Have lurked for a while but just joined today. I have really enjoyed seeing how various equipment of varying cost, sophistication, and reputation fare under the microscope of testing.
I’ve been into audio since I was dirt poor kid with pieced together half-assed hand-me-down systems and speakers I “built” with washing machine boxes and car stereo speakers (yes, really). I endlessly pored over catalogs and magazines and had a folder of glossy promo materials I kept in a binder (I was the same with photography: poor but passionate). The mags of those days focused pretty heavily on measurements, so I consider measurements very important, at least as the “table stakes” for consideration as a quality component.
One of the first things I did when I got my first real job (as a software engineer) in the 80s was to buy a “real“ set of hifi front-end components on store credit from a nice shop in Detroit area. I got a Yamaha A-510 Integrated (I think that was the model) and a B&O turntable. Was one of the most exciting days of my life, though I had to limp with hand-me-down speakers a while longer.
Since those days I’ve been in and out of the game to different degrees of craziness. Though my financial means have changed a LOT, I still tend to look for things that seem to be on the knee of the price/performance curve and find myself at turns offended by, then drawn to, high-end gear. I listen both because I love music, AND I love sound Itself. For example, I listen to certain jazz recordings (and generally ECM as a label) just because the cymbals sound so good.
I continue to be mostly an objectivist in favor of blind testing, and find hard-core subjectivists a bit hard to take depending upon the position they are espousing. I’m not religious, and I find a lot of subjectivism edging into religiosity, so it’s off-putting. I was so glad to find this site!
I’ve been into audio since I was dirt poor kid with pieced together half-assed hand-me-down systems and speakers I “built” with washing machine boxes and car stereo speakers (yes, really). I endlessly pored over catalogs and magazines and had a folder of glossy promo materials I kept in a binder (I was the same with photography: poor but passionate). The mags of those days focused pretty heavily on measurements, so I consider measurements very important, at least as the “table stakes” for consideration as a quality component.
One of the first things I did when I got my first real job (as a software engineer) in the 80s was to buy a “real“ set of hifi front-end components on store credit from a nice shop in Detroit area. I got a Yamaha A-510 Integrated (I think that was the model) and a B&O turntable. Was one of the most exciting days of my life, though I had to limp with hand-me-down speakers a while longer.
Since those days I’ve been in and out of the game to different degrees of craziness. Though my financial means have changed a LOT, I still tend to look for things that seem to be on the knee of the price/performance curve and find myself at turns offended by, then drawn to, high-end gear. I listen both because I love music, AND I love sound Itself. For example, I listen to certain jazz recordings (and generally ECM as a label) just because the cymbals sound so good.
I continue to be mostly an objectivist in favor of blind testing, and find hard-core subjectivists a bit hard to take depending upon the position they are espousing. I’m not religious, and I find a lot of subjectivism edging into religiosity, so it’s off-putting. I was so glad to find this site!