How I judge HiFi

[The FlatEarther]

How I judge HiFi. I thought I’d share my personal take on listening via tunedem.

First of all I need to explain that for me a system has one primary job, to convey the message and emotion of a piece of music. By message I mean the melody that is being played, how it is being played and the particular artistic slant, or style of the performer. In the case of a vocalist this includes the lyrics and how and with what feeling they are sung. In other words receiving what the player has hoped I will feel.

Second to this, is the timbre of the piece. All instruments and vocalists have a unique character. It’s no good me getting the message if the replay is so garish it’s unlistenable or the bass tune is lost in boom. But more than this I want to hear the tonal timbre of the instrument or singer. However this is not tunedem but what I call character.

Lastly is the “where and how” of the soundstage. I get less concerned about this as I have yet to hear a system sound like a real performance acoustically. One of the best tests is brass bands or piano. Go up close to a real piano and there’s not a HiFi in the world that can capture that acoustic. This is why the melody and how it’s played is so much more important.

When I first started this adventure in the late sixties and early seventies I had this completely backwards. I was always upgrading looking for a more perfect sound. The end result of this wrong path of understanding, was a mega impressive HiFi that musically was uncaptivating and listening fatigue set in really quick. I always had to buy another record as once heard it lost its value except to impress visitors.

Then came a life changing moment. I had a call from a friend who had just had installed an LP12 Grace 707 Supex Super MC into a Naim 32/160 with Mk1 Linn Kans.
“Dude you’d best get round hear this is like nothing you’ve ever heard” was his claim. So next evening I popped round. When I saw the tiny speakers and thought of my own massive Alison 5 foot corner units I laughed inwardly and thought “Seriously, c’mon Dave”. Anyway he put on Paul Simon’s One Trick Pony” and my jaw it the floor!!!!!
I connected with Tune dem and PRaT in an instant. It was so tuneful and enjoyable beyond belief. Next day all my flash hifi went in the classifieds and soon I bought that very system.
Walnut LP12-Grace 707 arm-Supex MC-Naim 32/160-Mk1 Linn Kans. My, oh my, it was so gorgeously tuneful, I kept playing the same records over and over, every time I repeated the side it just sounded more enjoyable than before to the point when my wife came in from the garden and said she was sick and tired of hearing the same thing over and over. It took months to get through my record collection.
So this was my first lesson in Tunedem.

So using tunedem, I play a track all the way through, then repeat the first few bars. Then do the A/B. I try to focus entirely on the melody of the song, the melody of the instruments, timing and the snap of drums, the melody being sung by the backing vocalists etc. Especially the latter as I find it really easy to sing harmonies and have done so in a few bands and many choirs, besides playing guitar and piano. Tunedem for me is the pitch of the note, the timing of the note and the intensity of the note. In real life it is easy to follow live tunes and I expect it to be the same with recorded music. So for me the melody and is counterparts should flow easily. Drums should have snap when they are struck. Everything should have perfect timing, all notes being played at exactly the right time. This is why choirs and orchestras have conductors, to ensure perfect timing. So, when comparing A to B, I’m looking for these elements to improve and be better focussed. The better product should flow and ebb like the water. If it’s a struggle then B is not better. If it snaps in to focus and becomes easier to follow and sing along with, then its better and passed tunedem.

Only now do I repeat the process and allow myself to listen also for timbre and tone. Usually if B passes tunedem it always passes Timbre.

Then and only then will I start listening to the Acoustic Soundstage. This is the very least important aspect for me. Linn Kans have almost no soundstage but they sound so musical once heard you realise soundstage is an unachievable goal. Much better to focus on the music, after all, that’s what, conveys the message and emotion of the performer. And we are back we started.

PS while writing this I have had the pleasure of the company of Alison Krauss doing what she does best on my Kans big Daddy. The Linn Isobariks. Bliss, just tuneful bliss!
KR
Steve the Flatearther.

[beck]

Great post. I can absolutely follow what you are saying and I would love to own a pair of Isobariks.

[Spannko]

Steve the flatearther,

You've posted one of the best explanations of how to evaluate a system I've had the pleasure to read.

Bang on!

[The FlatEarther]

Thank you both Beck and Spanko. I wrote in an effort to help the uninitiated. Sadly, when I look at many of the negative posts on the Linn forum I seriously have to question do these posters truly understand tunedem?

[Charlie1]

Good post Flat. I particularly enjoyed reading about your life changing moment.

Isn't it nice to be able to write about this topic without sensing that someone's going to come along any moment and claim it's all a load of rubbish and we're just a bunch of gullible idiots. A real freedom.

[The FlatEarther]

Charlie you are so right. On the other side the thread would already have a Naim bash post, a Kans bash post and at least one post questioning either my integrity or my sanity!

Thank goodness for Fred.

[lejonklou]

First of all I need to explain that for me a system has one primary job, to convey the message and emotion of a piece of music. By message I mean the melody that is being played, how it is being played and the particular artistic slant, or style of the performer. In the case of a vocalist this includes the lyrics and how and with what feeling they are sung. In other words receiving what the player has hoped I will feel.

Great post, FlatEarther!

To me, the above sums it all up and the rest is more or less already covered. Because if timbre or timing is wrong, it affects the message. In the past, I listened more analytically, but today I have realised that by focusing on the message and my emotional response, I subconsciously do all the analysis that is needed. If something is not right in the reproduction, it disturbs the message and my response suffers.

Thanks also for sharing that life changing moment. For me, it involved an LP12, LK1, LK2 and a pair of Sara. I remember thinking "THIS is what it's all about! This thrill, this rollercoaster of emotions." And I couldn't really tell what the system sounded like - only what it did to me. I didn't want to stop listening.

It's still all about the thrill.

[markiteight]

Thank you, Flat, for your post. It comes at a rather fortuitous time for me. On Monday I was invited to tea by a friend and our host happened to have a CDS/82/Supercap/250/Ruark Crusader system. Upon seeing the big stack of green I jokingly told her that according to the internet she and I are sworn enemies, since I have a Linn system. Her responde was to sit me down and play some music - starting with the London cast of Phantom of the Opera...not my first choice but that was the first disc that fell to hand. Despite the less than ideal music selection I sat there transfixed...pulled completely into the music. Now I had heard Naim on a few occasions in the past but this was the first time I had heard it outside the retail environment. To say I was impressed is an understatement, however I couldn't help but wonder how it would sound with a properly fettled LP12.

Many times, both on this forum and on the Linn site, I have read posts from "veteran" flat-earthers waxing praise for the original line of Linn speakers, especially the Kan, when driven by Naim electronics and an LP12. In almost every case the poster has said something along the lines of, "my biggest regret was selling that system on." All this universal praise has piqued what has always been a mild curiosity about exploring a proper flat earth system, but after Monday's demonstration my curiosity has been elevated to genuine interest and since then I've been actively perusing the interwebs for what's available.

Due to budget and space constraints I'm most interested in starting small and working up as room and budget allow...something like a Nait1 or 2 and a pair of Kans seems to be the go-to solution for a "budget" flat earth system. But my local Naim dealer has a 110/180 and a pair of SARAs in their second hand inventory that caught my eye. But while those would seriously push the budgetary limits and will probably be too much for my room, it's very tempting!

Unfortunately my location seems to be a bit of a detriment to achieving this goal. Linn and Naim equipment is harder to come by on the second hand market in the U.S. than it is in their home countries, especially gear from the height of the flat earth era. Good Kans are few and far between and proper stands are near nonexistent. Nothing to do but keep trying...

[Music Lover]

So using tunedem, I play a track all the way through, then repeat the first few bars. Then do the A/B. I try to focus entirely on the melody of the song, the melody of the instruments, timing and the snap of drums, the melody being sung by the backing vocalists etc. Especially the latter as I find it really easy to sing harmonies and have done so in a few bands and many choirs, besides playing guitar and piano. Tunedem for me is the pitch of the note, the timing of the note and the intensity of the note. In real life it is easy to follow live tunes and I expect it to be the same with recorded music. So for me the melody and is counterparts should flow easily. Drums should have snap when they are struck. Everything should have perfect timing, all notes being played at exactly the right time.

This is a method for the advanced experienced tunedemmer imho, as it's easy to focus on parts on the reproduction.

Personally, I sometimes get lost follow that method as unintentionally my brain try to analyse instead of soaking in the music.
So for me, it's easier to just relax and feel (disconnect the analytical side of the brain) - do I understand the music, is it making sense.
Tune dem for me is only about musical understanding. All other aspects will follow.

Better musical understanding --> going to be easier to follow a melody
Better musical understanding --> better timing
Better musical understanding --> more snap from drums
Better musical understanding --> more defined pitch of each note
Better musical understanding --> more emotions
etc...

But imho, getting an impression of better timing isn't always resulting in better musical understanding.
The experienced tumedemmers will be able to distinguish what is correct, but for me the error percentage is higher that way.
So I go for musical understanding. :)

I good example is Exakt when released. You could perfectly follow each melody played by different musicians in the band, you could hear everything clearer, the snap was better, the pitch on each note was improved. And the timing was rock solid.
Very impressive!!
Still the music didn't make sense as the musical understanding was lost. For me at least.

Exakt has improved quite a bit today, but still imho - too much focus on enhancing parts in the reproduction and too little focus on understanding the music.

[beck]

You are spot on about Exact. As a musician I recognise that the melodi lines are clear and seperated but too much so! In the real world when listening to live music in a great acoustic setting the lines of music should be seperate but only so much so that they can still blend together creating chords forming "ONE" sound.

Or using your way: When listening to Exact the music did not exite me at all!

[Spannko]

Thanks also for sharing that life changing moment. For me, it involved an LP12, LK1, LK2 and a pair of Sara. I remember thinking "THIS is what it's all about! This thrill, this rollercoaster of emotions." And I couldn't really tell what the system sounded like - only what it did to me. I didn't want to stop listening.

It's still all about the thrill.

I think it's really interesting that, for many of us many of us, hearing an LP12 for the first time was a life changing event. I will never forget the day when Bob Griffin (Griffin Audio, Birmingham, UK) gently suggested I give it a Listen.

At the time, I had had a system full of "Best Buys", according to the mag's - Thorens TD16BC, Mission arm, Ortofon M20FL Super, A&R Cambridge A60E, Castle Kendal II. I was very disillusioned with the whole HiFi malarky because I'd got a "Best Buy" system, but boy was it boring to listen to! Listening sessions consisted of a quick blast of something impressive sounding, just to convince myself that my money was well spent, followed by almost immediate listener fatigue and press of the off button!

I paid Bob a visit (for the first time) with the intention of ditching the whole system and buying a small pair of speakers and a receiver, just for listening to the radio at better than portable radio quality. Bob was the only local dealer who sold the speakers I was looking for - RCL Mini Monitors. They were another "Best Buy" speaker of the day. I listened to these, as well as a couple of others Bob suggested. I didn't really like any of them, but Bob still suggested I tried the RCL's at home, just in case the problem was with his room accoustics. I didn't like them at home either, so took them back to the shop with the intention of buying a Roberts radio!

I explained to Bob how I felt about what I'd got, what I'd heard and what I thought about this stuff called "HiFi". His response was to suggest that I have a listen to a system he'd got set up for another customer, just to see if I still felt the same. The system was an LP12 with Quad amps and speakers. Oh my goodness!!! This was just what I'd been looking for for the previous 5 years. The only way I knew to describe what I was hearing at the time was to say that I felt the sound was "coherent" - I hadn't heard of TuneDem.

The LP12 was about 5 times my budget, but next pay day I placed my order for an LP12 with LVX. The following month I exchanged the LVX for an Ittok, and the month after I added an Asak. As for the speakers I originally went in for, the following month I ordered my first set of Kans. I was well and truly broke, survived by eating leaves, but Boy, was I happy!

[The FlatEarther]

Thanks for the positive comments.

My current system is essentially the same as then just bigger!

Klimax LP12 Aro Prefix Akiva - Naim 52 Supercap Naim 250 - Linn Isobariks.

I also have a Naim CDS but will sell this on soon as I've replaced it with Linn KDS.

[The FlatEarther]

Hi Music lover, no offence but I think we will have to agree to disagree. Not that you're wrong at all but, personally I think tunedem or following the melody is not only the best way to judge a Hifi it is also the simplest. Ironically the "Hifi" uneducated seem to grasp the concept far easier than the more experienced audiophile who gets swept along in detail, soundstage and the like. It is very easy to hear a dramatic increase in detail or soundstage and yet the music becomes less involving. I've experienced this myself and with others many times.

I find orchestral works with simple tunes very easy to use. Such Beethovens No 5 or 9. His Moonlight Sonata as well. Also Jack Johnson's in between dreams album is a great tunedem test.

At the end of the day I have found through bitter experience that soundstage impresses, but tunedem involves me and helps me to connect to the performance emotionally and that I believe is what the performer intends.

[Charlie1]

I find orchestral works with simple tunes very easy to use. Such Beethovens No 5 or 9. His Moonlight Sonata as well. Also Jack Johnson's in between dreams album is a great tunedem test.

I will try Beethoven next time I tunedem. Haven't got Mr Johnson's album - any good?

I had great success with a 'The Chieftains 5' LPs this week. One instrument alone would always open each track but would soon be followed by a second, then third. How well those 2-3 instruments sat together was clearly better with one option where everything came together as a single cohesive piece of music with a mood to convey. On the other option I could tell there was significantly less harmony between instruments - they were kind of fighting with one another and a bit of a mess to try and follow (relatively speaking of course). I assume the instruments were rendered less in time/sync with one another but this LP really showed up the differences nicely. Shame it doesn't always happen like this.

I then took the opportunity to revisit the LP12 lid on, lid off comparison. I thought last time that lid on was a fraction better but must confess that I was wrong and I now join 99% of folks that already think lid off is better :)

[Music Lover]

Hi Music lover, no offence but I think we will have to agree to disagree. Not that you're wrong at all but, personally I think tunedem or following the melody is not only the best way to judge a Hifi it is also the simplest.
.

Surley no offence taken!
This is exactly my point, we are all different. Find your optimum way performing tunedem and use that.
We discussing different ways will help others, finding THEIR prefered method.

It's not about forcing "the one and only possible method" or "the one and only correct method" on each other...

[The FlatEarther]

Charlie, you lucky, lucky guy, no Jack Johnson!!! You are in for a real treat. You've about 5 albums waiting for your listening delight. All his albums are so fantastic I had to buy the downloads as well. The music is simple but excellent and the recordings are suburb on whatever format but especially on vinyl. Start with Inbetween Dreams. I can also recommend Keb' Mo' a marvellous modern blues artist.

BTW I used the Beethoven as an example, as everyone thinks they know the famous da da da dah, da da da dahhh, but a good musical system helps me to not only feel that tune but the music of the other orchestral musicians and how they all fit together as one wonderful whole yet each one has an important invidual performer which builds the whole musically. It matters not one wit to me if I cannot place the prima violin dead left and a yard back from the conductor, or how high or deep the orchestra are on the stage as to me that has less value and is a false god. In fact unless you have a very large speaker system and good valve amps soundstage on solid state hasn't a chance.

My friend Jürgen in Germany has a huge room with massive Audio accepella horn speakers and Simply Unison valve amps. When we installed it it made me realise how pitiful solid state amps were at acoustic faithfulness. Only trouble was it was not involving after the first impression and it was a relief to get home to the Linn,Naim,Isobariks, and spin some vinyl.

[Charlie1]

Charlie, you lucky, lucky guy, no Jack Johnson!!! You are in for a real treat. You've about 5 albums waiting for your listening delight. All his albums are so fantastic I had to buy the downloads as well. The music is simple but excellent and the recordings are suburb on whatever format but especially on vinyl. Start with Inbetween Dreams. I can also recommend Keb' Mo' a marvellous modern blues artist.

Ordered Inbetween Dreams. Look forward to hearing it!

[ThomasOK]

Hi guys. I've been mostly off the forum about a week as I caught a bad cold a week ago Wednesday and didn't get back to work until this Wednesday. I really spent most of the time in bed trying various medications and feeling none of them did much good. Of course, getting back to work after being gone a week means a fair bit of catching up to do and I've still got a couple turntables to get done in the next few work days. But I'm mostly over it now and have a little time.

I enjoyed this thread and the original post. I agree with most of what has been said about musically evaluating equipment. The better pieces always move you more and the quality of musicianship is more evident. I did find that you have to be a little careful about using emotional involvement as it can sometimes lead you wrong. When I tried a piece of music I personally found deeply moving, mostly because of specific personal associations, I found that my mood when listening to it had too much of an effect on how much emotion I felt. This made it such that sometimes I felt more moved by A and other times by B. Since then I have generally not used pieces of music that are that close to the heart. But when putting on just any old piece of music I definitely find that I connect more with the item/setting that allows more music to come through, or is more tuneful, and that makes me want to listen longer and often to get up and move.

One really good example of that is the track I use for pretty much all turntable adjustments: "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot. Now, of course, everybody in the store is totally over that song having heard the first part of it thousands of times. It wouldn't be my first choice for listening for enjoyment either, even though I really like the song. But when I am doing my final fine tuning of an LP12 I make six settings using this track: arm height, tracking force, anti-skating, mat orientation, belt orientation and clocking the platters. Most often they are done in that order. The thing that I find is that as I get each adjustment dialed in the tune gets better and better and there is more emotional connection with the song. When I have made the final adjustment to the platter positions it really brings everything into focus and the whole piece of music really sings. Most often at this point I just listen to the whole song as it is so enjoyable I don't want to stop it. So even though I've played it to death it gets so good I just want to hear the whole track. Interestingly, this its as true of an LP12 Valhalla/LV-X/Grado Red as it is of a full Kilmax LP12. Somehow either way there is just a rightness to it.

I should mention for charlie1 and others that I also highly recommend Jack Johnson. If you like "In Between Dreams" you will probably like all of them. I use his first one "Brushfire Fairytales" all the time for tune dems. The music is relatively simple with voice and acoustic guitar as main instruments and they are well recorded. The drum sound is quite good too. I use both "Posters" and "Flake" a lot but almost any of his songs is good for fine tuning things. For those who aren't familiar with Jack Johnson he is a relatively laid back singer/songwriter/guitarist. I think of him as sort of a modern day Donovan - good mellow music although he does make some interesting comments on society here and there as well as in "The News". Hopefully you will enjoy him. I do find that some really enjoy him a lot and others feel that if they have one record of him it is enough. He is one of those artists that sound pretty much the same from album to album so if you really like him you will probably want them all and if you're not overly fond of him you will probably feel one or two is enough. There are a number of artists that seem to fall into that category with Steely Dan, Mark Knopfler and Michael Franks all pretty much in that grouping (one thing you can't fault King Crimson for). The owner, Keith, feels one Jack Johnson is enough as they are all the same but when the same comment was brought up about Mark Knopfler he said "That's true, but I really like him!" so he owns everything Mark has done. So, as always, to each his own.

[ThomasOK]

I just realized I didn't touch on magical musical moments. I never had a real AHA! moment from an entire system like what flat and Fredrik mentioned as my introduction to Linn and Naim was more gradual. So most of my magic moments were more from individual components with the first being the first time I heard the original Quad ESL and went "Holy Shit, this really sounds like music!" I don't even know what the turntable was although it wasn't an LP12. But I was smitten and did end up owning a pair several years later. Getting my first LP12 was certainly such a moment but that was after I started working for a dealer in 1978 and we didn't carry Linn speakers or Naim Electronics at the time. But a couple of years later I first heard the Isobariks and they were so much better at everything than the Quads I then owned that I ordered a pair immediately. However, I still owned the wrong electronics: the highly reviewed APT Holman preamp and a Marantz 8B tube amp so I still hadn't heard their full glory. But having heard how wonderful the Isobariks were I started to investigate Naim Audio (which had the same US distributor as Linn) and within the next two years, after a slight misstep, I ended up with a 32/HiCap/250 setup driving my Isobariks and fronted by my LP12/Mission 774/Supex SDX1000 (replaced by Ittok/Asak when the Ittok came out). This was the first time an entire system really cooked and was so good I really couldn't hear any faults in it compared to any of the wide array of other Hi-Fi I had access to.

Now, as much as it might disturb some of the flow of this thread, the next big Aha! was when I heard a Linn LK1/LK2 give a thorough shellacking to my 35.5/HiCap/2x135s amplification setup which was quickly sold and replaced. I used exclusively Linn electronics ever since until recently. The other moments that stick in my mind as big musical steps up are when I replaced my LP12 Valhalla/Ittok/Troika with an LP12 Lingo/Ekos/Arkiv, going Aktiv on the Isobariks with four LK280/SPARKS, the Akiva, the KK, my ATCs, the Keel, the Radikal, and the Kandid. Most recently I was amazed at how much more musical and more engrossing the Sagatun Monos were vs. the KK/2. Even when they are playing in the background in the store they tend to draw my attention to the other room to go and listen to whatever is being streamed! That's it for now but there may be yet more in the future, time will tell.

[The FlatEarther]

Hi Tom, I'm surprised that you thought the Asak better than the Supex as I thought that the 1000SDX was the most musical and sweetest, even dare I say lush sounding cartridge that I ever had the pleasure to listen to back in those days.

Sounds like you've had some wonderful aha's.

[Charlie1]

I should mention for charlie1 and others that I also highly recommend Jack Johnson. If you like "In Between Dreams" you will probably like all of them. I use his first one "Brushfire Fairytales" all the time for tune dems. The music is relatively simple with voice and acoustic guitar as main instruments and they are well recorded. The drum sound is quite good too. I use both "Posters" and "Flake" a lot but almost any of his songs is good for fine tuning things. For those who aren't familiar with Jack Johnson he is a relatively laid back singer/songwriter/guitarist. I think of him as sort of a modern day Donovan - good mellow music although he does make some interesting comments on society here and there as well as in "The News". Hopefully you will enjoy him. I do find that some really enjoy him a lot and others feel that if they have one record of him it is enough. He is one of those artists that sound pretty much the same from album to album so if you really like him you will probably want them all and if you're not overly fond of him you will probably feel one or two is enough.

Thanks Tom. I'm looking forward to listening to him.

Glad you're recovered. Sounds like a nasty one to take you out of action for nearly a week.

Are you now snowed in?

[ThomasOK]

Flat, these were my early days in the experience of Linn and Naim as mentioned above. After having heard Isobariks and then the Naim 42/110 and then the 32/HI-CAP/250 and then doing my first real test of the hierarchy and finding that a Rega Planar 3 through my Naim/Isobarik system sounded like crap and my LP12 through a NAD 3020 and a pair of good $200 speakers sounded wonderful, I pretty much decided that whatever the US importers told me was to be trusted. Similar to what I would have said about Linn in general until recently. All of this is a long way of saying that I never actually compared the Supex 1000 vs. the ASAK and changed both the cartridge and arm at the same time. So, of course, the Ittok musical improvement won the day and I never looked back. But I really did quite enjoy the Supex on the Mission arm for the time I had it.

Charlie1, Thanks, although I would correct that to mostly recovered. It was one of those sneezing/runny nose colds that then drops into your chest and makes you cough for days. I still have a cough here or there but am probably 90 to 95% and expect this coming weekend (which starts for me tomorrow) to knock the rest of it out.

No snow here. That's all in the NorthEast - Philly, DC, New York, etc. are the ones getting buried in snow. We have no precipitation forecast here for the next several days and it has been clear and sunny here all day. There is even supposed to be a warming trend with highs in the upper 30s starting Monday and through most of the week. So no complaints there.

[Spannko]

@ Flatearther, Charlie1, ThomasOK

I think your TuneDem tracks are all excellent examples of tracks which make TuneDem easier and they're all very similar in character to the tracks I use.

I often use a Beethoven or Chopin sonata or Beethoven's Emperor concerto, although I must admit that I haven't tried Beethoven's 5th symphony. I'll give it a go next time. I remember using Mahler's 2nd on vinyl, but I haven't used it in a while.

The Cheiftains have done some great TuneDem numbers. I particularly like the A Celebration album (almost any track), and Round The House And Mind The Dresser on the Live album. Jack Johnsons albums are great too.

I'd totally forgotten about Gordon Lightfoot. A quick Quobuz listen was all I need to jog my memory, and yes, what a great TuneDem track. It didn't sound tuneful at all on Qobuz, but I can imagine an original vinyl sounding fantastic. I reminded me of another track I use: Carol Kidd's When I Dream. They both have a similar structure.

I always use the album Together by John Williams and Julian Bream too. It's a 2 disc album, with one being more tunefull than the other. Fortunately, I prefer the more melodic music on the more tunefull disc. I think listening to two guitarists is a great test of a system; the louder of the two guitars can make it more difficult to follow the tune of the other, and when the system's working well, their excellent timing is really obvious.

I often use Simply Red's Sad Old Red for its great bass line too - and let's not forget Tracy Chapmans first album. The list is endless!

[Music Lover]

Interesting that we are so different.
I prefer using unknown music but as a final verification on the absolut performance level use familiar music.

[par]

Really enjoyed reading your post.

I can very much relate to your comments regarding about always upgrading - in my own case I would say it became and an "obsession" and very much detracted away from the enjoyment of listening to music.