If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly upgrading your gear and spending several stacks of thousands of dollars…
But what if our picture of endgame doesn’t exist? In other words, we are chasing a certain quality that doesn’t exist?
If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly upgrading your gear and spending several stacks of thousands of dollars…
But what if our picture of endgame doesn’t exist? In other words, we are chasing a certain quality that doesn’t exist?
I think you’re right in the sense that “endgame” as a concept doesn’t really last long in hobbies. I chased a NAC282/NAP250DR/NDX2 for years and when I got it, I felt it for a few weeks and then my ears adapted and it became easier to think I was lacking something again. When I’m reminded of how good it is, it is stark and I remember that it is the shit, but most of the time it just is what it is now and I have grown accustomed to the sound.
On the other hand, it’s truly endgame for me because I just can’t stomach the next tier of prices and honestly probably couldn’t afford them anyway, so I guess I’ve sort of found my nirvana. When I do reflect on it, it’s a very happy place to be and I enjoy my hifi a lot. In that sense, having a strictly enforced endgame can be pretty nice, you’re not chasing some mystical sound that is constantly shifting goalposts.
Yeah. Ultimately, when you have almost completely flat response, no harmonic distortion, accurate group delay, and small enough room reverb time, you’ve basically achieved sound perfection.
A sound system like that ultimately doesn’t sound like anything. It just sounds like whatever you play back on it, rendering it accurately. It is time to stop and just focus on the music at that point.
In principle you can hear everything that is going on in the music at that point. There is nothing left to discover other than what you already hear.