Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms vintage versus modern hifi

I'm certainly not tone deaf (although my hearing isn't what it was 40 years ago) but I have sympathy with the Alan Parsons view (audio engineer for Pink Floyd and musician with his own band The Alan Parsons Project). He said of the more 'extreme' Hi Fi enthusiasts that "Instead of using their equipment to listen to our music, they use our music to listen to their equipment" - which is maybe a bit harsh but there's a core of truth in it.

Being a Hi Fi enthusiast is a great hobby, completely harmless and very effective at getting rid of any spare money one might otherwise fritter away - and now that one can have access to all the recorded music int he world for a tenner a month or whatever the old argument that one's record collection should always be worth more than one's system no longer applies. Certainly the whole subjective experience of settling down in front of a decent system for an evening's listening to some great music of one's choice is a perfectly splendid way to pass a few hours. If one wants to spend the price of a top-end sports car on it, then why not?

Me, I'm perfectly happy with my music streamers and some active studio monitors, but then I'm usually pumping the music through my mixing desk and playing along (or trying to). And if I were ever to come into the £50k+ that many serious Hi Fi folk spend on their gear, I'd spend it with a luthier on a custom guitar. Each to their own.