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OPINION<br />
Pipe dreams<br />
A reader’s letter gets Chris Ward thinking about missed hi-fi opportunities, dream<br />
products, mid-life crisis and going for a spin in a Lancia Stratos with Cindy Crawford<br />
Picture credit: Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images<br />
A<br />
reader recently wrote to the Letters page,<br />
describing a deeply cherished hi-fi system<br />
that couldn’t be surpassed. But they weren’t<br />
describing their most recent or most expensive<br />
purchases. Instead they talked about older pieces of kit<br />
that had brought them the most pleasure. We hi-fi lovers<br />
are often painted as a somewhat logical and unemotional<br />
bunch, so let’s challenge that notion (in a logical way).<br />
This reader was almost becoming dewy eyed describing<br />
the impact of first hearing the components that meant so<br />
much to them. Sharing this experience with others, it soon<br />
became apparent that this is a common story, albeit with<br />
some interesting sub-plots.<br />
With many younger audiophiles there’s commonly a<br />
‘money’ story, where a deeply hankered-for component is<br />
financially out of reach. That is, until one day when the<br />
yearning is matched with income from a new job and they<br />
come out of a dealer’s, grinning from ear to ear. In other<br />
instances, the story becomes a search for a holy grail, where<br />
a ‘love at first hearing’ is followed by indecision not to buy,<br />
that can go on to fuel year’s of regret, longing and a tireless<br />
search for an unrequited love. I once heard an early<br />
Tresham pre/power amp. It had a quality that was simply<br />
sublime, but I didn’t snap it up at the time. Thereafter, I<br />
regularly kicked myself, and only recently tracked down<br />
another example<br />
<strong>Hi</strong>-fi lovers are<br />
afflicted with a<br />
more expensive<br />
quality threshold<br />
on ebay. Happily, it<br />
didn’t disappoint.<br />
Many hi-fi lovers<br />
describe hearing<br />
a component at a<br />
dealer’s or show that<br />
blows them away, but they know they can’t afford it. These<br />
pipe dreams lodge in part of the brain that neuroscientists<br />
now recognise is reserved for lottery-win shopping sprees,<br />
supercar ownership and fantasy romantic liaisons. Time<br />
passes and savings build in ISAs, but the advent of mid-life<br />
crisis can dislodge pipe dreams and savings. Before you<br />
know it, a casual glance online reveals that pre-loved iconic<br />
hi-fi items are now within your grasp. Previous performance<br />
may well have declined and modern standards now exceed<br />
your dream, but the ideals you locked away are untarnished<br />
and remain alluring. So whether you idealised a Krell CD<br />
player, Wilson speakers or indeed a Lancia Stratos driven<br />
by Cindy Crawford, you are convinced that owning it will<br />
scratch that mid-life itch. In some instances it works, but<br />
sometimes those icons from your memory turn out to be<br />
less satisfying than you might have hoped.<br />
Many readers get most passionate when they describe<br />
their greatest ‘leap’ in hi-fi performance. This can be from a<br />
tired midi system<br />
to your own<br />
‘separates’. For<br />
some, the greatest<br />
leap is more of a<br />
paradigm shift,<br />
say from<br />
solid-state amps<br />
to valves, box<br />
speakers to<br />
electrostatic<br />
panels, or movingmagnet<br />
to<br />
moving-coil<br />
cartridges. One<br />
insight that does shine through is that a ‘leap’ in<br />
performance is often more important than any ultimate<br />
measure of ‘quality’. So, the upgrade from an aged midi<br />
system to hi-fi separates could represent a leap from a<br />
notional 20 percent quality to say 60 percent, or upgrading<br />
some tired standmounts to some modern, full-range<br />
floorstanders might take you from 60 percent to 80 percent,<br />
whereas a deep investment in cryogenically frozen lengths<br />
of pure silver cabling can take one from a notional 80<br />
percent to 90 percent quality.<br />
Making the connection<br />
<strong>Hi</strong>-fi (along with almost all purchases) is often proof<br />
positive of a diminishing return on one’s investment, but<br />
maybe the deeper and more interesting insight in hi-fi<br />
ownership is for us all to recognise when and where along<br />
our upgrade story we first connected with music in a more<br />
impactful and emotionally rewarding way. For some, the<br />
car radio sounds just dandy and feet start tapping simply<br />
by spinning vinyl. Some ears only prick up when they first<br />
buy a preamplifier, while others discover they need Class A<br />
amplification. Some just needed to hear an idler drive<br />
turntable, where others work out that zero-feedback<br />
transforms their enjoyment of triodes. Some expensively<br />
work out that they need two systems – monster transistor<br />
power for nineties dance music, while chamber quartets<br />
only come alive with vinyl and valves.<br />
So, the final, more heartfelt insight might be that we hi-fi<br />
lovers are in fact afflicted with a higher more expensive<br />
quality threshold, before we can really become more<br />
emotionally involved in the music. At least, this is what<br />
I’ve explained to my partner…<br />
Please write in to letters@hifichoice.co.uk and tell me<br />
about your most cherished hi-fi components and the effect<br />
they had on your experience of music ●<br />
Sometimes,<br />
window<br />
shopping is the<br />
closest we can<br />
get to owning<br />
that dream<br />
component<br />
CHRIS WARD<br />
Misty eyed<br />
MAY 2016 81
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