“Audiophiles don’t use their equipment to listen to music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment”–Alan Parsons
I consider myself both a musician and an audiophile. I was hooked on good equipment around the age of 14 when I heard my friend Robert’s older brother’s system. I don’t remember the amp, but he played Talking Heads and King Crimson on a Technics turntable and, most impressively, a set of Walsh Ohm speakers which are omnidirectional and sound astounding. Reviewers still choose them as their favorite speakers 40 years later.
When I decided to move to Europe I sold off almost all my audio equipment, either because it wouldn’t work on 230V or I was curious to try something new. As the digital world becomes more wonderful and oppressive, I feel the desire to retreat back into the analog. So I converted my father’s 1970’s Sansui 1000x receiver to the new voltage and bought a Rega P1 turntable and Dali Oberon 5 speakers.
Why those components? Because they sound great by normal people standards. They definitely don’t sound great by audiophile standards. Once you’ve spent, say, over 2000 bucks on a system, it’s able to reproduce audio with a certain clarity that has a certain sound, a sound that tells my brain to listen to the characteristics of the sound, to listen to the equipment. But that’s not what I want to listen to, at least not now.
Spending about 1000 bucks I think is the sweet spot. The turntable was a great deal at 350, the speakers also a great deal used at 400, and if I was buying an amp I’d pick up a Wiim Ultra for 400. That will sound hi-fi without sounding too hi-fi.