That is fucking great lol
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That is goodā¦but not as good as the āHotel Coral Essexā sign from Revenge of the Nerds II, LMFAO.
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Iāve been to that shop when I was on the road a couple years ago. Somewhat more speaker focused, but I got to demo a Utopia, LCD-2, LCD-4, and a few Grados, mostly on MacIntosh amps.
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Not nearly as good but the local skating rink is named United Skates of America.
The lights went out and now its just āTed Skates Americaā
We had a few of those in my area in the Cleveland suburbs. There is only one that hasnāt been demolished yet. I have memories of being in 6th grade and going there after school, lol.
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Wish that were me! Tried to go to it at the beginning of my audiophile journey but the sign said appointment only
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Never gave a lesson of my own lol. This one isnāt a hi-tier fi lesson but a reminder: try turning off your AC. We have bad AC from decades ago and it requires additional window units to help. But whenever I have a cool day, I turn off the AC to lower my IRL noise floor and it makes a huge difference. It makes things pop more, especially the microdetails. Literally a free upgrade.
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I enjoy visiting quality high end HiFi shops but always come to the same conclusion after each visit, the only good equipment happens to be whatever THEY sell or can get their hands on for you. Sometimes they inadvertently even āpoo-pooā their own stuff 
.
I love this hobby and finally accept that the ābestā of anything is simply whatever you can manage to cobble together and enjoy if you donāt have bottomless funds to throw at folks.
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Unfortunately most shops peddle the āoh we dont carry that because its garbage, this is like that but twice as good and costs way less!ā
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Yeah sometimes, and I also understand that they know their equipment best, thus it is very difficult for them to help you mix and match components too. I love great gear as much as the next guy, itās just so difficult though when you want to upgrade something and everything suggested starts at $30K and goes up from there to sky high numbers. This is especially true for speakers, it is seemingly impossible to upgrade past a certain level without dropping tens of thousands. Donāt get me wrong, there is some really really nice stuff out there at that price point, and I appreciate the quality and effort put out to make these items. Itās just that the amount of funds required gets tiring to think about some days. 
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Thatās always been the disadvantage of Brick and Mortar, usually they donāt have a lot of selection at any price point (They do have to carry stock), but usually what they have tends to have good synergy between the pieces.
One solution was to use more than one store, but itās harder to do these days.
On Speakers, yes there is a point where the cost to step up is āextremeā.
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I miss the days years past when my Cerwin Vega 15ās and a few thousand watts was all I needed. As long as walls were shaking and glassware breaking I was happy 
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Just think about all the money youāve saved buying those used Klipsch corner loaded horns!
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@db_Cooper Iām like a fat kid in a candy store, if you leave me unsupervised overnight youāll find me dead in the morning from gorging on everything 
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Oh shit. I just ran into an epiphany watching a coffee podcast/video. Props to James Hoffman. If you know, you know.
His advice: Donāt upgrade to the thing that everyone is talking about. Donāt upgrade for the sake of upgrading or just because you can afford it.
Upgrade to fix identify an issue that you are having. [Identify the bottleneck] and upgrade to address an issue.
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Somedays i worry about myself, then i run across wonderful gentlemen like the one posting this advertisement and i settle back and remind myself that life is short, do what makes you happy when you can, money comes and money goes and crazy is relativeā¦ 
Read the actual addā¦
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One lesson that I have learned throughout my journey and one that is at the forefront of my thoughts these days is to always weigh your options carefully when moving up or adding to a system. Too many times in the past I have bought gear that really had no specific purpose for my usecases or didnāt really fit into my chain and synergy all based on fotm nonsense born of the hivemind hype machine that is the larger modern audiophile online community. I have learned to take time in assessing whether a purchase is something I truly want/need and have interest in or if itās just me losing control and wanting to buy something just for the sake of shiny toy syndrome.
so yes the lesson is to try to be more in control of your purchases but also your emotions.
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Most important lesson i have learned in this and other hobbies, none of my stuff Is worth a damned penny near what i paid for it and folks expect me to pay them to haul it away, but damned if there wonāt be a line of people half way down the block waiting to pick through my stuff the moment i drop dead. Such is life and the power of E-bayā¦
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Something Iāve learned, or maybe the words managed to grasp might be more accurate, is the definition of what the room information people mention is. Whether itās because of my gear limiting me in the past or my ears or both only until recently have I really started to hear the āroomā or the sounds on the side that really create the stage. Through hearing some just even decent recording (not kpop obviously) Iāve been able to hear lingering guitar notes that have nothing to do with what the player is trying to do, the in between sounds the mouth makes when the singer is about to sing change pace etc and also just the placement of every single instrument having such ownership of time and space within my headphones and speakers it feels like the stage is finally way more defined to where Iāve been hearing the room or the stage per say. (Only time I got a taste of this was with pass labs preamp on speakers, actually thinking about it I feel I also got some of this stuff from Andros only when paired to a crazy high end iem cable that Veritas loaned me.)
Also again not necessarily a lesson Iāve learned from getting into HiFi but something thatās changed in my music listening nowadays is that I have been enjoying just selecting random albums in my library and listening to the full album and doing nothing else. Itās been so rewarding, such an experience. It really feels like Iām getting a personal concert played everytime I do so. I think itās because of the difference in gear and music, with the verite closed paired with the hiby RS6 thereās just so much room information that hearing a while performance is more interesting at times than just listening to a fun pop song that I enjoy.
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Warning: Long Article
Been having some great food for thought recently, feels like Iāve managed to break a barrier in my decision making processes thatās given me some āenlightmentā regarding alot of things but in particular one of the main issues that people have in this hobby. This is a bit of a write up so please feel free to skip this if you are looking for a short read.
Maybe not necessarily most but many people in the audio hobby tend to either feel guilty spending so much money on audio or at least feel the need to find a way to spend less money on audio and the main way in which they do that is by choosing 1 thing to focus on by either going full in on speakers, headphones or IEMs. It seems reasonable and rational however as someone who has done that many times (both going full in on headphones due to my living situaiton or going full in on speakers due to the presentation) I finally managed to learn my lessons and some more. If i went all in on IEMs, i found myself wishing for the bigger headphone presentation, if i went with headphones only i found myself wanting the presentation of speakers, if i went with full in with speakers i found myself wanting the ability to listen to my music anywhere in any situation, an opportunity which i didnāt have with speakers. This is all a simplification of course but generally the case however i kept on trying to do it in order to affor something really expensive and great. At the end of the day I learned a few lessons:
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Time span: maybe not today, not tomorrow or even next week but eventually wether itās the different presentation or different use case In my experience I want them all. And having them all is the only way that I donāt find myself with wondering curiosity or disatisfied.
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Money: You might think, if I can rid one of these form factors I can fully focus all my money and get an ultra high end setup or at least one thatās higher in performance and cost than I would if I split my money into all of these things that I realistically need or would like to have but after all these experiences I fully disagree. Hereās the thing, thereās two things that really make a difference here and itās both synergy, finding a sound you like and (I lied thereās a third one too) and also your listening ability. What I am saying is pretty simple, if you find gear that plays well enough together where they minimize their weak points and make the strong points all the more enjoyable it can really be magical even if it doesnāt have the layering, speed etc of something higher end. This actually ties to the second and third point so Iāll just tie these points together real quickly, Iāve only been in this hobby for 3 years listening to alot of gear but only this year do I feel like Iāve reached a new level of appreciation for my gear due to me noticing alot of things I never had. For example Audioquest Nighthawks are something I got years ago when I relatively was new to this and I enjoyed them , I appreciated the imaging, bass, organicness and many other things that to this day I appreciate but the finer details that also catch my eyes recently like the decent micro detail it carries, the depth, the layering of detail and the combination of all itās attributes is something that only recently do I feel like I really am able to appreciate. Iām sure that part of the reason Is my much better source gear but itās also the difference in how I listen to music. That brings us to our other point however which goes with finding a sound that you like where honestly If you are wanting a specific trait like letās say a more organic sound, in that same headphone do you really need that much more impact, speed etc? Because to me it sounds like your real focus at that moment is a more fun headphone with that fun impact, speed but still carries your minimum requirement for organicness. And if you really do want something to mostly focus on that organic ability but with better technical abilities as long as you find something thatās reasonably good and keeps on scaling you can have a winner.
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Sanity or lack thereof: We have all been here, we find ourselves questioning if our headphone has a channel imbalance, why is it sounding less enjoyable than usual? For some reason today I am not liking this sound, this is crap. Tons of people in this hobby have these type of crazy personalities including me. Sometimes you just do happen to fall out of love with gear but more times than not in my experience that day you simply donāt feel like listening to audio much. If thereās a day in which you donāt feel like watching your favorite movie you donāt think āMan Iām so not enjoying this movie rn, I think itās crap so Iām just gonna throw it awayā instead you just say let me watch this other genre or movie because for some reason iām just feeling it more. Literally the same thought process we should have with audio, seems obvious right? When putting it that way it really does seem obvious but for some reason I didnāt usually go through that logical process nore considered it. I just focused on the letās say extra sibiliance that is really bothering me and said to myself āMan this headphone is to damn sibiliant, fucking crap. I think Iāll sell it and look for something thatās much more relaxedā when just 2 days ago I was enjoying the hell out of it and felt that I was hearing my music in such a cool new way! Honestly Iām not 100% sure why in most things In life we can be very reasonable and just understand that maybe I am just not in the mood for this activity itself, not in the mood for this specific type of sound and just kinda go with the flow as we do when choosing other activities to do but with audio I personally ( and I know alot of people that do or have done the same) kinda forget about all of that and my only ālogicalā conclusion is that suddenly my gear is crap, Iām just not into this style anymore etc.
In conclusion, If you just read this stuff it seems so āobviousā however when you are actually experiencing it many of us have gone through these things a billion times. I think itās like a concept that I learned in college called ātrue knowledgeā which was essentially broken down into two pieces. One is what we typically consider knowledge to be, for example we all know smoking is bad and that if we do it we should stop. However true knowledge is essentially piece of information that you heard + the true understand of the consequences that lead you to do an action about it, in this case quitting smoking because you really understand the concept and the consequences etc enough to do something about it. I think in audio Iāve personally kept on leading myself through these faulty routes thinking that magically this time it will be different without really realizing that based on my history it really wonāt. Forgetting even the mistakes Iāve had with audio Iāve just realized alot of things where I feel I gained a level of enlightement, from finding pure joy and basically not having many irrational crazy moments when using my gear (that comes from awesome gear but also not limiting myself), to just having fun! Taking my own pace even if a deal comes up because knowing that I wonāt have to worry about regular bills or surprise bills for these next 2 weeks until I get paid give me so much peace of mind over jumping on an awesome deal. For the past 3 months, since the year started basically Iāve just got a firm grast on many things like how much better something can sound with the correct source gear too. I feel bad that I used some awesome IEMs in the past with subparr source gear.
OK so small bullet points of other cool lessons that have made as much of an impact in this enlightment process that im talking about but donāt require a full essay lol
- sometimes jumping around but alot of the time just picking an album and listneing to the full thing
*Room: obvious for speakers but I mean in general, having this one room where I sit far away from any phone, have a great listening chair and quiet environment has been so awesome for general enjoyment of headphones, iems and of course speakers. allows me to really focus on my speakers and listen actively
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variety. seems so obvious that we donāt listen to the same song in repeat because you get bored of it right? dosenāt make the song any less good, and in fact when you hear it again after a long hiatus you enjoy it as much or more than before! so why donāt we keep that reasoning with gear? duh lol. So thereās another one, been switching headphones on a weekly basis, 1 week Hawks, 1 week Andros so on and so on.
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Listening skill: thereās just so much stuff I really pay attention to these days or naturally notice where I realise like hey, just a month ago even I didnāt appreciate this specific piece of gear as mmuch as I do now! Itās mostly been because Iāve just noticed so much new stuff about it
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Pace: We all know it, we all say it but not until you actually do pace yourself and slow it down do you get teh true knowledge thing I was talking about where you realize the extent of itās importance. No offense to many people who have been in this hobbie for years but I think sometimes you donāt realize the snail pace that some of us have with actually improving our hearing etc. Iāve had hawks for a long time, it wasnāt until last year that I truly learned to appreciate the special presentation. The amount of appreciation that you can get for your gear if you own it long enough is crazy
Sorry to everyone, specially to my professors because Iāve put more work and a much bigger word count to this than I ever did to any school paper. But whether itās just something to read, learning a lesson or something deeper I hope you enjoyed this read at least!
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