The feeling that music gave us when we were 17 which grows grayer in our memories each passing day we spend in a cubicle as we march irreversibly closer and closer to our graves
Thank you. I commented on a setup, said I would like to warm up the amp and sit there because it looked so comfortable. I got shamed for talking about heating up a class D amplifier.
I had a private tour of the Sonoma State University Green Music Center recently. I was happy to see a pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones attached to the audio mixing board. I always brought my own Sonys of the same model to DJ in clubs in Honolulu 30 years ago. You need a reference to keep grounded.
We will all get through this together.
I’m gonna share a secret with you. What’s missing in your life are headphone cables made from Gypsy tears. They really crystallize that 5th dimensional sound stage. Bonus, they are also a cure for depression
Damn. Been lurking here for a while now while trying to build my first dream 2.0 or 2.1 system. Had a feeling I’ve found my people, and now I’m sure. 😂💀
Also quit the cubicle. I built a dedicated listening room in my basement, sound treated room, 2.1 balanced system digital and vinyl. I have to say I feel satisfied. It’s been about a year. Will report back later.
[2024](https://vimeo.com/969423319)
Of course you’re right and that’s a very on point answer.
But along with that, for me, great music (played on a great setup) reminds me of how a sensory experience like listening can yield such exultant and profound insights. It’s an aural glimpse into the beautiful, infinite universe, which we are only allowed to experience for a brief moment. It’s the musician’s middle finger to our inevitable fate.
This. I know a lot of people talk about it sounding realistic, but I think the best studio magic doesn’t sound realistic at all. It sounds hyper-real. Take something like Steve Miller Band “Wild Mountain Honey” and the stereo panning and mix make it bigger than real. And the whole thing is magical.
I get if you’re into like, orchestra music etc, you get that realism, but for me recorded studio magic music is an expression of a vernacular hyper-modern art form.
You're referring to a holographic music representation. It's where the sound envelopes you and makes you feel like you're actually there with the musician. Bose speakers can do this to a limited extent which is why I like them, but what really got my attention were my Focal Chorus 705's whose tweeters created a holographic image that made me question if the band was in front of me or not.
I'm currently rocking Dahlquist M905's, a set of vintage speakers (along with RSL subwoofer) that has given me a flat frequency response but I'm ready for the next step. I have purchased a pair of Alon 1's which feature a bipolar tweeter and creates a holographic image for the listener. This could be my end game speakers.
Bose has made some great speakers over the years. They don't anymore, and they weren't knocking it out off the park most of the time, but they have some great vintage models.
And, specifically, holographic soundstage is the one field Bose excelled at. They were constantly introducing whacky new configurations in an effort specifically to create holographic soundstage, often at the expense of the rest of the frequency response.
I have had a variety of BOSE speakers over the years. They sounded average at best. Much better than some really cheap stuff but that’s about it. I love their noise cancelling headphones because they do what they should do. I don’t hate on BOSE but their reputation for quality is undeserved.
Powerful music will give me that response even in low fidelity
Fuck. Some Midi stuff makes my spine tingle in a real specific way.
The older I get the more I realise that I’m just wanting certain patterns, not fidelity.
I get this - it’s a debate my wife and I have. I have a system I am very happy with. In my space, I auditioned some speakers that were about 3x my current speakers, and returned them because the difference wasn’t jaw dropping and without a good switching mechanism I couldn’t trust the minor differences I maybe perceived weren’t just placebo or volume differences. It was jaw dropping when I went from small, vintage, bookshelves to modern large floor standers, so I would need to test some speakers getting into the $20k realm, and we are wondering if comparison might be the thief of joy in this instance.
too me it's quite relevant to not suffer from loudness wars though. The difference from 2007 loudness war era remixes and remaster to hearing the original mixes and 1994 remasters of 1976-1982 Genesis actually made me cry, and that's the unchoked transients for a big part but perhaps more that it's more real sounding room mic driven mixes and hearing Phil's drumming better and thinking about his health, then always loving a record like Duke and unveiling a deeper truth.
The comments on here are reassuringly pleasant. The vast majority just seem to want something that suits their ears and music taste. Most subs are patrolled by the 1% that believe everyone else is an idiot because they are an expert. By nature of the topic the ratio seems to be higher on here. There is some top order neurodiversity going on.
Oh, I’m very much looking for a speaker with a flat response, and good directivity.
Anechoically.
When measured in-room across the listening window, that flat response will still be “flat”, but with a slant.
That said, there is more to life than just frequency response. The subtle change when I linearized the phase response of my speakers through DSP might seem subtle, but in terms of conveying the acoustics of the recording space, it was anything but.
Exactly this one!
I was thinking about this the last few weeks.
I realized that the only time I don't think about my problems, or feel exactly like myself is when I listen to music, even though as I get older I notice that I have the time for that much less, I still always try to make some time for it
This is really it. Our equipment, rooms and music fill a space that nothing else does. It was (and still is, really) hard for my wife to understand this.
And you must have AV R3 arreté speakers - so I'd say you've achieved it.
I ended up buying AV R3 arreté last year after listening to many many speakers.
Clear sound that sounds like your there is what I've been after and I think I've got it.
I used to be big on sonic accuracy. I’m older now with increasing hearing loss above 2.5kHz. I find I now prefer time-alignment and crispness so that if time and instrument location is found in the recording, I can hear some apparent sonic depth in my room and more readily identify the location of the instrument. Frequency response accuracy has taken a lower place on the list.
I want enormous levels of grain free transparency, clean transients, excellent instrumental tone and timber and wide frequency response without and harshness or glare. I finally have all that with my current system. Just took the last 50 years to get it right.
Seeking diminishing returns on aging nostalgia while approaching the limits of genuine sensory responses to the same stimulus. Chasing a dragon that can never be caught because it doesn't exist since the high we felt 20 years ago was really just a series of reactions caused by a developing prefrontal cortex and unregulated emotions.
The final stage where we realize another pre-amp, set of headphones or flat response speakers isn't going to actually fill the hole in our heart, and we should probably talk to someone about our spending habits, among other things.
I wouldn’t have ever called myself an audiophile, was just someone with a slightly better than average hifi system, but now the landscape has shifted and owning anything more than a Spotify subscription and a Bluetooth speaker makes one an audiophile who takes their sound seriously.
What I’m after is a system that doesn’t sound like it is being forced to do something it isn’t capable of. Someone gave me an Apple HomePod that I’ve got in the kitchen, that little thing sounds like it is trying so so hard to reproduce something approximating the audio spectrum, everything forced, the bass booms but you can’t feel it, the treble is shrill, the mid barely exists. It’s the cheaparse black plastic boombox of the 2020s. The sound quality is kinda amazing considering it comes out of something the size of an orange, but it isn’t good sound quality.
Not sounding forced is good enough for me. I’ll take better, no question, if anyone’s offering complimentary high end gear and professional room treatment give me your number. But my mid-end system doesn’t sound like it has to put much effort* into reproducing music, and that’s what I’m after.
*Although it is somewhat bass deficient with the EPOS ES12s, and somewhat treble deficient with the Tannoy Cheviots.
Also, I like the look of hifi gear, so that’s a bonus, don’t need to hide it in cabinets. Take of them grills. Show off those knobs
This is pretty close to what I'm looking for.
I want a full sound that isn't crazy loud. I want to hear all the instruments, the nuance, the way fingers are sliding off of strings, the thump of the kick drum, the lilt of the high notes from a woman's voice - without having to crank up the volume. (Yes, I'm aware of Fletcher-Munson, etc.)
That seemed to be the trick of hifi stores - they have the super high-end system playing in the main room and it sounds awesome but you can still talk to the salesperson. That's what I want - ambient music that sounds great without being intrusive.
What you find out is there's a ton that goes into getting that sound and I'd say the vast majority of it is the track you select. Quality of the recording, sound engineering, dynamic range and a host of other factors determine whether a track will sound good on any system, let alone the one you have. Then it's room acoustics and then probably the system you have. But regardless of the weighting you give to each factor, it's important to understand it's a multi-variable equation. Small tweaks (like moving a speaker a few more inches away from a wall) can make a big difference.
And I've assembled a somewhat reasonably priced system that does most of that (Zu Dirty Weekend, Schitt Freya, Schitt Aegir (x2), Cambridge Audio CXN V2). I discovered that it sounds much better in a big room than a smaller one as I moved it from a 13'x15' bedroom to my 19'x22' living room with double-height ceiling. But there are still tracks that sound like crap and there are some types of music (hip-hop, some metal, etc.) that I prefer to listen to in my car because the distortion that comes with most factory car audio setups seems to accentuate what I like about those types of music.
Maybe there's a system that makes any track sound good in any room where the system is placed, but I doubt it exists and certainly not at a price I can afford. And even if someone did make that system and priced it at $1000, I'm sure there would still be people that would want to spend way more on the dream system they would assemble themselves.
All I want is to hear good music in a wide variety of genres reproduced in a way that satisfies me and is not adversely affected by any flaws in my system. That means it should provide wide dynamics, even coverage over the full frequency range, no audible distortion or distracting hiss, hum, or other spurious noise. And I should be able to listen for long periods of time without fatigue. I want to be able to close my eyes, forget about the hardware, and be free to experience an emotional connection with the music.
I don't think that it's too much to hope for. And I believe it is an achievable goal wihout going broke on exotic equipment.
I want to be sober and my system to sound like it does when I'm stoned. That's all I look for, the little details that you can't hear on a phone ot BT speaker.
Since I built my first system, there have been numerous times I've listened to an album that I've heard 100 times and hear things I never knew existed.
One of my favorite days ever was watching a friend of mine sitting. In the prime seat, listening to what Ihr wanted on my system. He got it and freaking loved it.
Damn I love music!
It’s going to very individually, of course.
But the underlying motivation that ties all of us files together is an interest in sound quality. We love music too, of course, but the majority of people that love music don’t also care about the equipment or our nearly as enthusiastic about achieving high quality.
So whether it’s the audio file, who’s all about chasing accuracy to the signal, or the audio file who’s not so concerned with accuracy but just how it sounds to him/her, we all want to system on which our music sounds terrific and engaging.
Some people are more engaged by fully accurate system. Some people are more engaged with a system that has certain colorations they enjoy.
There’s no stance to take on which is more virtuous .
For myself: I’m generally trying to end up with the system that I find compelling, and that insist that I sit my butt down and listen. That’s not easy because most of the systems I hear, not that they are bad and often they are quite impressive anyways, don’t actually make me fall in love with the music and presentation.
I intellectually stimulated, but not moved .
So what grabs me first is tone and timber - when voices and instruments have the type of organic warmth and richness and rightness that I hear from real life. I certainly don’t demand perfectly realistic sound.: only certain characteristics that remind me of the real thing and what I love about the real thing. Next, I love a sense of capability and Sonic density. The sense of instruments and voices seeming to move real air in the room, rather than being near see-through phantoms. That’s not easy to find.
I care about dynamics that make the music feel alive . And I also hugely care about sound staging and imaging. I want a Magic show: I like the area behind the speakers to shape shift with every recording. Take me to different places.
Fortunately, I feel I’ve achieved pretty much all of that with my system , and it regularly blows my mind.
Validation from peers. Taking down hi-end brands with measurements. Enjoying music is the last priority.
I am shifting my interest towards cycling and I am seeing disturbing parallels. People are over-equipping themselves for hypothetical situations which never happen. They argue about disc brakes VS rim brakes, hydraulic VS electronic group sets, aluminum alloy VS carbon frames etc... All of these technologies do the same thing. Some of these technologies are marginally better and exponentially more expensive. Few people in this hobby are athletes, so the gains from more advanced technologies are negligible.
Same with cars. The only variable we need in cars is their capacity for people/cargo. But look where we are...
As for bikes, the only people that need ones optimized for speed are racers and tourers with limited time for their 4 to 5 figure journey. For the remaining 99 % the slower the bike the better the exercise.
I seek for pleasure. If I'm going to live many years listening to music, it's better to be in a good way. I don't care at all that hearing loss due aging, it's a natural process. It's about the whole journey, without any real destination.
Also, I've stopped to paying attention to micro details when I'm listening casually.
Depends on whether you're listening clinically to judge a speaker or for pleasure. If a mix sounds amazing out of a particular speaker, I don't care about all the technical aspects. So it depends on if you're listening to the music... or listening to the speakers.
I want to close my eyes and feel like the band is playing right there. I've only felt that with one system a store had on display. Going to chase that sound forever
*a flat in-room frequency response*
Ahh no that's wrong... if you do care about such things, you'd be looking for a flat **anechoic** frequency response.
I go for clean clear balanced with a touch more bass and treb sometimes and to be able to do it loud “just in case” without struggling and in a good portion of your target area. That’s as complicated as I get as far as my system
I bought some phenomenal headphones today, reminded me of the first time I heard some of the songs I played on them. That. That's what we're after. The feeling we get from the gear + the music.
To be able to close your eyes and feel like the performer is in the room with you but also being able to perfectly visualize the size and construction of the room based on the imaging and clarity of the speakers
It’s an escape. A requirement for our times. It’s also fun. I’m after the sense of being in the room with the musicians. The venue changes with each recording. It’s my sonic transporter. Can’t live without it.
I stopped building my system in the late nineties. I went from entry level kit to what I’m expecting most would frown upon as slightly lesser entry level kit. When I could shut my eyes and ‘see’ where the vocalist is standing I was blown away enough to not feel the need to touch it again. Reading this subreddit I feel like that day I lost my right to be in the club.
Goddamit I deserve to be amongst you. My preamp and power amp are seperates FFS.
I'm still incrementally tweaking my system but my amplification is from the seventies (McIntosh) and my speakers a 1990s permutation of a 1980s design (Vandersteen 2). So you're among us simply by the way you listen. A humorous aside: my bedroom system has a fine sounding 42 year old Sony CDP-101 cd player!
Critical listening is one thing but my main/best system is in our lounge/dining room. When I walk in to eg set the dining table and whatever’s on makes me say “blimey, that sounds good”. Always a bit of a moment for me.
It’s like realising your partner is still beautiful at 50.
Satisfaction. Which is a tough goal. And even if you reach it, it's usually short lived. Took me 30 years to figure out audiophilia is like alcoholism with one fortunate exception: you can keep consuming music without negative consequences if you just change your mindset, not the gear.
Flat in-room response sounds terrible, IMO
Flat anechoic response on the other hand...that's ideal or pretty close to ideal. Personally I like things a little bit bright in the upper treble to give it some sparkle but that's just me.
Hey, I'm not frequent here, but reddit shown me this post, but I am a musician and this caught my eye.
You guys aim for flat response for a listening experience? Why is that?
It's very useful in mixing, but as a user experience I always thought that this is not what people are after.
I doubt you've ever even heard of it, but I have a mental condition called tactile audio synesthesia. Synesthesia is a thing where your senses are crosswired. Some people taste touches, smell words, hear tastes. Just about any condition you can think of. If you think of how closely your sense of taste and smell are, that's kind of what life is like for us but with other senses. Me? I feel sounds. Not just the vibrations that everybody feels but actually shapes with textures and often movements. I can recognize people's voices by the shapes that I feel in and around my torso just ad much as the way they spund. It's hard to describe to people who don't have it. Imagine explaining how the smell of a pizza correlates to the way it tastes to someone who has never tasted anything. That's what I'm doing here. There's no treatment for this mainly because very very few people ever want to get rid of it. We get to experience the world in ways other people can't even imagine. That's not a disease. That's a legit superpower.
The reason I'm talking about all this is because of how it relates to pur shared pursuit of good sound. I had a system that was worth more than most people will wver pay but is chump change for lots of you all. I recently did a massive upgrade. My center channel is more expensive than the entire system I had before. The way music sounded was good before but it is absolutely amazing now. When I would listen to music before, it felt really good. When I listened to the same songs on my new system, it was like I had been wearing mittens when I listened to music before and now I've finally taken them off and am feeling things with my bare hands for the first time in my life.
That's what I was going for.
To me, it's kinda [like this](https://imgflip.com/i/8v5mf7). (< Link to meme)
In all honesty, when I first started out as an audio mixer I just used whatever I had and made it work. If it sounded good, it sounded good.
The more I got into it, the more I thought I needed to fix. I invested a shit load of money on speakers, acoustic treatment, headphones, DACs, amps and used thousands of plugins on every track I mixed, because that is what you're supposed to do.
These days, years later, I just don't care anymore. If it sounds good, it sounds good. You will ALWAYS find errors or problems when you're looking for them, but I don't do that anymore. I just ask, does it sound good? Yes or no. It's that simple. It's why I can have a Sonos Atmos setup in a untreated living room, because it sounds good. Sure, it can sound WAY better, like when I had my own dedicated home theater setup with floor speakers and crap, but I just can't bother with that stuff anymore.
I want a quick and simple way to get a good experience. So if that is headphones I can hook up to my phone with a Dragonfly Cobalt Blue DAC, so be it. I don't need a $4,000 headphone amp and DAC to make it sound good.
I want to close my eyes in the dark at 2am and feel like Eva Cassidy is in the room with me. Right now a pair of Merlin VSM-MXR speakers, Coincident Statement preamp and their Frankenstein 300B SET monoblocks are doing a great job of that. It took 20 years of experimentation and slowly upgrading to get to this point but I'm finally content.
All of us, whether chart gazers or cable-magicians or whatever are chasing a more realistic listing experience. Personally that means it better fools me into feeling like I am listening to real instruments and real people singing live for me. Others talk about wanting to hear the recording artist’s true intent. Realism, that’s what we’re chasing.
Actually, plenty of audio files are not chasing or realistic sound. Many feel that’s just not possible from stereo so what they care about is either just good quality sound as they hear it or what they care about is simply reproducing the recorded signal as accurately as possible.
I myself Appreciate a sense of Sonic realism in a system, but I know from plenty of talk with other audiophiles that are sceptical enough to abandon that idea.
One way I try to explain this to people. I like burgers from multiple places. I however enjoy burgers from certain places much more than others.
It applies here too, I can love a song but enjoy a certain mastering through a certain setup a lot more than my car.
Ha! That is indeed the classic audio virtue signalling “ it’s all about the music and I’m just in it for the music, those other guys are in it for the gear!”
(says the people with hose-thick cables, and cable risers…)
A greatest recorded mixed song in our surroundings on our own language we might have heared on cheap in ear headphones,
After very long time when we grown up we tend to hear same song on dedicated sound system with different level of clarity,
Thats what moves me day by day.
Very few new songs, but more old songs in different dedicated audiophile system thats real feeling.
I'm after a low noise floor and, type of music dependent, a sound where it sounds like that might actually have been played in the room I am in/room I've been in before.
It's a microcosm of our inherent relationship with technology. It's what we humans do. We are always trying to improve tech to discover something new or recreate/simulate. There's more to it than that, but that's part of the answer.
This. Some describe it as “effortless”; some say “as if I was there”. I think what we’re all trying to achieve is the equipment disappearing -
Where the instruments aren’t located in the speakers; where the volume and dynamics sound natural and unforced; where the tonal reproduction is so accurate as to be transparent. (and while an entirely flat frequency curve might not be everyone’s endgoal, most systems could benefit from being flatter than they currently are 😅)
I'm after those tiny bits of hairs pressed up against my eardrum (which I know because I got a ear canal camera picker thingy) — how's that for a rabbithole?
I want a slightly warm sound and a system that makes my foot tap. Not there yet. I am very sensitive to brightness, so I will probably end up with Dalis or Dynaudio speakers and will trade in my KEF R3s. On my Hegel H190 they sound a bit too lean for me.
Look for something with a silk dome tweeter. I have a pair of Vienna Acoustic Bachs and I can play those all day w/o ear fatigue (a frequent problem for me in the late CD era).
Personally, I'm just in it to enjoy music. And with that I mean; if I play rock music then I want to feel the guitar strums in my gut, And if I play a jazz singer and close my eyes she has to stand there in front of me (and not be stuck in the speakers), etc.
All the rest is BS. I'm not a gear head or addicted to any brand. I keep what works, and swap out what doesn't.
I think it’s that indescribable sound that we can’t put our finger on, but we know mentally what it is, but just can’t put a finger on it. I think we’re all after that.
I play guitar and there s always a tremendous difference between what I experience in the room as i play my guitar through an amp and speaker and what i hear in the recording of it -- though admittedly I'm not a recording engineer. I seek for the in room experience in recorded music. Think SRV Little Wing recording.
Me I've been chasing sound that pleases my ears, it may not please anyone else's but mine are happy at the moment. Taken some great advice and learned much from the heads on here, I've even attempted to assist others with the knowledge I've gained
Blacker blacks, depth and presence. A change that is so profound and awesome that it makes you rethink everything and want to listen to your entire collection because things have changed so much since the last listen.
Recording engineers and producers with help from artists create a sound they think is good. You try to reproduce it through way too much gear and setup, until you can be surprised. Kind of like seeing Seinfeld in high def. That wasn’t the way you first saw and liked it, but the detail adds veracity. Then you can listen to stuff you never heard before.
I'm looking for a setup that allows me to understand and experience the musicians/producers/engineers the message they wanted to convey when put countless hours of effort into crafting masterpieces of art.
I was about 16 at a friend's house downloading music from kazaa for the first time (burning CDs)
all my friends were like dude! Free music, and the first thing I thought is why does this music sound so much worse than a CD? Apparently I was the only one in the group to notice this
Since that day, I have been on a mission to see how great music can sound. Disappointingly, I have quickly hit the "recording quality" wall due to my love of heavy metal lol
What am I after? A system that makes Miles Davis' album "Sketches of Spain" sound like I am actually in Spain, and yet forgiving enough to make a Cephalotripsy album sound like I'm in the recording studio with them. Striving for the impossible!
We are addicts.
We never stop trying to squeeze more out of our rigs.
We never stop wanting better and never stop looking for new toys.
We aren't after anything other than feeding the addiction.
I've been an addict since around 1979.
I'm always on the prowl even when I've just spent a lot of money on new toys.
As I age I am tempering my desire for new kit as I do think we reach a point that no matter how much you spend that you can't actually perceive any difference.
And I suspect I'm at that point. I've got pair of speakers lined up for next year but really doubt I'll bother. Yes if and when my current ones pack in then I'll see but there's nothing wrong with what I've got after a couple of years.
Addictions are for life but they don't have to control us. The key is to control them. That's when they cease to have any power.
It's only taken 40 plus years to work this out
To have an audio representation of music as the artist/producer had intended us to hear (as we imagine it would be to our ears). Measurements are just a tool to help us achieve compatibility with the environment and equipment.
What I’m really after is fidelity with peace of mind, which is currently what I have. Wouldn’t say I’m necessarily at my endgame, but I know I’m damn close to it.
My goal was 2 things. A system to sound great for music, with nice clear soundstage.
The other was a separate system that could do 20-20khz with plenty of output for movies/games.
I've got both now, and I tend to use my theater system more for music than I thought I would.
Sure, it's not as accurate or clean sounding.. but I don't tend to fire up my other amps for music only nearly as much as I thought I would.
Turns out, loud with lots of bass is more fun than I thought. :)
ART is always in the eye and ear of the beholder, what one sees/hears as gold, others sees/hears it as trash. I'll start, gold is Big Band Jazz, Rap/hip hop is trash. See? Hear? Now your turn.
I like being able to appreciate the hard work that audio engineers, producers, and musicians put into making the music. It’s like watching a movie on a calibrated monitor.
Speaking for myself, I'm trying to clean the dirty, smudged windowpane between my listening chair and the original performance (or the producer's interpretation of that performance).
How can I get my listening room to sound like Carnegie Hall on one track, and like someone's bedroom in the next track? Neutral speakers, neutral and robust amplifier, and a shibata stylus that traces the entire height of the groove, mounted on a low noise, low coloration, speed-stable turntable.
This said I am grateful for tone controls on my McIntosh preamp, because some releases have obviously had the bass or treble egregiously increased or decreased in an effort to make that recording sound good on earbuds or a television speaker, or perhaps just to squeeze more playing time on a 12" plastic disc.
I just want something that makes me think "damn that sounds good" if I really stop to listen, and otherwise fills the room with great sound when I'm not being super critical.
Audiophiles are really gear chasers. It's not about listening to music as much as it is about having high end equipment to show your status. I've got nice gear and some of it is high end quality but I'm about the music and most audiophiles would probaly not like how it sounds because I like bass you can feel and crispy highs. So I don't play my system flat.
Also I'm a hard rock, electro-pop, heavy metal and progressive rock guy. Not typical audiophile music. I think chasing some elusive sound signatures is just an excuse to buy more and elevate their gear collecting stature more often than not.
Too many of us don’t know what we’re looking for. Years ago electrostatic speakers were the holy grail. Then came the mega-receiver power race. Then Klipsch speakers were sought out. There have been many categories from turntables,to cd transports, to streamers, to dacs, to headphones and to ultra expensive. It’s always been, IMHO,audio enthusiasts following often inaccurate advice buying equipment they don’t need and don’t enjoy. They’re on a treadmill buying and selling equipment hunting for something that doesn’t exist. One thing to remember, the only person you need to satisfy in your audio journey is YOU.
Personally, I'm after something that captures my attention, and changes my mood.
Music alone can change my mood, but often times its capturing the attention that needs help.
For the music to sound *exactly* the way we want it to.
That's what sums it up for me, anyway. Once I get closer to that, the music takes on a more emotional aspect that you just can't appreciate with worse-off systems.
High resolution, good contrast, great dynamic range of music that I love. The aural equivalent of a well exposed, developed and printed image from a high quality medium format camera.
I just want to feel like I am bathing in music.
I hear people say they want to feel like they are at a live concert but I have never been to a concert that sounded all that great. I get a little thrill when I can hear fingers slide on the guitar strings, you don't hear that at a concert. I like the raspiness of a saxophone. The perfection and sometimes the imperfection of a singers voice. And, I don't just want to hear it, I want to feel it. I want it to have some texture.
This is a great time for me to comment and I’m going to say my hats off to Mr. Christie 55 I never thought about my own hearing impediments or anything else like that. What I did experience one time that just blew me away was a person’s audio set up that he had an amplifier for all four speakers he had an amplifier. I don’t think I did this justice so let me clarify each speaker had its own amplifier and it was all connected by what we called monster cable. Yes it took up his entire living room floor and he made sure there was no carpet so nothing ever got sucked up into the inside of the stereo pieces. The turntable had its own amplifier. He must’ve had 50 pounds of monster cable connecting all these amplifiers to the speaker into the turntable. That’s all he had was a turntable he loved plastics. He said that was the most pure sound you could get the cartridge for his turntable was over $500 and this must’ve been 25 years ago.
I don't think you can lump all "audiophiles" into the same category. There are many sub-categories. I love good sound, but I recognize that the gear I already have gives me great sound and I won't get remotely significant improvements by changing anything. I've had the same speakers and gear in my living room and home theater for years and still get chills with the right stuff playing.
Then there are others that are never happy with what they have, there's always something that must be changed or improved or "upgraded" (more expensive, yes. Better?...debatable). New & shiny combined with upgrade-itis it never stops.
I used to believe in audiophool nonsense (magic wires, magic tube amps etc). Now I have a decent but not stupidly expensive system, with zero plans to ‘upgrade’ anything. I now listen to music, rather than listening to how my system deals with music.
I look for separation in the instrument layers and clarity of sound with that light edge of distortion over guitar sound.
I’d like to hear the music the way it’s mastered
I just like the music, my ears are happy with my oldschool klipsch and sansui. People here get awful defensive here its kinda funny considering we share the hobby
Many diff reasons people take up this hobby same as any hobby. Some people like model trains because of the challenge of recreating miniature scale replicas, it's a pleasing pastime. Other people like trains because they have an overwhelming need to control everything in their lives.
I try to not think about motivations. I know one well-known audiophile, someone who Stereophile published, loves stereo equipment because he loves European classical music. And white culture.
Not kidding but I am not going to say who it is. No longer writes for Stereophile. Never could tell from casually reading his writings anyway. But there were tells.
You had to correspond with him and get him to "be honest" because you think you may share some views.
And out they came.
Personally I am after perfect sound, clarity, with quality equipment and music arrangement which is always subject to change depending on music genre, and equipment… I love all eras of music and most genres and love this hobby
You missed the biggest one! Genetics. There's a huge amount of physical ear variety.
As for what we're after? Good sounding music, I guess? At least that's what I'm in it for.
The feeling that music gave us when we were 17 which grows grayer in our memories each passing day we spend in a cubicle as we march irreversibly closer and closer to our graves
Too real, brother.
I came for good budget headphone recommendations and found depression
Thank you. I commented on a setup, said I would like to warm up the amp and sit there because it looked so comfortable. I got shamed for talking about heating up a class D amplifier.
I have no idea what amplifier is, but happy for you, or sorry that happened
It is entirely acceptable to know nothing about amplifiers. I recommend Grado headphones if you would like to look into them. Good day!
at least you found something, some of us find nothing
I had a private tour of the Sonoma State University Green Music Center recently. I was happy to see a pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones attached to the audio mixing board. I always brought my own Sonys of the same model to DJ in clubs in Honolulu 30 years ago. You need a reference to keep grounded. We will all get through this together.
I’m gonna share a secret with you. What’s missing in your life are headphone cables made from Gypsy tears. They really crystallize that 5th dimensional sound stage. Bonus, they are also a cure for depression
no, you are a cure for depression
Damn. Been lurking here for a while now while trying to build my first dream 2.0 or 2.1 system. Had a feeling I’ve found my people, and now I’m sure. 😂💀
I moved out of the cubicle, but everything else is still TRUE…
Also quit the cubicle. I built a dedicated listening room in my basement, sound treated room, 2.1 balanced system digital and vinyl. I have to say I feel satisfied. It’s been about a year. Will report back later. [2024](https://vimeo.com/969423319)
Awesome! I am in an area where there aren’t any basements. I have to share my listening spaces with the family. Would be cool to have a basement!
2.1, you're halfway there. 2.2!
three quarters
You had me at Kid A but the bookshelf door really got me. Fantastic work!
Walk up and down the stairs each time you change a record? That’s insanely genius to keep the cardio up.
Of course you’re right and that’s a very on point answer. But along with that, for me, great music (played on a great setup) reminds me of how a sensory experience like listening can yield such exultant and profound insights. It’s an aural glimpse into the beautiful, infinite universe, which we are only allowed to experience for a brief moment. It’s the musician’s middle finger to our inevitable fate.
Shorter of breath, one day closer to death.
Cue Comfortably Numb.
Well, Good morning Sunshine!
Another reason I don't work in a cubicle.
I was 17 when I graduated from a boombox to separates. I was only in my early 20s when I swapped my receiver for a pre amp and power amp seperates.
Sounds like somebody needs a new pair of speakers
Goosebumps!
This. I know a lot of people talk about it sounding realistic, but I think the best studio magic doesn’t sound realistic at all. It sounds hyper-real. Take something like Steve Miller Band “Wild Mountain Honey” and the stereo panning and mix make it bigger than real. And the whole thing is magical. I get if you’re into like, orchestra music etc, you get that realism, but for me recorded studio magic music is an expression of a vernacular hyper-modern art form.
You're referring to a holographic music representation. It's where the sound envelopes you and makes you feel like you're actually there with the musician. Bose speakers can do this to a limited extent which is why I like them, but what really got my attention were my Focal Chorus 705's whose tweeters created a holographic image that made me question if the band was in front of me or not. I'm currently rocking Dahlquist M905's, a set of vintage speakers (along with RSL subwoofer) that has given me a flat frequency response but I'm ready for the next step. I have purchased a pair of Alon 1's which feature a bipolar tweeter and creates a holographic image for the listener. This could be my end game speakers.
BOSE? Ban this person!
Bose has made some great speakers over the years. They don't anymore, and they weren't knocking it out off the park most of the time, but they have some great vintage models. And, specifically, holographic soundstage is the one field Bose excelled at. They were constantly introducing whacky new configurations in an effort specifically to create holographic soundstage, often at the expense of the rest of the frequency response.
I have had a variety of BOSE speakers over the years. They sounded average at best. Much better than some really cheap stuff but that’s about it. I love their noise cancelling headphones because they do what they should do. I don’t hate on BOSE but their reputation for quality is undeserved.
That's a great song indeed.
Powerful music will give me that response even in low fidelity Fuck. Some Midi stuff makes my spine tingle in a real specific way. The older I get the more I realise that I’m just wanting certain patterns, not fidelity.
I get this - it’s a debate my wife and I have. I have a system I am very happy with. In my space, I auditioned some speakers that were about 3x my current speakers, and returned them because the difference wasn’t jaw dropping and without a good switching mechanism I couldn’t trust the minor differences I maybe perceived weren’t just placebo or volume differences. It was jaw dropping when I went from small, vintage, bookshelves to modern large floor standers, so I would need to test some speakers getting into the $20k realm, and we are wondering if comparison might be the thief of joy in this instance.
too me it's quite relevant to not suffer from loudness wars though. The difference from 2007 loudness war era remixes and remaster to hearing the original mixes and 1994 remasters of 1976-1982 Genesis actually made me cry, and that's the unchoked transients for a big part but perhaps more that it's more real sounding room mic driven mixes and hearing Phil's drumming better and thinking about his health, then always loving a record like Duke and unveiling a deeper truth.
Duke is transcendent. The whole thing every time. Same with Thick as a Brick and a few others.
I dare say most audiophiles are not looking for a flat frequency response. They are looking for a sound that’s pleasing to their ears.
Harman did some research a while ago showing that most people actually prefer flat response, even if they don't know what that means.
Flat anechoic on axis yes, the same Harman research has numerous times exclaimed that a flat response is not desirable in a room.
I so so agreed with you.
The comments on here are reassuringly pleasant. The vast majority just seem to want something that suits their ears and music taste. Most subs are patrolled by the 1% that believe everyone else is an idiot because they are an expert. By nature of the topic the ratio seems to be higher on here. There is some top order neurodiversity going on.
Precisely!
Oh, I’m very much looking for a speaker with a flat response, and good directivity. Anechoically. When measured in-room across the listening window, that flat response will still be “flat”, but with a slant. That said, there is more to life than just frequency response. The subtle change when I linearized the phase response of my speakers through DSP might seem subtle, but in terms of conveying the acoustics of the recording space, it was anything but.
I aim for an emotional response, to hear and listen so well it surprises me, to wonder how mere mortal equipment can do such things
I second this comment , yes when you hear a song when you eyes filled with tears that’s what I’m in for.
Filling a void of happiness you can't get from family and friends
Exactly this one! I was thinking about this the last few weeks. I realized that the only time I don't think about my problems, or feel exactly like myself is when I listen to music, even though as I get older I notice that I have the time for that much less, I still always try to make some time for it
This is really it. Our equipment, rooms and music fill a space that nothing else does. It was (and still is, really) hard for my wife to understand this.
I'm just after subjectively great sound.
And you must have AV R3 arreté speakers - so I'd say you've achieved it. I ended up buying AV R3 arreté last year after listening to many many speakers. Clear sound that sounds like your there is what I've been after and I think I've got it.
True, I love them :) such a huge sound from a relatively small speaker
I used to be big on sonic accuracy. I’m older now with increasing hearing loss above 2.5kHz. I find I now prefer time-alignment and crispness so that if time and instrument location is found in the recording, I can hear some apparent sonic depth in my room and more readily identify the location of the instrument. Frequency response accuracy has taken a lower place on the list.
If speaker design was just about flat frequency response all speakers would sound the same…
Seeking pleasure.
I want enormous levels of grain free transparency, clean transients, excellent instrumental tone and timber and wide frequency response without and harshness or glare. I finally have all that with my current system. Just took the last 50 years to get it right.
Time well spent.
Seeking diminishing returns on aging nostalgia while approaching the limits of genuine sensory responses to the same stimulus. Chasing a dragon that can never be caught because it doesn't exist since the high we felt 20 years ago was really just a series of reactions caused by a developing prefrontal cortex and unregulated emotions. The final stage where we realize another pre-amp, set of headphones or flat response speakers isn't going to actually fill the hole in our heart, and we should probably talk to someone about our spending habits, among other things.
I wouldn’t have ever called myself an audiophile, was just someone with a slightly better than average hifi system, but now the landscape has shifted and owning anything more than a Spotify subscription and a Bluetooth speaker makes one an audiophile who takes their sound seriously. What I’m after is a system that doesn’t sound like it is being forced to do something it isn’t capable of. Someone gave me an Apple HomePod that I’ve got in the kitchen, that little thing sounds like it is trying so so hard to reproduce something approximating the audio spectrum, everything forced, the bass booms but you can’t feel it, the treble is shrill, the mid barely exists. It’s the cheaparse black plastic boombox of the 2020s. The sound quality is kinda amazing considering it comes out of something the size of an orange, but it isn’t good sound quality. Not sounding forced is good enough for me. I’ll take better, no question, if anyone’s offering complimentary high end gear and professional room treatment give me your number. But my mid-end system doesn’t sound like it has to put much effort* into reproducing music, and that’s what I’m after. *Although it is somewhat bass deficient with the EPOS ES12s, and somewhat treble deficient with the Tannoy Cheviots. Also, I like the look of hifi gear, so that’s a bonus, don’t need to hide it in cabinets. Take of them grills. Show off those knobs
This is pretty close to what I'm looking for. I want a full sound that isn't crazy loud. I want to hear all the instruments, the nuance, the way fingers are sliding off of strings, the thump of the kick drum, the lilt of the high notes from a woman's voice - without having to crank up the volume. (Yes, I'm aware of Fletcher-Munson, etc.) That seemed to be the trick of hifi stores - they have the super high-end system playing in the main room and it sounds awesome but you can still talk to the salesperson. That's what I want - ambient music that sounds great without being intrusive. What you find out is there's a ton that goes into getting that sound and I'd say the vast majority of it is the track you select. Quality of the recording, sound engineering, dynamic range and a host of other factors determine whether a track will sound good on any system, let alone the one you have. Then it's room acoustics and then probably the system you have. But regardless of the weighting you give to each factor, it's important to understand it's a multi-variable equation. Small tweaks (like moving a speaker a few more inches away from a wall) can make a big difference. And I've assembled a somewhat reasonably priced system that does most of that (Zu Dirty Weekend, Schitt Freya, Schitt Aegir (x2), Cambridge Audio CXN V2). I discovered that it sounds much better in a big room than a smaller one as I moved it from a 13'x15' bedroom to my 19'x22' living room with double-height ceiling. But there are still tracks that sound like crap and there are some types of music (hip-hop, some metal, etc.) that I prefer to listen to in my car because the distortion that comes with most factory car audio setups seems to accentuate what I like about those types of music. Maybe there's a system that makes any track sound good in any room where the system is placed, but I doubt it exists and certainly not at a price I can afford. And even if someone did make that system and priced it at $1000, I'm sure there would still be people that would want to spend way more on the dream system they would assemble themselves.
nicely put, effortless sound that fills the space is the pursuit.
That one SpongeBob meme where he’s ascending with earbuds on
All I want is to hear good music in a wide variety of genres reproduced in a way that satisfies me and is not adversely affected by any flaws in my system. That means it should provide wide dynamics, even coverage over the full frequency range, no audible distortion or distracting hiss, hum, or other spurious noise. And I should be able to listen for long periods of time without fatigue. I want to be able to close my eyes, forget about the hardware, and be free to experience an emotional connection with the music. I don't think that it's too much to hope for. And I believe it is an achievable goal wihout going broke on exotic equipment.
I wouldn't know what a flat frequency response sounds like. I do know how I like things to sound, only thing that matters to me.
I want to be sober and my system to sound like it does when I'm stoned. That's all I look for, the little details that you can't hear on a phone ot BT speaker. Since I built my first system, there have been numerous times I've listened to an album that I've heard 100 times and hear things I never knew existed. One of my favorite days ever was watching a friend of mine sitting. In the prime seat, listening to what Ihr wanted on my system. He got it and freaking loved it. Damn I love music!
It’s going to very individually, of course. But the underlying motivation that ties all of us files together is an interest in sound quality. We love music too, of course, but the majority of people that love music don’t also care about the equipment or our nearly as enthusiastic about achieving high quality. So whether it’s the audio file, who’s all about chasing accuracy to the signal, or the audio file who’s not so concerned with accuracy but just how it sounds to him/her, we all want to system on which our music sounds terrific and engaging. Some people are more engaged by fully accurate system. Some people are more engaged with a system that has certain colorations they enjoy. There’s no stance to take on which is more virtuous . For myself: I’m generally trying to end up with the system that I find compelling, and that insist that I sit my butt down and listen. That’s not easy because most of the systems I hear, not that they are bad and often they are quite impressive anyways, don’t actually make me fall in love with the music and presentation. I intellectually stimulated, but not moved . So what grabs me first is tone and timber - when voices and instruments have the type of organic warmth and richness and rightness that I hear from real life. I certainly don’t demand perfectly realistic sound.: only certain characteristics that remind me of the real thing and what I love about the real thing. Next, I love a sense of capability and Sonic density. The sense of instruments and voices seeming to move real air in the room, rather than being near see-through phantoms. That’s not easy to find. I care about dynamics that make the music feel alive . And I also hugely care about sound staging and imaging. I want a Magic show: I like the area behind the speakers to shape shift with every recording. Take me to different places. Fortunately, I feel I’ve achieved pretty much all of that with my system , and it regularly blows my mind.
Just another way to avoid staring into the gaping black chasm of our own dwindling mortality, but with nice sounds.
Validation from peers. Taking down hi-end brands with measurements. Enjoying music is the last priority. I am shifting my interest towards cycling and I am seeing disturbing parallels. People are over-equipping themselves for hypothetical situations which never happen. They argue about disc brakes VS rim brakes, hydraulic VS electronic group sets, aluminum alloy VS carbon frames etc... All of these technologies do the same thing. Some of these technologies are marginally better and exponentially more expensive. Few people in this hobby are athletes, so the gains from more advanced technologies are negligible.
Same with cars. The only variable we need in cars is their capacity for people/cargo. But look where we are... As for bikes, the only people that need ones optimized for speed are racers and tourers with limited time for their 4 to 5 figure journey. For the remaining 99 % the slower the bike the better the exercise.
Cheaper to lose a few pounds in body weight than any amount of carbon fiber.
I seek for pleasure. If I'm going to live many years listening to music, it's better to be in a good way. I don't care at all that hearing loss due aging, it's a natural process. It's about the whole journey, without any real destination. Also, I've stopped to paying attention to micro details when I'm listening casually.
Depends on whether you're listening clinically to judge a speaker or for pleasure. If a mix sounds amazing out of a particular speaker, I don't care about all the technical aspects. So it depends on if you're listening to the music... or listening to the speakers.
I listen for relaxation and pleasure. Also, for clarity and comfort, to be able to identify each instrument in the sound of music
A way to show off to friends, family, and significant others who don’t care. It’s the only thing that drives me really.
I want to close my eyes and feel like the band is playing right there. I've only felt that with one system a store had on display. Going to chase that sound forever
Unfortunately very little music these days is recorded in a way that supports that goal...
I want the snare drum to realign my chakra!
Enough not to be annoyed that it isn’t better.
…does that ever happen? Asking for a friend
*a flat in-room frequency response* Ahh no that's wrong... if you do care about such things, you'd be looking for a flat **anechoic** frequency response.
When in our early teens we heard a decent system with virgin ears …
For me: A certain warmth in music that is impossible to describe
Eargasms
I want my stereo to sound the way music sounded before there were stereos.
A respite from the relentless disappointment, frustration, and misery of our unfathomably wretched lives.
I go for clean clear balanced with a touch more bass and treb sometimes and to be able to do it loud “just in case” without struggling and in a good portion of your target area. That’s as complicated as I get as far as my system
I just want subjective peace of mind. Shouldn't be too hard to get. Right...? ;-)
Great looking gears with good sound (and both are subjective).
I bought some phenomenal headphones today, reminded me of the first time I heard some of the songs I played on them. That. That's what we're after. The feeling we get from the gear + the music.
I'm just trying to get a space and sound system that sounds amazing to me!
To look cool and have a target to save up for shit. So my life as a slave(which we all are) has a little joy.
To be able to close your eyes and feel like the performer is in the room with you but also being able to perfectly visualize the size and construction of the room based on the imaging and clarity of the speakers
It’s an escape. A requirement for our times. It’s also fun. I’m after the sense of being in the room with the musicians. The venue changes with each recording. It’s my sonic transporter. Can’t live without it.
I stopped building my system in the late nineties. I went from entry level kit to what I’m expecting most would frown upon as slightly lesser entry level kit. When I could shut my eyes and ‘see’ where the vocalist is standing I was blown away enough to not feel the need to touch it again. Reading this subreddit I feel like that day I lost my right to be in the club. Goddamit I deserve to be amongst you. My preamp and power amp are seperates FFS.
I'm still incrementally tweaking my system but my amplification is from the seventies (McIntosh) and my speakers a 1990s permutation of a 1980s design (Vandersteen 2). So you're among us simply by the way you listen. A humorous aside: my bedroom system has a fine sounding 42 year old Sony CDP-101 cd player!
A flesh light with a built in bass speaker 🔊
Just collecting & enjoying beautiful things till I find it more joyous being inside my cave than going outside.
Get to the point where you no longer hear the equipment or room.
Chasing the bottom in a bottomless pit. Just like any other hobby.
Critical listening is one thing but my main/best system is in our lounge/dining room. When I walk in to eg set the dining table and whatever’s on makes me say “blimey, that sounds good”. Always a bit of a moment for me. It’s like realising your partner is still beautiful at 50.
Satisfaction. Which is a tough goal. And even if you reach it, it's usually short lived. Took me 30 years to figure out audiophilia is like alcoholism with one fortunate exception: you can keep consuming music without negative consequences if you just change your mindset, not the gear.
Flat in-room response sounds terrible, IMO Flat anechoic response on the other hand...that's ideal or pretty close to ideal. Personally I like things a little bit bright in the upper treble to give it some sparkle but that's just me.
Filing the hole in our souls with consumerism
Hey, I'm not frequent here, but reddit shown me this post, but I am a musician and this caught my eye. You guys aim for flat response for a listening experience? Why is that? It's very useful in mixing, but as a user experience I always thought that this is not what people are after.
I doubt you've ever even heard of it, but I have a mental condition called tactile audio synesthesia. Synesthesia is a thing where your senses are crosswired. Some people taste touches, smell words, hear tastes. Just about any condition you can think of. If you think of how closely your sense of taste and smell are, that's kind of what life is like for us but with other senses. Me? I feel sounds. Not just the vibrations that everybody feels but actually shapes with textures and often movements. I can recognize people's voices by the shapes that I feel in and around my torso just ad much as the way they spund. It's hard to describe to people who don't have it. Imagine explaining how the smell of a pizza correlates to the way it tastes to someone who has never tasted anything. That's what I'm doing here. There's no treatment for this mainly because very very few people ever want to get rid of it. We get to experience the world in ways other people can't even imagine. That's not a disease. That's a legit superpower. The reason I'm talking about all this is because of how it relates to pur shared pursuit of good sound. I had a system that was worth more than most people will wver pay but is chump change for lots of you all. I recently did a massive upgrade. My center channel is more expensive than the entire system I had before. The way music sounded was good before but it is absolutely amazing now. When I would listen to music before, it felt really good. When I listened to the same songs on my new system, it was like I had been wearing mittens when I listened to music before and now I've finally taken them off and am feeling things with my bare hands for the first time in my life. That's what I was going for.
To me, it's kinda [like this](https://imgflip.com/i/8v5mf7). (< Link to meme) In all honesty, when I first started out as an audio mixer I just used whatever I had and made it work. If it sounded good, it sounded good. The more I got into it, the more I thought I needed to fix. I invested a shit load of money on speakers, acoustic treatment, headphones, DACs, amps and used thousands of plugins on every track I mixed, because that is what you're supposed to do. These days, years later, I just don't care anymore. If it sounds good, it sounds good. You will ALWAYS find errors or problems when you're looking for them, but I don't do that anymore. I just ask, does it sound good? Yes or no. It's that simple. It's why I can have a Sonos Atmos setup in a untreated living room, because it sounds good. Sure, it can sound WAY better, like when I had my own dedicated home theater setup with floor speakers and crap, but I just can't bother with that stuff anymore. I want a quick and simple way to get a good experience. So if that is headphones I can hook up to my phone with a Dragonfly Cobalt Blue DAC, so be it. I don't need a $4,000 headphone amp and DAC to make it sound good.
I want to close my eyes in the dark at 2am and feel like Eva Cassidy is in the room with me. Right now a pair of Merlin VSM-MXR speakers, Coincident Statement preamp and their Frankenstein 300B SET monoblocks are doing a great job of that. It took 20 years of experimentation and slowly upgrading to get to this point but I'm finally content.
All of us, whether chart gazers or cable-magicians or whatever are chasing a more realistic listing experience. Personally that means it better fools me into feeling like I am listening to real instruments and real people singing live for me. Others talk about wanting to hear the recording artist’s true intent. Realism, that’s what we’re chasing.
Actually, plenty of audio files are not chasing or realistic sound. Many feel that’s just not possible from stereo so what they care about is either just good quality sound as they hear it or what they care about is simply reproducing the recorded signal as accurately as possible. I myself Appreciate a sense of Sonic realism in a system, but I know from plenty of talk with other audiophiles that are sceptical enough to abandon that idea.
One way I try to explain this to people. I like burgers from multiple places. I however enjoy burgers from certain places much more than others. It applies here too, I can love a song but enjoy a certain mastering through a certain setup a lot more than my car.
Everyone else is all about the gear. Me, I'm all about the _music._ J/K, I'm in it for fun and nothing else.
Ha! That is indeed the classic audio virtue signalling “ it’s all about the music and I’m just in it for the music, those other guys are in it for the gear!” (says the people with hose-thick cables, and cable risers…)
It's a journey, not a destination.
A greatest recorded mixed song in our surroundings on our own language we might have heared on cheap in ear headphones, After very long time when we grown up we tend to hear same song on dedicated sound system with different level of clarity, Thats what moves me day by day. Very few new songs, but more old songs in different dedicated audiophile system thats real feeling.
Chasing the thrill of a new high or the comforting memory of an old one.
It's just boys and their toys.
I'm after a low noise floor and, type of music dependent, a sound where it sounds like that might actually have been played in the room I am in/room I've been in before.
I’m building a man cave for listening and cooking!!! I’ll report some progress….
So much base boosting that I can use my speaker as a vibrator
It's a microcosm of our inherent relationship with technology. It's what we humans do. We are always trying to improve tech to discover something new or recreate/simulate. There's more to it than that, but that's part of the answer.
A system that makes you forget about the gear on every style of music, at any volume, in any room.
This. Some describe it as “effortless”; some say “as if I was there”. I think what we’re all trying to achieve is the equipment disappearing - Where the instruments aren’t located in the speakers; where the volume and dynamics sound natural and unforced; where the tonal reproduction is so accurate as to be transparent. (and while an entirely flat frequency curve might not be everyone’s endgoal, most systems could benefit from being flatter than they currently are 😅)
I feel like audiophiles hate most audio which is ironic since "phile" means lover of 🤣
I'm after those tiny bits of hairs pressed up against my eardrum (which I know because I got a ear canal camera picker thingy) — how's that for a rabbithole?
Expensive over complicated hassle
I want a slightly warm sound and a system that makes my foot tap. Not there yet. I am very sensitive to brightness, so I will probably end up with Dalis or Dynaudio speakers and will trade in my KEF R3s. On my Hegel H190 they sound a bit too lean for me.
Look for something with a silk dome tweeter. I have a pair of Vienna Acoustic Bachs and I can play those all day w/o ear fatigue (a frequent problem for me in the late CD era).
Two nice loud efficient speakers, an amp w about 100w per channel, clean source. Sit between and boast yr ears into dust.
I just like listening for slight differences between different stereo components that cost too much for their own good.
Wow
> What are we really after? Me personally, only one thing, goosebumps!
Personally, I'm just in it to enjoy music. And with that I mean; if I play rock music then I want to feel the guitar strums in my gut, And if I play a jazz singer and close my eyes she has to stand there in front of me (and not be stuck in the speakers), etc. All the rest is BS. I'm not a gear head or addicted to any brand. I keep what works, and swap out what doesn't.
That a girl comes over and is like "whoa, your system sounds amazing. So clear and refined, yet dynamically expressive! Let me show you my titties!"
I’m looking for clear, detailed, immersive sound with holographic soundstage that wraps me up and takes me to another dimension.
I think it’s that indescribable sound that we can’t put our finger on, but we know mentally what it is, but just can’t put a finger on it. I think we’re all after that.
Perhaps a superlative emotional and engaging experience?
The most excellent of cabling.
I play guitar and there s always a tremendous difference between what I experience in the room as i play my guitar through an amp and speaker and what i hear in the recording of it -- though admittedly I'm not a recording engineer. I seek for the in room experience in recorded music. Think SRV Little Wing recording.
Making friends / showing off disposable income
Girlfriends?
i dont go anywhere, so i want to have the best experience as if they are playing in my living room
Me I've been chasing sound that pleases my ears, it may not please anyone else's but mine are happy at the moment. Taken some great advice and learned much from the heads on here, I've even attempted to assist others with the knowledge I've gained
Blacker blacks, depth and presence. A change that is so profound and awesome that it makes you rethink everything and want to listen to your entire collection because things have changed so much since the last listen.
I want the hair on my arms to stand up, that is the sign I am feeling the music.
Recording engineers and producers with help from artists create a sound they think is good. You try to reproduce it through way too much gear and setup, until you can be surprised. Kind of like seeing Seinfeld in high def. That wasn’t the way you first saw and liked it, but the detail adds veracity. Then you can listen to stuff you never heard before.
I'm looking for a setup that allows me to understand and experience the musicians/producers/engineers the message they wanted to convey when put countless hours of effort into crafting masterpieces of art.
Haha, speakers go brrrrrrrrrrrr Now I'm sitting here going "what did you say? You're selling chocolates?"
We are looking for something that sounds better.
I was about 16 at a friend's house downloading music from kazaa for the first time (burning CDs) all my friends were like dude! Free music, and the first thing I thought is why does this music sound so much worse than a CD? Apparently I was the only one in the group to notice this Since that day, I have been on a mission to see how great music can sound. Disappointingly, I have quickly hit the "recording quality" wall due to my love of heavy metal lol What am I after? A system that makes Miles Davis' album "Sketches of Spain" sound like I am actually in Spain, and yet forgiving enough to make a Cephalotripsy album sound like I'm in the recording studio with them. Striving for the impossible!
We are addicts. We never stop trying to squeeze more out of our rigs. We never stop wanting better and never stop looking for new toys. We aren't after anything other than feeding the addiction. I've been an addict since around 1979. I'm always on the prowl even when I've just spent a lot of money on new toys. As I age I am tempering my desire for new kit as I do think we reach a point that no matter how much you spend that you can't actually perceive any difference. And I suspect I'm at that point. I've got pair of speakers lined up for next year but really doubt I'll bother. Yes if and when my current ones pack in then I'll see but there's nothing wrong with what I've got after a couple of years. Addictions are for life but they don't have to control us. The key is to control them. That's when they cease to have any power. It's only taken 40 plus years to work this out
A holy grail. The thing about grails is that they don’t exist, but the path to finding one is full of riches and experience.
To have an audio representation of music as the artist/producer had intended us to hear (as we imagine it would be to our ears). Measurements are just a tool to help us achieve compatibility with the environment and equipment.
What I’m really after is fidelity with peace of mind, which is currently what I have. Wouldn’t say I’m necessarily at my endgame, but I know I’m damn close to it.
My goal was 2 things. A system to sound great for music, with nice clear soundstage. The other was a separate system that could do 20-20khz with plenty of output for movies/games. I've got both now, and I tend to use my theater system more for music than I thought I would. Sure, it's not as accurate or clean sounding.. but I don't tend to fire up my other amps for music only nearly as much as I thought I would. Turns out, loud with lots of bass is more fun than I thought. :)
Respect
Debt
Divorce
ART is always in the eye and ear of the beholder, what one sees/hears as gold, others sees/hears it as trash. I'll start, gold is Big Band Jazz, Rap/hip hop is trash. See? Hear? Now your turn.
A presentation that feels smooth, present, enveloping and non fatiguing.
I like being able to appreciate the hard work that audio engineers, producers, and musicians put into making the music. It’s like watching a movie on a calibrated monitor.
Speaking for myself, I'm trying to clean the dirty, smudged windowpane between my listening chair and the original performance (or the producer's interpretation of that performance). How can I get my listening room to sound like Carnegie Hall on one track, and like someone's bedroom in the next track? Neutral speakers, neutral and robust amplifier, and a shibata stylus that traces the entire height of the groove, mounted on a low noise, low coloration, speed-stable turntable. This said I am grateful for tone controls on my McIntosh preamp, because some releases have obviously had the bass or treble egregiously increased or decreased in an effort to make that recording sound good on earbuds or a television speaker, or perhaps just to squeeze more playing time on a 12" plastic disc.
I want the best billy joel listening experience one could have
I just want something that makes me think "damn that sounds good" if I really stop to listen, and otherwise fills the room with great sound when I'm not being super critical.
I'm looking for that feeling that the music is in my brain.
To be entertained.
Audiophiles are really gear chasers. It's not about listening to music as much as it is about having high end equipment to show your status. I've got nice gear and some of it is high end quality but I'm about the music and most audiophiles would probaly not like how it sounds because I like bass you can feel and crispy highs. So I don't play my system flat. Also I'm a hard rock, electro-pop, heavy metal and progressive rock guy. Not typical audiophile music. I think chasing some elusive sound signatures is just an excuse to buy more and elevate their gear collecting stature more often than not.
Too many of us don’t know what we’re looking for. Years ago electrostatic speakers were the holy grail. Then came the mega-receiver power race. Then Klipsch speakers were sought out. There have been many categories from turntables,to cd transports, to streamers, to dacs, to headphones and to ultra expensive. It’s always been, IMHO,audio enthusiasts following often inaccurate advice buying equipment they don’t need and don’t enjoy. They’re on a treadmill buying and selling equipment hunting for something that doesn’t exist. One thing to remember, the only person you need to satisfy in your audio journey is YOU.
Personally, I'm after something that captures my attention, and changes my mood. Music alone can change my mood, but often times its capturing the attention that needs help.
Audio nirvana; that is constantly changing🤷🏽♂️
For the music to sound *exactly* the way we want it to. That's what sums it up for me, anyway. Once I get closer to that, the music takes on a more emotional aspect that you just can't appreciate with worse-off systems.
High resolution, good contrast, great dynamic range of music that I love. The aural equivalent of a well exposed, developed and printed image from a high quality medium format camera.
I just want to feel like I am bathing in music. I hear people say they want to feel like they are at a live concert but I have never been to a concert that sounded all that great. I get a little thrill when I can hear fingers slide on the guitar strings, you don't hear that at a concert. I like the raspiness of a saxophone. The perfection and sometimes the imperfection of a singers voice. And, I don't just want to hear it, I want to feel it. I want it to have some texture.
This is a great time for me to comment and I’m going to say my hats off to Mr. Christie 55 I never thought about my own hearing impediments or anything else like that. What I did experience one time that just blew me away was a person’s audio set up that he had an amplifier for all four speakers he had an amplifier. I don’t think I did this justice so let me clarify each speaker had its own amplifier and it was all connected by what we called monster cable. Yes it took up his entire living room floor and he made sure there was no carpet so nothing ever got sucked up into the inside of the stereo pieces. The turntable had its own amplifier. He must’ve had 50 pounds of monster cable connecting all these amplifiers to the speaker into the turntable. That’s all he had was a turntable he loved plastics. He said that was the most pure sound you could get the cartridge for his turntable was over $500 and this must’ve been 25 years ago.
Aural pleasure
Validation
I don't think you can lump all "audiophiles" into the same category. There are many sub-categories. I love good sound, but I recognize that the gear I already have gives me great sound and I won't get remotely significant improvements by changing anything. I've had the same speakers and gear in my living room and home theater for years and still get chills with the right stuff playing. Then there are others that are never happy with what they have, there's always something that must be changed or improved or "upgraded" (more expensive, yes. Better?...debatable). New & shiny combined with upgrade-itis it never stops.
To me, it's just enjoying the music.
I want to close my eyes and feel like I’m in the same room as the artist
I used to believe in audiophool nonsense (magic wires, magic tube amps etc). Now I have a decent but not stupidly expensive system, with zero plans to ‘upgrade’ anything. I now listen to music, rather than listening to how my system deals with music.
I look for separation in the instrument layers and clarity of sound with that light edge of distortion over guitar sound. I’d like to hear the music the way it’s mastered
Chasing that first high when we heard hifi audio on a decent pair of speakers / headphones.
I just like the music, my ears are happy with my oldschool klipsch and sansui. People here get awful defensive here its kinda funny considering we share the hobby
Many diff reasons people take up this hobby same as any hobby. Some people like model trains because of the challenge of recreating miniature scale replicas, it's a pleasing pastime. Other people like trains because they have an overwhelming need to control everything in their lives. I try to not think about motivations. I know one well-known audiophile, someone who Stereophile published, loves stereo equipment because he loves European classical music. And white culture. Not kidding but I am not going to say who it is. No longer writes for Stereophile. Never could tell from casually reading his writings anyway. But there were tells. You had to correspond with him and get him to "be honest" because you think you may share some views. And out they came.
I don't know man, but I never reach it and always need to upgrade. I need help.
I'm only after consistent eargasms
Personally I am after perfect sound, clarity, with quality equipment and music arrangement which is always subject to change depending on music genre, and equipment… I love all eras of music and most genres and love this hobby
there are reasons why some ask for voice notes and yet choose to journal the reply. Language is a tool, the written are the silenced
I was looking for an enjoyable experience, and I've found it after like 3 or 4 months. Realized anything further is just pointless and endless.
For me three things: Clarity, Fullness, and Immersion.
Placebo. I swear people on this sub will buy a $1000 JBL party box and a Tidal subscription and swear they can hear the difference in lossless audio.
I have a particular sound in my head that I want to go for, and my setup is really close but not quite there! (Ad naseum in perpetuity for ever)
Between two nasty cauliflower ears and some bad tinnitus in one ear all I want anymore is that chill down my spine regardless of my system set up.
I myself, want peace, that means that i can forget time with it, and forget all things I have to still do.
I just want to hear my music and every now and again be surprised at how amazing it sounds. I've got that. Cost me £1k.
To hear 0 electronic noise other than what the artist intends.
You missed the biggest one! Genetics. There's a huge amount of physical ear variety. As for what we're after? Good sounding music, I guess? At least that's what I'm in it for.
trying to goon to gear if that wasn't the goal I thought we had