Thinking of selling it all, or massive downgrade at least......

[pocketkitchen]

I think youve missed my point, Im not saying that many would not be happy, quite the opposite.

What I am saying is that digital streaming has levelled the quality of source to a homogenised level of mediocrity such that speakers as bland as ATC SCM50 (for example) are lauded as aspirational.

ATC are not alone in this, or indeed exceptionally bad, they are simply a symptom of reduced expectations.

I think things have regressed since starter systems used to be Rega2 , Creek 4040 , Royd A7.

I’ve not heard recent ATCs but your point is a good one. Many systems I hear now are competent, detailed, don’t seem to do anything wrong and yet sound utterly bland. Give me that Rega/Creek/Royd system any day.

 

[RoA]

There were a few comments on 'family involvement' in the Hifi.

I'd hazard a guess that most family members, children, wife, dog will NOT want to get involved if there are multiple high voltage hazards, 40 switch or button presses or lowering a 3 grand arm on prized records are involved before even a peep emerges from the carefully arranged, approaching middle of room £15000 speakers. Especially not if there is one seat in the milimeter sweet spot. That is after they fought their way through a cable salad and several room diffusers on the way to THE seat.

Most involvement will likely come through a simple system by simple streaming with bluetooth.

It's 2021.

 

[Andrew C!]

As I've got older my ears aren't quite what they used to be, so I perhaps just enjoy the music. Frightening! 2 years ago I decided too many Naim boxes being left on all the time, and not being used enough, had to go. I worked out I'd get enough back 2nd hand to refresh the system, modernise it, and rekindle my love of listening.

What I would say is don't bank on 2nd hand values. Going that with the 'its a bonus' if I get what I'm after for an item. the 2nd hand hifi market is fickle at best.

 

[Phil Bishop]

Lockdown has done odd things to us all.

Having spent 30 years building a half decent system, why would I think of changing it?
Not sure - lack of use, lack of enjoyment, sick of seeing massive depreciation?
Retail price today on my system well in excess of £100k.

Giving serious thought to selling the lot, and getting a simpler, cheaper system.
Anyone else been through this? Is is madness or cathartic?

Going back to this OP, I agree that lockdown has done some funny things to us.

However, I also think older also means wiser.....in most cases.

I have never had anything like the system badger748 has but in recent years I have owned over 20 record players, thousands of LPs and CDs, close to 10 pushbikes, etc.

Looking back I now realise acquiring all this "stuff" was in many ways compensation for other things I was dissatisfied with, not feeling fulfilled in my job, for example. I'll give you one example. I suddenly got into Van Morrison just about the time CD became mainstream. So, I went out and bought all his albums on CD in my lunch breaks at work. Crazy! Why didn't I just do it steadily, focusing on the ones I wanted?

The "stuff" became a burden, a millstone.

I'm steadily downsizing and feel better for it.

How much better does a £100K sound than a £1K system - I don't know but I guarantee it's not 100 times better.

 

[Phil Bishop]

There were a few comments on 'family involvement' in the Hifi.

I'd hazard a guess that most family members, children, wife, dog will NOT want to get involved if there are multiple high voltage hazards, 40 switch or button presses or lowering a 3 grand arm on prized records are involved before even a peep emerges from the carefully arranged, approaching middle of room £15000 speakers. Especially not if there is one seat in the milimeter sweet spot. That is after they fought their way through a cable salad and several room diffusers on the way to THE seat.

Most involvement will likely come through a simple system by simple streaming with bluetooth.

It's 2021.

I love this

The only caveat I'd say is a surprising number of ordinary folk (not hi fi obsessives) do quite like the idea of playing records. So, something like a Rega Planar 1 may do nicely with some standard vinyl, not rare MoFi pressings

 

[gerlando]

I think that over £ 1500/2000 for each component (turntable, amplifier, speakers) the sonic differences are subtle and other factors come into play such as the pleasure of ownership, aesthetics, the appeal of a certain brand or a specific technology.

 

[dweezil]

There were a few comments on 'family involvement' in the Hifi.

I'd hazard a guess that most family members, children, wife, dog will NOT want to get involved if there are multiple high voltage hazards, 40 switch or button presses or lowering a 3 grand arm on prized records are involved before even a peep emerges from the carefully arranged, approaching middle of room £15000 speakers. Especially not if there is one seat in the milimeter sweet spot. That is after they fought their way through a cable salad and several room diffusers on the way to THE seat.

Most involvement will likely come through a simple system by simple streaming with bluetooth.

It's 2021.

I put 5 radio controlled mains switches in so one click turns the whole lot on.

Even our 22 year old daughter can do it!

Never grasped why girls find it so hard to turn the right bits on and off, even on the three box kitchen system they struggle to turn off the amp and the tuner.

Room Perfect is on global virtually all the time now so the sweet spot is everywhere.

 

[Fatmarley]

The kids here are happy to listen to music through the TV speakers or even the tiny speakers in their mobile phones. Most people just don't care.

 

[Woodface]

I’ve not heard recent ATCs but your point is a good one. Many systems I hear now are competent, detailed, don’t seem to do anything wrong and yet sound utterly bland. Give me that Rega/Creek/Royd system any day.

Sorry but that is total nonsense. If you haven’t heard a product you can’t really agree with the viewpoint. I’ve had a starter system, a pretty high end naim system & my current ATC set up. I wouldn’t go back to the starter system & I listen more music than ever now. My current system is not mediocre or bland.

 

[Phil Bishop]

I think that over £ 1500/2000 for each component (turntable, amplifier, speakers) the sonic differences are subtle and other factors come into play such as the pleasure of ownership, aesthetics, the appeal of a certain brand or a specific technology.

I agree, but the price point is debatable. I have a friend who swears blind that some speakers he got for £150 s/h are some of the best he has ever heard (£300 new). I have another friend who thinks he got most enjoyment out of a Rega Planar 1, having owned much more expensive gear.

 

[Woodface]

The current vogue for big open plan ‘family rooms’ pretty much kills off the viability of having a proper hifi. A mate of mine spent a little time putting together a a decent vinyl set up, I helped him, but the way he has had to integrate it into the living room doesn’t really work.

 

[Phil Bishop]

Looking back, I think the most musical pleasure I got was from my University room system in the 1980s which was an Akai cassette deck, Trio amp and small Celestion speakers, all from Comet.

.....and lots of mixtapes that were the soundtrack to spending time with my future wife

 

[RoA]

The current vogue for big open plan ‘family rooms’ pretty much kills off the viability of having a proper hifi. A mate of mine spent a little time putting together a a decent vinyl set up, I helped him, but the way he has had to integrate it into the living room doesn’t really work.

I guess what constitutes 'proper' Hifi is debatable. I regard my unobtrusive Kef Actives and soon to be Formation Duo's as Hifi but understand why others don't.

 

[Woodface]

I guess what constitutes 'proper' Hifi is debatable. I regard my unobtrusive Kef Actives as Hifi but understand why others don't.

Good point. I used to class separates as proper hifi but now use an integrated head unit with active speakers. It’s probably the speakers which are the hardest to accommodate in a family room though. I think Sonos works fine in a typical shared space.

 

[h.g.]

So there you have it. Two towers of audio porn, which looks, and more to the point sounds fantastic! Many years of careful upgrading and fiddling to arrive at this pile of stuff only I really use, and mostly gets used for TV/film, which goes to the Bartok dac.

With that in mind, and referencing back to my Roksan/Creek/Royd system of decades ago, I feel this might be a tad too far. I still want a good sounding system, an easy to use record player, easy Roon streaming, the TV connected. The fact it's less boxes, neater and less "look at me" are positives. I know it won't sound as good, but do I care?

Interesting thread.

What makes(/made?) your system sound good to you? Will it sound good to others? For example, do you think it would sound good to a professional recording music in a studio?

The point of the question is now that what was making your system good is starting to fade there is an opportunity to replace it with something better. Quite what better means will depend on how your outlook is changing but to settle for worse rather than better doesn't look particularly wise.

 

[booja30]

... to settle for worse rather than better doesn't look particularly wise.

To you, sure. But to some, settling for 'good enough' and putting £90k back in the bank or to the house mortgage sounds very wise. Especially if you don't want to keel over at your desk at your job, trying to work off the latest big purchase.

 

[gerlando]

I agree, but the price point is debatable. I have a friend who swears blind that some speakers he got for £150 s/h are some of the best he has ever heard (£300 new). I have another friend who thinks he got most enjoyment out of a Rega Planar 1, having owned much more expensive gear.

I agree with you.
Normally the price range where you get the best value for money is between £ 500 and £ 1500.

 

[badger748]

Late to the thread, but I think it's worthwhile having a sit down and a think. What did you originally buy it for? I don't mean that in a negative sense, as in "what on earth have you bought THAT for?" but what were your original motivations?
Next it would be "what has changed?".
So maybe you went down this journey to see how far it went, and it goes quite a long way. Did you have fun on the way? Did the next box give you that extra scintilla of musical appreciation, or ownership pleasure, or other motivation?
Have you now done this? There's no harm in saying that you are done with it. I've owned sports cars, it became fairly clear that at the time I probably preferred mending them to driving them. So I bought a 2CV for £300 and mended that. These days I'm not very interested in mending cars so I have moved on. That's fine. I still like making things in the workshop, but other things.
Plenty of people do this, they work towards a grail, having got there they decide that maybe the quest was more fun than the arrival. You can be Fred Dibnah and spend thousands of hours restoring a steam engine, but what do you do with it then? You either take it to steam rallies, or you build another, or you say "done that now" and sell it. Your choice.

Only when you know the answers to this will you know if it's right for you to sell up. Do you want to sell it all? I don't know. Do you want to start again? Is it the search that you miss? Do you listen to music very much, or is it just the radio in the kitchen? It's up to you. I used to be into photography. I enjoyed learning how to do it, these days I don't pick up a camera from one year to the next. I don't miss it. Some people are like this with a sport.

Steve, I bought into the never ending upgrade conveyor as i genuinely enjoyed the extra you get from better. I think it becomes this never ending thing though - the law of diminishing returns gets lost and the futile hope to reach "the end" never quite happens either. You just add more and more and more.
It's only really when big events happen that you stop and think, hang on a sec. The lack of live music, global pandemic, death/loss, and many more factors, you realise that the hifi journey isn't quite as important as you think....

The simple pleasures of music have become more important, as have going to walks, valuing friendships. The need to get out of the house, not stay in it listening to the hifi. More road trips. More anything, than staying in the house ! I suspect if i get it right and downgrade to a system that still is involving enough to make me go "wow" and keep listening is the goal, a sensible compromise/downgrade. This is me and my journey, I know plenty of people who have used the pandemic to upgrade and they get lots of pleasure from this - and good for them - it's just sent me the other way!

 

[badger748]

I'll give my standard advice that if you do ditch the TT, keep the vinyl, for a while at least - a TT is easily replaced, a vinyl collection is not.

The physical records and CD's are not going anywhere!

 

[Brown Bottle]

The current vogue for big open plan ‘family rooms’ pretty much kills off the viability of having a proper hifi. A mate of mine spent a little time putting together a a decent vinyl set up, I helped him, but the way he has had to integrate it into the living room doesn’t really work.

We moved into an open plan house 10 years ago, I later bought an amp with a built in DAC and Bluetooth, it meant the TV could go through the HiFi and the kids could connect their phones, so the system gets used every day and is inclusive. It has until recently meant not much time for personal listening. Now the kids are older 22,20&19 I do get the room to myself from time to time.

Cheers BB