The common image of the hi-fi enthusiast, a mixture of fanaticism, ambition and guilt as he spends all his money on purchase new systems. Lots of new pieces are setting up and there is no longer any space in his home.
There’s a column in one of the American magazines that perpetuates a few myths: written by a woman, it’s all about her partner’s continuous tweaking of his systems, the upgrading, the sneaking in of new pieces of equipment. And that’s the common image of the hi-fi enthusiast – a mixture of fanaticism, ambition and guilt as he (it’s always a ‘he’ struggles to justify that latest silly-money purchase or at worst smuggle it past the little woman.
The whole purpose of buying a system is to listen to music, isn’t it? Why do people spend more and more money on buying new equipment? In my mind, they are buying ‘toys’ like their kids do but in megamoney scale. It is the best news for the businessman doing hi-fi.
An Equipment collector is not same as a hi-fi enthusiast, don’t mix them up. I have only one set of system without any extra stock. Many hi-fi equipment collectors have 2 CD players, 3 set of pre-amps, 2 different set of power-amps and 2 pairs of stereo speakers or even more. I hope you are not one of them.
Remember – the aim of buying new is only playing better music. Nothing more!
Lots of enthusiasts are always asking “whatif” and spending all their money in hi-fi, DV, DC, whatever toys they like. We should lead the life with self-decipline and you should not work with the manufacturer only. You can spend the money in alternative way like buying lots of CD, DVD and even computer games for leisure.
Up to this point, I have remembered my ex-boss’s advice: “do it right the first time and every time”. Buy the stuff you think the best within your budget. That’s all because hi-fi is a personal stuff. Everyone has his own style in playing music.
Once you have got the best as stated above, you should stop listening to the other alternatives. Most of the time you’ll be hearing different, not necessarily better, and it’ll only confuse and dismay you. Trust your ears and enjoy the music not the equipment.
A common question is often raised by enthusiast; ‘Which part should I upgrade?’. Speaker, Cable, CD Player or Amplifier should be upgraded. To find it out, the only way is definitely more music.
Music is relatively cheap and you can have it at very low cost like buying MP3 or CD online. Changing a new CD player may be just a little bit better than your current one. It doesn’t make sense to buy new item every year or even in months.
