Value for Yen, Music, and other issues.

I’m just doing some Sunday writing now and I wanted to share my thoughts on something that made me very happy when I got home last week from my Honshu travels. It surprised me because it had not been missed at all while I was away. It never crossed my mind what was missing. That something would be my hi-fi music system. Sean and I had been decked out with every conceivable electronic gadget (except GPS) while we crisscrossed Japan, this included a sizable roll out of digital audio players.

Upon the first quiet moment to myself at home I brought out the Bob Dylan disk I picked up in Sapporo. I realized just how much happiness this hobby brings me. In my opinion the hobby of hi-fi is mostly passive, either listening to music or gathering up every scrap of information to be able to search out the products of best valve. Hi-fi gear is not an uphill battle, as is often assumed (though the law is diminishing returns is a painful fact). Technology is constantly raising the bar for what one’s dollar can buy and hi-fi gear is generally so well build that second or third hand gear is normally indistinguishable sonically from brand new.

Listening to Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft through my headphone set-up did not invite the singer into my living room; it was more like he was playing in my head! A private concert of sorts. I am rewarded by learning through experience my headphone’s own signature. What jumped out at my after wondering through the electronic stores of Japan is that my phones present an enormous amount of detail; voices and instruments are locked in a definite space and harmonies are natural. Lastly, the sound is very smooth and quick which leads to – very importantly to me – a very musical presentation.

This leads to my warning: Never get involved in high-end audio! It’s an addiction! An appetite that can never be satisfied! A scratch that can never be reached! One’s ears start to hear the smallest of defects and the mind wonders wildly about the endless sonic possibilities. However, for the moment at least, I am content. And thoroughly satisfied with every penny spent inviting Bob Dylan, Radiohead or The Avalanches into my head.