it's variable guys!

I know that it would be great if the hobby was able to work in a one setting manor, but the fact is "this is a variable hobby". Always has been, always will be:!:

Every once in a while we need to go back and review what this hobby is, so we don't spend all of our time trying to make it into something it isn't.

Never has this hobby stopped being variable, high end audio has just taken a detour into a false land that has no end in sight for man. We must absolutely keep in mind that when you get that component and music home, this is not the end but just the being of a whole new adventure. Trust me, your fellow listener may not be talking about it, but they are certainly experiencing the difficulties a fix sound presents to playback.

We've all been there, trust me. Everyone who has followed the Stereophile TAS Articles and Class Ratings of listening has at one time or another got in that "Audiophile Groove" and lost our senses. J Gordon and Harry did it, along with every reviewer to follow, and we all at one time forgot the simple physics of audio. I'm not suggesting any of us lost our way on purpose, we just forgot the fact that we are human and physics is.....physics.

We struggle with our systems and are as quiet as church mouses when we put on that recording and it sounds "absolutely" horrible. Some of us speak up with some kind of reasoning, but lets face the hard cold facts. There are only so many reasons, blames and fingers. When we run out of these fingers our hobby comes down to one reason, and that reason will make or break your smile. Listening at this high level of precision requires not only equipment, but a method.

One thing I can guarantee this hobby for all of us is going to be one of

1) trading equipment the rest of our lives
2) blaming different parts of the industry (quality)
3) moving on to a different hobby
4) settling for poor sound
5) understanding the variables, and applying adjustments