Rafe Arnott

Hi Rafe,
I’ve been reading and enjoying your wrtings since you took over from Michael, and I’ve got to say this one is my favorite so far. Gets to the heart of the matter. I’ve become a shallow pocketed audiophile since discovering music in the mid 60's when a 4” transistor radio and the Beatles were my personal heaven.

Even though I’m much more serious about my gear now, 50 years later, its the music that still drives the feeling.
I tinker, fiddle, adjust, and change out gear constantly, but all in the pursuit of putting on that perfect album for the moment, dimming the lights, sitting back, and just ....... enjoying.......

You nailed it. Thanks.

The better the music sounds the happier I am. And I don't listen to music that doesn't make my feel good regardless of how well it was recorded.

As a guy that's also a musician and audio engineer, I do seek perfection in my audio system even though that's unattainable. I'm very happy that some of the best audio products are no longer priced in the stratosphere. Unfortunately, speakers don't tend to fall in that category.

Not surprisingly, the best speaker drivers still tend to be very pricey and making a great cabinet certainly isn't cheap.

That being said, I'm very pleased with my bedroom system which is comprised of KEF LSX's and cheap Boston Acoustics subs. After buying stands, sub platforms, cables, etc, the system cost a hair less than $2,500.

It doesn't sound as good as my main system, but it sounds good enough that I certainly enjoy listening to it.

Perfection? No. Fun? Yes.

Ironically, my wireless system has a ton of wires!

I’ve got a Technics 1210. Or maybe it’s not a 1210, it’s a 12-something, that I have not listened to in 30 years. When I bought it (around 1975) it was regarded as a really good turntable, but not as good as a Linn. A Good belt-drive would always trump direct drive (and the Linn factory was a mile from where I lived in Glasgow). DD wasn’t musical (how things have changed).

Even then, I thought “what’s the point of paying a fortune for the best stereo, when you pay £2 for an album which will pick up dust and clicks from day 1”. And if you are going to seriously listen to a record, you need to be able to filter out all the dust, all the scratches...

There was a survey around a year ago which said that around 50% of records were never played. For many (not all) an album is simply a personal statement rather than a way to listen to music. Recorded music has always contained that element. And often a comparatively primitive recording will make the best sound system seem irrelevant; the tail shouldn’t wag the dog. Does anyone remember that for 20 years “Kind of Blue” was issued at the wrong speed. No, because it was great music.

So my point is that while we do need to care about the sound quality, the music needs to take precedence. Shakespeare printed on better paper is nicer, but only up to a point.

I think Guttenbergs definition of an audiophile is accurate.
"Someone who listens to music as a primary activity".....rather than as an environmental enhancement.

"Remember, every audiophile started life as a regular person like me, or you, who just loved hearing music played back – they didn’t transform, caterpillar-like, overnight into someone obsessed with the recorded event."

I suspect I'm not a regular person like you. I'm pretty sure I was drawn to the gear from the start. I remember, some 50 years ago [or more] being fascinated by the mechanisms that reproduce music, the way the spiral groove reflected light, with rainbow patterns vibrating on the black plastic as it rotated. Jackie Gleason LPs, Sinatra, & Ella, Nat "King" Cole being played on the "affordable" gear of the early 1960's. One of my father's record spinners was a steel-needled acoustic with a 33 + 1/3 setting, playing out of a horn that was built into the box. Playmates had "children's phonographs" that included faceted mirrors that would display animations cast off from the record label. In 1970 I was assembling record players out of otherwise broken electronics laying around the house, cast-offs from my elder stepbrothers. When I was 17, bought a system consisting of Acoustic Research-3 speakers, AR amp and AR turntable, topped off with a Shure 91 cartridge. That was 1973.

I started working in record stores very soon thereafter and perhaps for far too long after that. So I was working at Tower Berkeley as CDs first arrived. When they showed up I thought they were the work of the devil. I was working at Berkeley's "The Musical Offering" when LPs first gave up the ghost, working at Borders Books & Music as the "Record Industry" went down [along with Borders, who over-invested in CDs]. In between I tried my hand at engineering recordings, following the usual audiophile creed of acoustic music, minimally miked in an acoustically interesting setting. In the process I came to the realization that microphones are the biggest determiner of sound character, and the results will always sound different from the original event. Not just my recordings, but the recordings of the engineers I also worked with.

Back when I was working at "Wherehouse Records", recording artists could make their paydays with album sales, these days they depend on touring. Back in Led Zep's heyday LPs were the best we could come up, now there's modes of recording and playback superior to what LPs are capable of, but that doesn't erase the rainbow patterns reflected off spinning grooves or the uncanny sense of presence---You want uncanny presence? Try an acoustic disc played though an acoustic player. However, I've heard too many of the flaws baked into the LP formula, the dynamic restriction, the limitations at frequency extremes, off-center LPs, $2 used LPs that apparently were played on my father's record player.

. . . “pretty soon you won’t be hearing the music at all, you’ll be critically listening.” . . .

And I suppose that's what the experience of recording music did to me. The "Critical Listening" aspect magnifies a person's Audiophilus Nervosa but for a cause. "Is that a dimmer switch? Do I need a better A/C filter? Are these microphones going to work? Where's the "Sweet Spot?" and so one. As one expects to be paid, these issues are more consequential. While all recording engineers have to hear the music, it's the more musically inclined recording engineers who become Producers. With the nature of modern recording gear, electronic knowledge is nowhere near as important as musical knowledge. You move around microphones 'til you get what you want, set levels to allow 10db of headroom, encode with 24 bits and while monitoring, follow the score, leave flags or start up a new file, take notes. That's for an "Audiophile" recording, mind you. Making something everyone will listen to will take a lot more work.

The kids are alright. Streaming music isn't for me---yet. But I'm getting there. I hear advantages with digital record/play that are musically meaningful, none more so than pitch. Not only in the "Kind of Blue" sense of playing in a non-standard pitch [funny how Early Music concerns about pitch peaked as the Compact Disc first appeared] but in all that wow & flutter, not to mention off-center pressings. And the sound quality of a smartphone or DAP playing back through a big audio system or good headphones/IEM's is better than most of what I was hearing during analog's Glory Days.

"if that’s all we’re doing, I wonder how long this hobby actually has?"

I'm gonna guess that all depends on what one's meaning of "this hobby" is.

I still buy CDs because they are cheaper than the download price on Tidal or Qobuz. Stupid, because there is no plastic, paper or cardboard (i.e. environmental waste) with a download. I then rip (in 16-bit FLAC) to my Auralic streamer, copy the rip to a second external drive (for backup) and then store the physical CD in a slim case in a closet.

I would prefer to buy a FLAC download, but my wallet talks. Downloads should not cost more than physical media. As far as 'hi-res' (above CD-quality) costing even more, don't get me started. That's a different scam.

Unfortunately, everyone on the Internet has their own opinion, this is mine. Long live physical CDs as they are cheaper than the couple of services that even bother to provide FLAC level sound quality files.

I recall the old question of whether an audiophile bought equipment to make his music sound good or bought music to make his equipment sound good.

I’m sure there are plenty in the latter camp, and I admit I occasionally do buy a demo track because reviews say it shows off dynamics, shows off bass, shows off yadda yadda yadda. But, of course, it’s my system, just like your system is yours. Sure, it’s fun to impress friends and neighbors, but the main person I’m trying to impress is me.

Greetings
Nice essay Mr. Arnott. Enjoyed the piece (and comments all around).

Music or equipment ?
um … Rather it is the music *and* the equipment (not necessarily in that order).

It's "which is the guitar and which is the ARP synthesizer" ( … "oh ... *now* I can hear both") and stuff like that.

Long story short: I know this to be true as we just inherited and restored some vintage near-audiophile speakers (and some appropriate new attention to connectors and connections and placement and … ) and now that we've gotten things dialed back in, I find I'm listening again to old and new for the music
(and it's a gas gas gas)

Again nice work all around
kbear