Musing About "Endgame"

I can only reiterate what others have said. There is no endgame when you focus on gear ahead of music.

 

Healthy curiosity compels the discovery path that makes this a hobby. Endgame happens when the curiosity is gone.

 

Endgame is when you can quit cycling/collecting with what you have but it is up to you if you end the game…

If they kept releasing new masters of your favorite albums you might keep wanting to at least hear the different versions. Confirm that your favorite is still an older one.

 

I definitely understand endgame and its definition will boil down to my own interpretation of it. I couldnt help but think some or a lot of us in here all start at similar goal post. What got us here may not be the same reason but we all had those first purchases and the realization that oh man what a different experience. Before you know it you are knee deep in gear some of which you barely touch because you are chasing something. That something is different for every person. At some point we pump the brakes a little and try to be smarter and more conscious about our purchases. Calm down for little bit of time only to catch a video or a thread a few months or years down the line and think "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"
Ill just enjoy the ride for the time being.

 

I have spent far far FAR more time comparing masterings of albums I've heard ten thousand times than I've spent comparing gear. I do enjoy trying different gear but mostly what I care about is do I enjoy listening to what I'm listening to? if the answer is no, then something has to change. Lately the answer has been a consistent and enthusiastic yes.

Should you encounter the Gear on the road, kill the Gear.

 

Sadly, I love the “damn, this sounds so good” feeling that has always worn off after a few months, at least up to now, and I guess it will be the same in the future.

I do think that my setup is totally great, it’s not that I’m constantly looking at the other side of the fence with envy. But still, when there’s the chance to get something new that has the potential to sound even better …

I must also admit that I often use music to listen to my gear. I don’t really think that’s a problem, though, as long as I enjoy what I hear, which is usually the case. A mixture of both, actually: I could never enjoy my gear by listening to music I don’t like, so I enjoy both the music and the gear.

I think that HQPlayer might help me in the future not to spend too much money on gear: I hope that when the novelty of the sound I just created by finding my favourite filter wears off, I will like another one better and just start over.

 

Sometimes the only upgrade someone needs is taking time off from listening…

 

For better or worse, the hifi industry is also pretty good at fueling the moar gear, moar better impulse.

Even Schiit, for all of their budget friendly offerings and we're not guaranteeing this is any better anti-marketing, regularly comes out with updates and new products and successfully get us salivating over them. Even at SBAF, the hype train fills right up and rolls out of the station.

Capitalism/consumerism is sort of built on the notion that there can never, ever be a perfect product. It's all meant to leave us with that slight but significant feeling of dissatisfaction, to make us think the next thing will finally, finally get us there.

But damned if don't seem to walk into it every time.

For better or worse, I really enjoy the sound of music, and I've chased any number of upgrades and think many have them have been worthwhile.

On the other hand, man, am I sick of AB'ing shit. At the end of a long day or work, the last thing I feel like doing, lately anyway, is tweaking something or shooting out cables or DAC inputs or whatever. It is f'ing boring, especially when I want to listen to music.

I'm dicking around with HQPlayer also, but I'm guessing I'll probably just stick with the recommended filters. Or change one every now and then and see how I feel about it over time. I'm way past the point of wanting to listen for micro-differences in piano tone or whatever.

Oh, and vintage MM cartridges. I might have some fun with those, eventually, but only b/c they're (relatively) cheap to roll.

Well, f**k it, here we go again, I guess....

 

Another thing that comes to mind is the "never meet your heroes" problem with any hobby. Fortunately a lot of the audio hobby is predicated on no- or little-risk auditions, but even still, does lusting for years or decades for some fancy or rare piece of gear make owning it "worth it" regardless of how it sounds? And this doesn't even account for changes in preference over time...

 

I tried to make this short but it ended up long. When I first discovered what "HiFi" was I heard Vivid K1 and Vivid B1 speakers 10+ years ago. Since then I have always been enamored with that experience and use my best recollection to compare everything to that first revelation. Fast forward to last year and I came into Vivid Kaya 90 that I never expected I would own.

I got them setup in an obviously not-ideal space and upon sitting down with my modern hero I had gut-wrenching, physical illness inducing buyers remorse. They did not sound good. I spent the next 9 months trying to figure out why they didn't sound right and feeling pretty bad about myself. I discovered several things along the way through trial and error and finally found a configuration that works with a new space that also presented additional challenges.

It was not really about gear, it was more about working with the speaker's capabilities and understanding how to set them up properly in my square room. The journey along the way through trial, error, room measurements, and discovery was fun and rewarding for me despite the concern that I may have made a grave financial mistake. I finally have them in a position that works and it sounds awesome. There is still room for improvement but despite being in an "end game" scenario I still had to work through several challenges to reach a satisfactory state.

 

Yeah, it is probably a fortunate thing I have never actually driven a Ferrari.

 

"...driven by Canadians"?

 

Epic 80's car only to be driven if you have a pony tail and some diablo dust lingering on your pencil mustachio and a naked prostitute riding shotgun

 

Yeah, this 100%. If you have a rig that you're satisfied with most of the time, but occasionally find yourself caught in some kind of upgraditis/"what if"/HiFiShark-browsing doom spiral, IME it always helps to go touch grass and do something else -- a weekend trip, some other hobby, whatever -- and then come back to the rig after some time off. I almost always realize how good I already have it if I do that.

 

Endgame is meaningless for performance oriented people.
There is no final goal.
Designers of hi-end equipment rarely have anything at their homes - reason is, the next month the best might not be the best anymore.
There is slow but tiny incremental progress, non-stop.

 

Endgame is discovering (consciously or unconsciously) which compromises you're willing to (or have to) make and finding peace with them.

 

I think I'm lucky, my amp->headphone chain is endgame for me, I have come to this conclusion after trying many other popular options.

 

I think even if I could afford endgame I'd get bored. Could never live with one headphone or one headphone amp. Even though I'm not in the hunt anymore, it's nice to be able to swap things out for a change. Lately it's been all JAR650 and Clear for me.