I just spent “what I want” for the first time in over six months
. Obviously I had a streak going there, so what caused me to break it? A new pair of headphones is what it is. I recently bought a pair of Grado SR60 headphones and compared them to the free flight headphones I used to use or the built in speakers on my Mac they sounded amazing.
Actually before I found my way to financial independence, I used to be a good listener. Audiophiles are crazy and spend tons of money on HiFi equipment to reproduce the perfect sound that often plays CDs called “Soundstage I” that go something like “This is the bell 5 feet to the right … CLANG … this is the sign 5 feet to the back …. CLANG” while marveling at how organic the production sounds. The silver RCA cables between my CD player and my pre-amp cost as much as an iPod! Unfortunately, this was all 220V and weighed about 50 pounds(**), so when I left MyCountry, I had to leave it behind. So for the last 8 years, I have made my computer, two working speakers (discarded 4 years ago) and free earplugs.
I don’t count items that are wanted but only bought to replace things that wear out regularly like skate wheels.
People who have never heard of a HiFi system rarely know what they are missing. On standard systems, the kind sold at Walmart, most music is messed up. It’s like feeling through a pillow. A visual analogue is looking at a small forest through fog. You only see the first few trees: the singer, the lead guitarist, the drummer, and you get a glimpse of the bass player. On the contrary, in the hifi system it reveals many additional layers. In modern productions you will be able to hear more instruments and type of tools. You will hear the plucking of guitar strings, a singer taking a breath, a violinist turning a notebook. I’m obsessed here
😀
So, if you actually listen to music rather than just using it as a sound carpet, a good program can recover your entire CD collection.
Now, this is not all good news. Something that will quickly become apparent is that some of the recordings are simply a challenge. Instead of the layered soundstage you might expect, sound can be two-dimensional in nature; like a recording of the radio playing if you get my point. This is especially a problem for compressed music from the 1980s and early 70s. The remastered recordings aren’t that bad. Some of the recordings will surprise you by revealing that what you thought was monophonic singing is actually two voices, that there are several instruments that add to what sounds like “mud” surrounds.
In other words, your collection will be divided into good CDs and bad CDs. You will also find that online music is somewhat compressed and that the quality is not that good.
Optimizing your system should usually start as close to your ears as possible. If you keep your speakers under your desk (you infidel!) raise them up to ear height so they form a somewhat equilateral triangle with your head. The next step is to upgrade the speakers. I went looking for headphones, because the small ones are nice. And in a small space, the sound is not always appreciated by all parties. I chose the SR60s because they could be driven directly into the headphone jack and didn’t require a headphone amplifier. The next step would obviously be to get a headphone amp. Things have changed a lot in the 8 years I have been away from the field. The audiophilistic risk of developing fever is always there. For just $50 more it’s always possible to get something a little better, so where does it stand.
I’ve found that low-end consumer goods are just as limited as high-end consumer goods. Low end consumer goods are what everyone buys (Ford, Toyota). High-end consumer goods are ones you’ve probably never heard of (Maybach). The middle range is where you want to be (Lexus, BMW). The reason is explained by the law of diminishing returns (read here, and here). You always want to be in the middle, that is, the linear part of the S-curve where profit equals cost. A good rule of thumb is that these ranges usually start just outside the range of goods offered by mass market retailers, so go see a specialist and ask for their “just after launch” level model.
Added: When the original cushions came out, they were replaced with Sennheiser HD414 cushions (costing about $10 on eBay). If you don’t mind the bright yellow colors, in my opinion it is superior to the original.
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