Good Hi-Fi Expands Your Music Tastes - Discuss

[The Shadow]

It seems we have a bit of a dichotomy here.
We have on the one hand music that shows off your system and plain good music that we want other people to know about. Hence the 2 threads currently running. In the first post on "Tunes that show off the sound of valves" I was at pains to point out that none of the tracks I chose were of audiophile quality just really good stuff.

I believe both approaches are equally valid and in fact the better your system the more these two ideas converge until at some ideal point there is only the music.

Two pairs of friends I have known for over thirty years never understood why I was into hi-fi. They were happy enough with their Japanese stacking lifestyle systems. Their argument was and I quote:
"Why on earth would I want to spend thousands on a hi-fi so it can show up all the scratches and fizzes on my records like yours does?" Ouch!

My friend Anne to my wife Melanie
How do you put up with that lot in here? If he were mine I'd get him a shed

Gill to Melanie
It's just boy's toys...expensive and all

I had given up years ago trying to convince them of the error of their ways until I got the valves involved that is.

Now they love to come round and listen to music. They bring their CDs, LPs
and bottles of wine and we have some great times. They get it now.

We listen to everything from classical to northern soul. My musical tastes are expanding at an exponential rate and Apple rub their hands in glee everytime I log on to the iTunes Music Store. I don't care if their stuff is only 128kbs AAC.

Case in point. Last night NickG mentioned Big & Rich and Nickel Creek on the other thread. 10 minutes later I had downloaded a couple of tracks from each artist, added them to a compilation CD I was making whilst browsing this forum and was listening 20 mins later. And you're right Nick; it's fun stuff and great to listen to. I've learned something and added two new artists to my list for further investigation.

So what's it all about? My own opinion is that all of us on here have seen through the hype, dropped out of the hi-fi arms race and have discovered what it is possible to achieve without spending a fortune. And as a direct consequence have rediscovered the long neglected roots of the hi-fi movement.
That's what it's all about. That's what it has taken to bring us this close to the music. We have an awareness of something that few mainstream people have experienced. We should treasure this as a community
The fact that we make our own gear and use century old technology to bring us nearer the music makes it all the more worthwhile.
The male jewellry thing is left to the 72" plasma TV brigade.

May the thermionic glow never be extinguished.

Steve.