You can keep only one component from your system - what would it be?

[Doodski]

LOL be like trying to imagine only having one bike. Ain't happening. What principle outside of consumerism?

That was hilarious to read for some reasons I still do not understand fully. LoL.

 

[MattHooper]

If you are serious about only one component, it would have to be the Sonos soundbar.

Anything else, by itself, would be useless.

That’s why I emphasized:

If your system was going to be taken away, but you got to keep one single component, from which you can move on and rebuild your system with different components, which component would you keep?

 

[Chrispy]

That was hilarious to read for some reasons I still do not understand fully. LoL.

Audio, like bikes often has an N+1 component

 

[egellings]

I'd hang onto my home-brewed amplification chain-2 mono-block power amps and preamp. All vacuum tube. Can't buy copies of those.

 

[Chrispy]

I'd hang onto my home-brewed amplification chain-2 mono-block power amps and preamp. All vacuum tube. Can't buy copies of those.

So that's more important than your speakers? Just curious how the electronics take first place....

 

[MattHooper]

It’s interesting how everybody else seems to get the point….

Nobody needs to “ fetishize” a piece of gear in order to answer this question. It could be, as some have answered, simply identifying piece that plays the most logical important role in their system, in terms of what they are trying to achieve.

I think we just have different angles on what a forum like this is about.

Serious question because I’m trying to understand your perspective since you very often show up to dunk on displays of enthusiasm.


What is so weird to you that people can get happiness from a hobby like this? That somebody can get great satisfaction in setting up a nice system exactly what they’re looking for and feeling they’ve achieved their goals? You realize that somebody can be enthusiastic about something in their hobby without losing the big picture, and understanding plenty of other things in life are more important?

What do you think this forum is for?
If you are not enthusiastic about audio gear, what are you doing on this forum?

 

[Mikig]

my Audio Note Oto, which I have had for over 30 years now…

PS: even though lately I can't do without the Dynaudio Special One...

 

[phoenixdogfan]

My Smyth A 16 Realiser. It's a headphone processor that captures the HRTF of real speakers in a real room and emulates it over headphones, while also being an Atmos, DTS-X, and Auro 3d multichannel binaural processor. The system I captured to emulate was 24 channels of Dutch & Dutch 8C speakers plus a Paradigm sub measured in person with binaural mics in my own ears in a well treated professional recording studio. So I basically have anything from 2 channels of D & D to 24 highly realistically emulated (via an in person HRTF capture) channels in Atmos, DTS-X and Auro 3d playing over my Sennheiser HD 800's. I ain't ever giving that up.

 

[Grimoire]

The chair.

 

[xanalog]

I am still in the courting-stage with my six month old MoFi SP10MEs. << Keepuhz!

For me what sprung to mind is that I would choose to keep my Conrad Johnson Premier 12 tube mono amps.

Hope your speakers don't hear you saying that!

But, who ever is trying to take away my audio hardware is going to have a big fight in their hands.
I have more audio hardware now than before my retirement... much more.

 

[MattHooper]

But, who ever is trying to take away my audio hardware is going to have a big fight in their hands.

Well, I could’ve themed the thread: “So you’re getting divorced….”

 

[Doodski]

It’s interesting how everybody else seems to get the point….

Nobody needs to “ fetishize” a piece of gear in order to answer this question. It could be, as some have answered, simply identifying piece that plays the most logical important role in their system, in terms of what they are trying to achieve.



Serious question because I’m trying to understand your perspective since you very often show up to dunk on displays of enthusiasm. You seem uncomfortable with displays of happiness with audio gear.


What is so weird to you that people can get happiness from a hobby like this? That somebody can get great satisfaction in setting up a nice system exactly what they’re looking for and feeling they’ve achieved their goals? You realize that somebody can be enthusiastic about something in their hobby without losing the big picture, and understanding plenty of other things in life are more important?

What do you think this forum is for?
If you are not enthusiastic about audio gear, what are you doing on this forum?

Speaking of achieving their goals, getting happiness and pride from finalizing a system. I had customers that went so far out of their financial comfort zone without me recommending that they do that because they realllly wanted a super nice system. They constantly regularly returned to the store for years after just to talk shop with me and explain how wonderous the gear really is, how they achieved their life long dream and filled their need for a home theatre system so they did not have to go to the theatre anymore. One guy a "Dave" was in and out every week or two for some time and was so overjoyed he could not help himself and could not stop talking about what the system could do and how his family had been turned around to appreciate what he bought when before they all thought he was obsessed. He was a barista, a low wage job everywhere and he saved every penny for years. He came to the store to often chat me for years to learn and get knowledgeable and get gear demos to keep his spirits up while he had no gear and saved money to get gear. He was so enthusiastic and joyful about everything and I mean everything that I gave him all the time that he wanted/needed while after my work mates said to me he was retarded and a wanker with no money. I knew he was a good customer, would buy in time and I was happy to spend time with him and give him all the insider information that he needed. I did that with all the people that had a interest. After ~1.5 years of me doing that and me working my butt off with all the customers while most of the other sales people leaned against stereo racks all day, complained about all the customers and gave the customers shorted time I was so busy writing up deals that I had no time to even go to the bathroom or take lunch breaks. One day Dave arrived out of the blue, he was so excited his eyes where wet, he was shaking/trembling, he was gasping with joy and he said he finally got enough money and he dropped large coin on a big system of high end Yamaha surround gear, nice speakers and left the store hours later so tired and worn from excitement that he almost tripped when walking away from me but he turned and announced it was all so worth it and was just a bundle of joy. People get major happiness from gear and they get very very excited.

 

[mhardy6647]

My single favorite piece for the past 14-1/2 years (got it in early 2011... I just checked).



The only problem with a borderline fleapowered amplifier like this (single-ended 2A3 so roughly 3 watts per channel) is one's choice of loudspeakers is typically somewhat fiscally burdensome.

 

[MattHooper]

Speaking of achieving their goals, getting happiness and pride from finalizing a system. I had customers that went so far out of their financial comfort zone without me recommending that they do that because they realllly wanted a super nice system. They constantly regularly returned to the store for years after just to talk shop with me and explain how wonderous the gear really is, how they achieved their life long dream and filled their need for a home theatre system so they did not have to go to the theatre anymore. One guy a "Dave" was in and out every week or two for some time and was so overjoyed he could not help himself and could not stop talking about what the system could do and how his family had been turned around to appreciate what he bought when before they all thought he was obsessed. He was a barista, a low wage job everywhere and he saved every penny for years. He came to the store to often chat me for years to learn and get knowledgeable and get gear demos to keep his spirits up while he had no gear and saved money to get gear. He was so enthusiastic and joyful about everything and I mean everything that I gave him all the time that he wanted/needed while after my work mates said to me he was retarded and a wanker with no money. I knew he was a good customer, would buy in time and I was happy to spend time with him and give him all the insider information that he needed. I did that with all the people that had a interest. After ~1.5 years of me doing that and me working my butt off with all the customers while most of the other sales people leaned against stereo racks all day, complained about all the customers and gave the customers shorted time I was so busy writing up deals that I had no time to even go to the bathroom or take lunch breaks. One day Dave arrived out of the blue, he was so excited his eyes where wet, he was shaking/trembling, he was gasping with joy and he said he finally got enough money and he dropped large coin on a big system of high end Yamaha surround gear, nice speakers and left the store hours later so tired and worn from excitement that he almost tripped when walking away from me but he turned and announced it was all so worth it and was just a bundle of joy. People get major happiness from gear and they get very very excited.

That all sounds wonderful!

The older I get the more I appreciate enthusiasm, and the less time I have for cynicism.

I like hearing about other people’s hobbies and whatever they are passionate about in life.

 

[egellings]

So that's more important than your speakers? Just curious how the electronics take first place....

 

[RexrothPigeon]

Speaking of achieving their goals, getting happiness and pride from finalizing a system. I had customers that went so far out of their financial comfort zone without me recommending that they do that because they realllly wanted a super nice system. They constantly regularly returned to the store for years after just to talk shop with me and explain how wonderous the gear really is, how they achieved their life long dream and filled their need for a home theatre system so they did not have to go to the theatre anymore. One guy a "Dave" was in and out every week or two for some time and was so overjoyed he could not help himself and could not stop talking about what the system could do and how his family had been turned around to appreciate what he bought when before they all thought he was obsessed. He was a barista, a low wage job everywhere and he saved every penny for years. He came to the store to often chat me for years to learn and get knowledgeable and get gear demos to keep his spirits up while he had no gear and saved money to get gear. He was so enthusiastic and joyful about everything and I mean everything that I gave him all the time that he wanted/needed while after my work mates said to me he was retarded and a wanker with no money. I knew he was a good customer, would buy in time and I was happy to spend time with him and give him all the insider information that he needed. I did that with all the people that had a interest. After ~1.5 years of me doing that and me working my butt off with all the customers while most of the other sales people leaned against stereo racks all day, complained about all the customers and gave the customers shorted time I was so busy writing up deals that I had no time to even go to the bathroom or take lunch breaks. One day Dave arrived out of the blue, he was so excited his eyes where wet, he was shaking/trembling, he was gasping with joy and he said he finally got enough money and he dropped large coin on a big system of high end Yamaha surround gear, nice speakers and left the store hours later so tired and worn from excitement that he almost tripped when walking away from me but he turned and announced it was all so worth it and was just a bundle of joy. People get major happiness from gear and they get very very excited.

Respectfully, occasional paragraph breaks would make it easier to read posts of this length

 

[Doodski]

My single favorite piece for the past 14-1/2 years (got it in early 2011... I just checked).



The only problem with a borderline fleapowered amplifier like this (single-ended 2A3 so roughly 3 watts per channel) is one's choice of loudspeakers is typically somewhat fiscally burdensome.

I was ~11 when my best friend of ~the same age said that we where going to a ~middle aged man's/customer's home, see his antique Harley Davidson, meet his super hot wife, have hot chocolate and cookies and smoke weed. (Yes, we all smoked weed at that age and even drank beer on weekends at the teen gravel pit parties.) We where super dooper major excited because this guy had a new Hitachi amp with new Klipsch Corner Horns and he previously said that he had the very newly released Streetheart self-titled album/record that every single person in Canada especially the teens was raving lunatic about because it was so awesome for the day. He knew that was going to be the highlight of the season for us and he played that up big time to get us wound up. We got there and for ~20 minutes the guy talked about how small the power output was on the really nice looking anodized black (Near nothing was black in that day.) Hitachi integrated power amp (Max ~20 watts/ch.) and how the speakers loudly with authority cranked out the tunes with such a tiny power amp. The speakers sounded sublime, everything was so majorly exaggerated for us at our young age because we had the new Streetheart album cranked up on the corner horns, it was so unreal good and the tambourines sounded so real and shockingly amazing. It was a evening to be remembered for sure.

 

[Grimoire]

Respectfully, occasional paragraph breaks would make it easier to read posts of this length

You obviously weren't on the committee that judged this year's Nobel award for literature.

 

[Shadrach]

The hard drive with the music on. Everything else can be replaced.

 

[Chrispy]

I was ~11 when my best friend of ~the same age said that we where going to a ~middle aged man's/customer's home, see his antique Harley Davidson, meet his super hot wife, have hot chocolate and cookies and smoke weed. (Yes, we all smoked weed at that age and even drank beer on weekends at the teen gravel pit parties.) We where super dooper major excited because this guy had a new Hitachi amp with new Klipsch Corner Horns and he previously said that he had the very newly released Streetheart self-titled album/record that every single person in Canada especially the teens was raving lunatic about because it was so awesome for the day. He knew that was going to be the highlight of the season for us and he played that up big time to get us wound up. We got there and for ~20 minutes the guy talked about how small the power output was on the really nice looking anodized black (Near nothing was black in that day.) Hitachi integrated power amp (Max ~20 watts/ch.) and how the speakers loudly with authority cranked out the tunes with such a tiny power amp. The speakers sounded sublime, everything was so majorly exaggerated for us at our young age because we had the new Streetheart album cranked up on the corner horns, it was so unreal good and the tambourines sounded so real and shockingly amazing. It was a evening to be remembered for sure.

Isn't antique Harley Davidson an oxymoron?