I think an even better question is, how much do you have to charge for magic beans so that they call luxury retail instead of consumer fraud?

Didn’t you mean to say “where does audiophile end […]”?

I think I hit mental illness from reading that title

Hobbies, enthusiast, and obsessive mental case are all points on the same spectrum merely separated by degree.

The moment you think vinyl sounds better.

I constantly hear imagined artifacts (or real) in digital representations of material… I can’t hear the difference between 16 bit 44.1 and 24 192… but there is something that goes on with the initial transients, akin to there being some infinitely small sample wide clicking distortion at the peak of transients… also the instruments are much more likely to muddy eachother and compete for space in the frequency spectrum…

But when I listen to vhynl or tape my brain is able to relax and just take it in because in those mediums even the wrong answers are right most of the Time. The instruments are able to sit within their perspective ranges more obviously.

Now over the years fighting with all the different forms of digital distortion I have this constantly nagging feeling like something in the circuit is wrong… and that’s mostly just my own psyco somatic auditory process.

My brain is hardwired to pick up any digital distortion so much so that even a hint of it removes me from the enjoyment immediately and must be dealt with… but the causes of lossy digital distortion are so vast any many that listening sessions often turn into troubleshooting sessions… but the “warmth” of vhynl and tape are undeniable and require no additional mental gymnastics because I can remain in a state of awe over the technology itself…

They say that some infinities are bigger than others… idk about that but I do know within the walls of analog mediums there is a literal infinity. Digital is great in sooooo many ways but forever missing that little tinge of infinity

My dumb brain kept reading that as $133.44, I was like, oh that’s not so bad

I’ll refer you to one of the listed ‘cons’ for the what hifi review of the Audionote Ongaku (a £58,000 7 watt integrated valve amp, which tbf looked the business) from circa 2000.

“If your hifi costs more than your house, you’re ill”

(which came after the ‘pro’ ‘simply the best amplifier mankind can create’)

Yeah, somebody buy a car for several hundred thousands, somebody buy a expensive watches and somebody buy a turntable… what is a difference? Why only a audiphiles are idiots when buy expensive gear?

To each his own. Except “a vinyl”. You can’t say that

I’ve got some 13 dollar sonys on a goodwill avr and I’m content

A $133k turntable purchase isn’t mental illness, it’s bragging rights. They bought it because it was $133k. If there’d been a $150k model, they’d have bought that one instead.

They probably don’t even listen to it unless there is someone to show it off to. They’re using Airpods on a diamond-bedazzled iPhone the rest of the time.

Products like that exist only to relieve billionaires of some bucks. BRB, designing a new turntable.

Cable risers

Definition: Health is not pure absence of disease. Instead it is a state of physical, mental and social welfare.

That means if this makes negative impact on your work, family life, relations with people…it is an illness

Buying a $133k turntable is just a flex for someone with millions worth of disposable income, the sort of person who probably made more than $133k on their investments in the time it took to go purchase it. I mean if you have that sort of money then why not, I’m sure most of us here would buy stupid shit like that just for the fun of it if we hit an infinite money glitch.