent I earned was poured into this project because the equipment is expensive. These expenses could hardly be called an investment because everyone knows that once a component becomes outdated, it loses its value.
Then comes another, even more painful activity called critical listening. One has to assess the effect that each modification brings to the system’s performance. This means hours of listening to the same well-known tunes again and again in order to discern the impact of a particular modification and determine whether it is a real improvement or just another exotic effect. This is one of the most painful activities because it prevents the listener from simply enjoying the music. Instead, all attention is focused on the sonic and timbral characteristics of the reproduced sound. Bass quality, treble, soundstage dimensions, and tonal balance are what one listens for. It is not listening to music, but listening to sound.
From this perspective, it all looks mad and meaningless to me. I even think that the blog I started recently is, in a way, a product of my search for meaning in this audiophile hobby. Such thoughts leave a bitter taste because they suggest that this blog could be the by-product of something that might have no meaningful purpose of its own.
It was yesterday that I felt rewarded for all my efforts and finally found an answer to my search for meaning. It happened after the latest speaker position adjustment, which took me about a day of experimenting. At the end of the day, I played some Hi-Res recordings I had forgotten on an old hard drive and hadn’t listened to in a long time: Last Dance by Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden, an ECM recording in 24-bit/96 kHz, and No Cover by Sara K., also in Hi-Res.
It was fascinating. The system had never sounded so real. It was as if I were sitting at the performance venue while remaining on my couch. I felt so close to the musicians, and everything sounded so lifelike. I spent a wonderfully relaxed evening, unable to pull myself away from the sofa. I listened to both albums from beginning to end and then went to bed. I slept exceptionally well, perhaps because of the healing effect of the music.
Now I finally know what all this audiophile stuff is about. Its meaning is to allow the music to affect us to its fullest extent.
Happy listening!