As a recovering audiophile and former subscriber to both Stereophile and Absolute Sound, I confess that I did buy a bunch of magic wire = including PS Audio magic power cables / wall sockets / power conditioners .... Do you remember the Stereophile gear reviewer who advocated the spool of wire he used to power the pump at the bottom of his water well? He made speaker wire from it, then compared it to the 6 nines silver NASA-spec Teflon-coated wire available for 1000 x the cost. He was making fun of us, sure, but he kept the gag up, and periodically said he was trying twisted pairs of pump wire with interconnects too. I even went so far as to re-gear my system for balanced interconnects... because I was concerned the 18 inches of twisted pairs did not cancel out electromagnetic contamination = not like I was running 100 feet of wire across a stage floor sagging under the weight of electronic gear of all shapes and kinds ... let's not mention the lights. Pro balanced interconnects are just cooler than plated RCA jacks. It's fun.
You could sell me anything back in the day.
My point is it was a hobby for some of us ... we knew at some level we were being had. It was part of the fun to boast and post our gear on Audio Asylum.
I'm sure nobody here has ever modded their cars, poured over the JC Whitney catalogue adding up all the HP increases you could get on your dad's VW beetle just by bolting on / swapping out a few gizmos and whatnots. I learned how to mechanic "fixing" dad's VW. Still only made 36 hp.
The good side of the audio hobby is I really learned to listen, and appreciate excellent recording engineering. The visit to Lloyd Walker's listening room just blew my mind. I had no idea how much information could be coaxed out of vinyl. Perhaps vinyl is not nearly as hi-fi as digital ... but it's user intensive, and that's part of the hobby. Who checks and adjusts the tone-arm tracking and balance for a moving coil cartridge?
My Lucid is due for a tune-up: Gonna get new points, condenser, rotor, cap, new plugs need to be gaped, plug wires, check the timing with a chalk mark on the crank pulley and a strobe, check the carb floats, carb synchronization (for the trips six pack 440) ... just getting started...
Lucid is not a hobby car. There's nothing to do on it. The audio quality = trained ears know it when they hear it.
You could sell me anything back in the day.
My point is it was a hobby for some of us ... we knew at some level we were being had. It was part of the fun to boast and post our gear on Audio Asylum.
I'm sure nobody here has ever modded their cars, poured over the JC Whitney catalogue adding up all the HP increases you could get on your dad's VW beetle just by bolting on / swapping out a few gizmos and whatnots. I learned how to mechanic "fixing" dad's VW. Still only made 36 hp.
The good side of the audio hobby is I really learned to listen, and appreciate excellent recording engineering. The visit to Lloyd Walker's listening room just blew my mind. I had no idea how much information could be coaxed out of vinyl. Perhaps vinyl is not nearly as hi-fi as digital ... but it's user intensive, and that's part of the hobby. Who checks and adjusts the tone-arm tracking and balance for a moving coil cartridge?
My Lucid is due for a tune-up: Gonna get new points, condenser, rotor, cap, new plugs need to be gaped, plug wires, check the timing with a chalk mark on the crank pulley and a strobe, check the carb floats, carb synchronization (for the trips six pack 440) ... just getting started...
Lucid is not a hobby car. There's nothing to do on it. The audio quality = trained ears know it when they hear it.
