Experiencing Music At Home or Why I Own a Hi-Fi?

I have listened to more music and reviewed less equipment over the last four weeks than ever before due to the “Shelter In Place” order. As much as I like reviewing great equipment, I have to say that just sitting down to enjoy music has also been truly great.

The other night I listened to Ruthie Foster’s Let It Burn album, and my mind wandered back to an evening several years ago when my oldest son took me over to Yoshi’s in Oakland to hear her live for the first time. This was one of those concerts where I experienced music in a way that I will never forget.

As I listened to Ruby Foster over the ElectroStatic Solutions’ QUAD ESL 57s, I realized something. When I was in college, I heard live music all of the time. Baylor had a great school of music that provide wonderful free live music. Then there were the concerts that would come to a college town. Baylor was also close enough to Austin and Dallas to go there for concerts, and we did. For most of those years, I listened to music at home over my stacked QUAD ESL 57s, pictured below.

Life and Live Music

Then along came life, marriage, graduation, a real job, children, and a house that was too small for stacked QUADs along with no time or money for much live music. During those years, I got on the upgrade path trying to get that live experience from soundstaging, transparency, and imaging. After all, those were the things I was reading about in the audio rags. While the chase was loads of fun, looking back I seemed to have forgotten what was so wonderful about live music, the emotional and shared experience!

Then, twenty years ago Becky got a job offer in San Francisco, and we were at a point in our lives to make such a move. So, we made the cross-country move from Columbus, GA. Now we could hear live music everywhere in the Bay Area. I made some new audiophile friends and started reviewing audio as part of my hobby.

Joy and Emotion

Live musical experiences like the Ruby Forster concert I shared with my son began to realign what I expected from my audio system. It wasn’t long before I felt that more than anything else, I had to have that experience from my home system.

As an audiophile, when I got home from the Foster concert I began to think about what I could change in my system to have more experiences like this. I don’t think my thought process was much different from that of most audiophiles. I began to ask what would give me that kind of bass power, midrange transparency, and that kind of lifelike soundstage. Yet, as I thought it all through, I remembered that the things that made the concert so great weren’t the bass, the detail, or the midrange transparency. It wasn’t even the soundstage. What made the concert special was how much joy and emotion it brought to me.

Capturing the Concert Experience

At shows, I have heard the huge VAC/Von Schweiker systems that can provide this experience, but I have no room or money for such a system. Very few systems can capture even a small amount of the aliveness, realistic vocals, and instruments with the correct tone, harmonics, and timbre to provide such an experience.

If you want to hear every little thing on the recording, then that’s the thought process. of most audiophiles. I admit I think the details on the recording is what most audiophiles are looking for, and that’s just fine if it makes them happy. The problem is that over the years the systems like this that I have put together left me thinking or wanting more, and I would trade up. Is it any wonder that I’m a reviewer?

An Alternate Approach

So is there an alternative way to put together an audio system? Over the last 10 years, I have found that there is. It starts by being honest with myself and asking why I even want a high-end audio system. If you ask yourself this question, like me, you will probably find that there are several good answers.

I hear people who talk about how much better their system is than most live music because live music is almost always amplified and often has hum and distortion. I have another friend who just finds all the people in attendance a major distraction. Then, there are people who simply love the equipment and love fiddling with it. There are people who have lots of money and like music and see no reason not to own the very best to play it on. There are many reasons to want to own a high-end audio system.

I never will forget when I was in college and wandered into the local high-fi store one afternoon. This guy was a McIntosh dealer. I noticed they were loading up some huge speakers and lots of equipment. I asked what was in the system that they were delivering, and the salesman said that I would never believe it. It seems a lady had come in and asked for the best speakers they sold. So they showed her the huge McIntosh speakers that each looked like my uncle’s Magnavox console. Then, she told them that she wanted the best amplification they had for those speakers and the best FM tuner they sold. Then, they asked her what turntable she wanted. She said, “None, I only listen to the radio.” They had just sold one of the most expensive and surely one of the biggest FM radios in the world.

Know What You Want

I want to say again that any reason you have for wanting a high-end system is great, just try to determine what it is that you want. I hope it won’t take you as many years to determine this as it did me. It ended up that I wanted a system that had it all, but first and foremost it had to leave me emotionally moved and interested in the performance.

Becky will tell you in a minute that if I go too long without music, I’m hard to live with. I truly listen to music to soothe my soul, mentally stimulate me, or just make me happy. When a system can’t do that day after day, I find it frustrating.

Check back soon, and the Old Audio Beatnik will share what he has learned about getting the sound he wants in his home.