Shortness of Auditory Memory helps alleviate spoiled ear syndrome (a little)
It helps alleviate withdrawal symptoms but it is still a real problem for audiophiles.
The situation is this; you hear a new cable, amplifier, speaker, whatever… in your system and it is so good, so much better than what you have been listening to, that it makes you think your current system … well… sucks without it.
And your system does suck without it, in comparison. No question.
But for whatever reason [usually $ or space limitations] you cannot at this time.
So your are now stuck with a system that sucks… but as where before you did not realize, now you do.
Every song, EVERY NOTE, reminds you how much it sucks.
There are many ways to try to get oneself to forget and to go back to the previous, innocent state of believing that your system ‘Rules!’ or ‘Kicks Ass’ or whatever shorthand you use to compliment your system and how much it brings you enjoyment.
Not sure we have a 12-step program for this [yet], but:
1. listening to someone else’s system that REALLY sucks helps makes you appreciate your system again. If you have any dealers nearby, they can usually help with this 🙂
2. play very unfamiliar music that you just are not capable of imagining what it would sound like with the component you cannot have just yet
3. go cold-turkey and just not play your system for a few weeks
4. Don’t listen to revolutionary components like this in the first place [we all try to do this, those of us who have been bit, but we are only somewhat successful… curiosity you know :-)]
But in the end… it is all a band-aid.
Nothing is forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten. [for you BBC Robin Hood fans :-)]
I’m sorry about that but 90% of audiophiles can not solve this problem.
Amir
Hi Amir,
I assume you are implying that buying the desired component is the only real solution and that you think 90% will never be able to afford it. I have been thinking a lot about whether the number is really around 90% or not.
First, lets limit the discussion to audiophiles, who usually do not have to worry about affording food and shelter and have some amount of leisure time with which to listen to music and appreciate fidelity.
I am prepared to argue that the number is closer to 10%.
First, the reason most audiophiles do not have the components they want is because 1) their spouse does not let them spend their own money or 2) they prefer to spend their money on things like cars, houses, fine furniture, investments, etc. or 3) they do not have the money in the bank or enough on the credit cards to cover the cost, or 4) they do not want to appear to be quite as crazy as Mike and Neli.
1) means you should stick up for yourself sometimes
2) means that you really do not want the component all that bad and never really had Ear Spoilage Syndrome
3) means you need to get a job that allows you to pursue your ear-driven goals. Here in the U.S., for example, plumbers and electricians can get $80 – $100/hr. If you are young enough (probably less than 50 years old or so) this will allow you to own whatever gear you want.
4) just means you are slightly more sane than we are. Just a wee bit.
So that, perhaps, leaves 10%(?) who are above 50 years old (whose career options are limited in the U.S. by our youth-oriented culture) or younger audiophiles who want to consciously choose careers of service, like teaching and nursing, that for some offensive reason not understandable by me do not get paid very much.
Take care,
Mike
Dear Mike 🙂
maybe my idea published without enough description , I try to explain.
I just want to say 90% of audiophiles that i saw will upgrade to new component if the new component sound better in their mind.
I just say they will buy new component in the future even if they could not afford it at that time.
they do not forget the result and plan for upgrade.
I want to say 90% can not leaving upgrading game and i think upgrading is not a good game for who do not exactly what he need.
I defined 3 Separate space:
1. music listening
2. getting better sound
3. component upgrade
they are not completely separated but have minor relation (romy has a article about relation of two first space).
many audiophiles think better sound space is directly related to component upgrade but i think this idea is wrong.
I do not say upgrading to a better component do not improve sound but i say this relation is a little more complex than a direct relation.
regards
Amir
Hi Amir,
I agree that ‘upgrading a component’ and ‘getting better sound’ can be 2 different things. however, the premise of my original post was that there are components that are CLEARLY better, significantly better and are not just trade-offs of one weakness for another, to be like their friends on the forums, etc.
I know Romy advocates: ‘upgrading is not a good game for those who do not know apriori exactly what they need’. It often reads to me as ‘your system may suck, but unless you know how and why it sucks, and how to make it not suck, do not upgrade anything’.
Although this description is quite fuzzy, I think I disagree with it no matter how it is interpreted.
It pretty much comes down to how you want to live your life. Do you just test drive one or two cars when you buy a car, only when you need a car, and then make a decision? Or do you try lots of cars to see just what mankind is capable of? [I am guilty of the first, a bad metaphor apparently, but stay with me here… :-)]
Even though you love chocolate ice cream, do you sometimes try other flavors, to see if you might like them too? Maybe like one of them better? Knowing it is safe and that you can go back to chocolate at any time?
How bizarre is it to advocate that even though you are tired of chocolate and do not like it, in fact do not eat ice cream hardly ever anymore because you are so tired of it – that you must understand exactly why you do not like chocolate anymore and stick with chocolate until you know exactly what flavor you want to replace it with and why it will be better [the flaw in this metaphor *argh* is that it assumes that absolute sound quality, like flavors of ice cream, is all in the eye of the beholder, that it is all relative, when at least some if us believe, as I do, that sound quality is, to some degree at least, an absolute].
Perhaps a better metaphor is going to college. Yes, most of our course work is directed at getting the degree, but sometimes we just take courses to learn what else is out there. We spend a semester, for example, taking Cosmology just to expand our horizons and learn ‘what THAT is like’. There is nothing per se wrong with pursuing our degree – we just want to be more knowledgeable and be sure that we have chosen our degree wisely by sampling other things.
This is all very similar to simulated annealing – or actual annealing – where we just throw some randomness into the equation to see if we can find a optimal sound that cannot be expected to occur if we continue using our current, well-thought out strategy. This arguably reasonable augmentation of a sound logical approach can be abused. Like when we are too impatient with the current upgrade strategy and want to ‘win the lottery’ and find a magical component – usually at a low low cost recommended by someone with a system that pukes noise on a forum somewhere – jumps us to the next level. Like all gambling this can be addictive.
In the end, yes, there are ‘twitchy’ people who upgrade on a whim and it certainly appears wacko to those of us who are not as ‘twitchy’. But after much thought and frustration over the years as we work with some of these people, the truth is that they just enjoy the heck out of having a different component in their system more often than other people do. They like playing with their systems. No they aren’t pursuing the ‘best sound’ [which is frustrating for us who are, mostly because we see them take so many sideways and backwards steps after we put so much energy into getting them to closer to the ‘ultimate’ sound for their tastes]. But this is OK. This switcheroo’ing makes them happy and that is the real goal here – happiness – not ‘the best sound’ [it usually makes them happy for a month or so -and then they are unhappy, but not as unhappy as, say, we would be to have lost quite a bit of money and wasted part of our lives listening to something that just really wasn’t very good. A lot of people get married a lot I guess for the same reason. That ‘after purchase high’. Ahhhhhh 🙂 OK, end of THIS metaphor before I get into REAL trouble].
Again, I agree that if a person wants their upgrade to stay around awhile – more upfront thought about system design is a good idea.
Take care,
Mike
Dear Mike
just let me to read your response, my english reading is slow and weak 🙂
i need time for reading it carefully
mike, what about Vitus, did you have decided to test it with marten?
regards
Amir
Dear Amir,
No, I didn’t expect you, nor anybody else for that matter, to necessarily understand my rambling and to respond. I just put it out there for people to think about and maybe think about where they fit into the spectrum of possible Upgrade Methodologies.
Take care,
Mike