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24.166.8.148
do most of you have more money into your music collection or your gear?just curious.
i am pretty sure the answer is gear..... i am at about 50/50, but i think my music collection will soon be overtaking my gear at some point this year..
i suppose one point of view one might say that investing in gear *is* investing in the music so that you can get the most out of your source material...
perhaps i should specify: gear being amps, preamps, speakers, dacs, cd players, turntables, reel to reel, etc.
music being cd, dvd, sacd, tape, vinyl, digital formats, etc.
Follow Ups:
I toted my expenses up a while ago when this same thread was around. One of the past surveys also asked about how much was spent going to live shows.To the people who commented on smaller collections being used to evoke the past I say - LIVE MUSIC IS BEST - get out there and hear something new to you. The last impromptu performance I saw was at an art gallery opening. Some drummer about 65 played jazz standards and the people jamming with him would change every hour or so.
A man after my own heart! Thanks for your post.
I have roughly 2 or 3 times more money invested in music than gear . When it comes to music , variety is the spice of life for me . I like hearing new music and get quickly sick of playing the same stuff over and over .
Golf balls vs clubs? Fishtank vs Fish?
Does it actually make a difference? If investment in gear eclipses investment in music does that make one less of a music lover or a lesser person or a gearhead interested only in machinery?
What exactly is the implication of it all?
Rodney Gold
there was no point.
There was a time, just after college (early '80s), when I had about $800 invested in my system and I had about 3,000 LPs.Now I have maybe $6K wrapped up in my system and I have sold all but 250 LPs ...and I am enjoying music more than ever.
For me its not just about how good the music sounds ...its also about listening to music that brings back fond memories ...music that moves me and suits my mood. There aren't 3,000 LPs that can do that.
The older I get the more narrow minded I am about the music I listen to, but the more important it is that the music I connect with sound great.
Dean.
I've spent some money on equipment, but nothing like the relentless week after week, year after year, expense that has gone into records.And if you talk replacement cost, well, you could not replace most of my LPs and if you found good copies of many, they'd set you back $30 or $50 these days (at least). So maybe current value is closer to 100 to 1.
At one point, living in Boston, there was a used record store that had an original MFSL Beatles vinyl boxed set. I was thinking of buying it and at the same time thinking of upgrading my turntable. I asked the salesman---an audiophile and record collector himself---his advice; the turntable or the boxed set. He said it was a no-brainer. I said, "what...the boxed set?" He said the turntable...which i did buy. Soon after that the record store was lost in the fire. I have since sold the turntable, but what would you guys have done in that situation? I guess the salesman might have only been interested in making the sale...but would you pass up the opportunity to aquire such a sought-after item to enhance the quality of your current recordings?
Although I have thousands of CDs and thousands of LPs, my wife likes to point out from time to time that I just keep listening to only about a handful of albums most of the time. And it's true, there are only about 15 to 20 albums that I absolutely CANNOT live without. Several of the albums puts me to tears every time I listen to them, and the others just puts me in a better mood when I am down, while others just take me to another place altogether.The older I get (I'm only 36), the less I subscribe to the thinking that if you like music, you have to have a lot of it. And I know several people that would go through albums and only keep the ones (maybe 1 in 50) that really "speak" to them. So they have a very small music collection, but each of their systems is worth over $100K. Does that mean they are less a music lover than the rest of us?
I mean, what is the true definition of a music lover? Does it mean that the person has to love (or own) tons of (and all kinds of) music, or subscribe to the view that he needs to keep on exploring new music all the time. And the time he stops exploring new music, then he is no longer a music lover? What if someone only has, in his possession, a handful of albums that he truly enjoys, and wants to have the best system to maximize his experience listening to those handful of albums?
Just some random thoughts on this rainy afternoon where work is slow.
FrankC
what are the albums on your repeat list?
Norah Jones: Come Away With Me
Tsai Chin: Chance Encounter (Taiwanese)
Yo-Yo Ma: Solo
Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane
Getz/Gilberto
Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus
Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder
Hank Mobley: The Soul Station
Jane Monheit: In The Sun
Holly Cole: The Best Of Holly Cole
Harry Connick Jr: Soundtrack to When Harry Met Sally
Pet Shop Boys: Bilingual, Night Life, Fundamental
Diana Krall: Love ScenesNot in any particular oder. But my wife notices that I always seem to be playing one of these albums. And when I audition gear, several of these CDs/LPs would always be included in the stash.
Who would you envy more...The person who has hundreds of CD's and is always searching for more or the person who only has one album with no desire to search for what he has already found.
I'd agree with you I don't subscribe to that view either.
take care,
dan
CLick the picture below to see my system
enjoy the music!
I want that album - the one I'm listening to - to sound as good as I can get it to sound. I think that in fact does great service to the music, especially when engaging in active listening.Here's what I had to say about it a couple of years ago:
I've got a modest collection of ~400 CDs and a two-channel system that cost twice what I've invested in software. It doesn't bother me that the ratio is tipped in favor of the gear I play the music on, precisely because the music has primacy. The human capacity for music astonishes me; it deserves to be heard on the best system one can get his or her hands on. I find it difficult to place a dollar value on the experience. That's not to say I don't weigh carefully the 'value' of a piece of gear, jsut that the value of piece of gear isn't monetary alone. To that end, I find it worthwhile to seek out the gear that satisfies my need. The trick is to be satisfied once you've achieved it, or at least to engage in the 'not better or worse, just different' approach to the gear. I think you're right that judgement often slips in where assessment is better deserved.
Cheers.
-----------
It's not I'm anti-social,
I'm only anti-work,
Glory Osky, that's why I'm a jerk!
The amount of money spent onthe two aspects is done differently.
LPs and CDs are, more or less, bought one at a time. You don't go and buy 100 or 1000 CDs in one hit unless your collection has been stolen and you have an insurance settlement.
So the amount invested tends to increase slowly across time.
The amount spent on a system is proportional to your wealth, within limits.
If I suddenly inherited $100 million dollars, I might go and buy a $100,000 system. But I wouldn't go and buy $100,000 of discs.
This, although I used to enjoy this sort of discussion, is actually meaningless.
If you had a more expensive system, would you spend more on cheese?
But that's VERY rough, based on a quick mental inventory of what's curently on-hand: about $8K in music, $5K in equipment.Over time (40+ years since I bought my first 33 rpm record album) the ratio is closer to 1:1 because I've gone through several "generations" of gear, while I still have most (but by no means all) of the recordings I have purchased.
Of late, I've been spending far more on DVDs than on music, because the value/dollar is so much greater. A lot of great old TV shows are available on DVD for about $4/hour of programming, while CDs cost four times as much.
"Music is the medicine of a troubled mind." -- Walter Haddon, 1567
I'm not much of a music collector - I have plenty of what I like & pick up something new every decade or so now.Why spend more money on music I'll rarely if ever listen to when each dollar put into the system can make what I like just a bit better?
Guess I'd be in the equipment camp.
I to am a music listener, not a collector. What use is a 10,000 record collection? To cycle through that would take a decade of more for most people. And you'd be listening to a lot of second rate recordings, performances, and both combined.
Bill Bailey
___________________________________________
See my stereo config ... but always looking for cost effective improvements
10,000 Lps adds up to a LOT$$$ if considered at replacement value.
this is a very hard question to answer.I have at least 12 pairs of DIY loudspeakers around the place, a few amps, tubes and SS (mostly second hand or rebuilt), 4 cd players, a couple of turntables, there are actually 3 different audio systems in the house + a full HT system.
Then I have 600 + cd's and a few lp,s
How that all balances out I have no idea !!!
Who doesn't have recordings they consider priceless? Here's just one from my collection:The Longines Symphonette Society, Command Performance, Golden Moments from The Telephone Hour
Various artists: Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Les Paul, Helen 'Connel, but in particular Jane Morgan singing Fascination ... that voice will make you melt!Recordings of over the air broadcasts (some probably "air checks"), sound quality is surprisingly good!
This was a $1.00 thrift shop find!
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
Even higher if I counted all of the old cassettes and vinyl that I don't listen to any more.
...but I just keep playing this one CD over and over. It sounds damn good though. I'm saving up my money to buy an LP so I'll have something to play on my $300,000 record player. Any recommendations?Just kidding. I've got more in music by maybe 50%.
Jim
The LP will make your TT sound like a $318,999. TT!I've just GOT TO KNOW which CD that is, and if it's on the "audiophile recordings list thread" below...
Don't forget to give me your mailing address!
"I always play jazz records backwards, they sound better that way"
-Thomas Edison
x
I'm not really a music collector. I'm not much interest buying records I'm not likely to listen to more than one or twice. Also, I have listened to a lot of FM radio, (CBC Radio 2), over the years, (often 2 hours a day or more), and that has given me more variety than buying records was ever likely to do.
Bill Bailey
___________________________________________
See my stereo config ... but always looking for cost effective improvements
from wasting a lot of money on audio stuff to get it to sound right! :-) Music to present equipment ratio is about 3 to 1.
... with the split:A) 50% - Equipment I actually bought and paid for
b) 50% - Software (LP's and CD's bought over a 35 year period)
c) 50% - Equipment paid for by insurance companies after burglariesHad it not been for the insurance cover, and had the burglaries still happened, then the ratio would have benn 65:35 (Software vs Hardware) - as the burglaries happened at times when I did not have the disposable income to replace "like with like"... (phew!)
"Don't roll those blood-shot eyes at me!"
With recent developments, it's the music--by FAR. Which is the way I think it ideally should be. It's much more enjoyable being a slave to the music than to the equipment. :)
If you spend more on equipment than music, your first name is SDtereoEquipmentPhileIf you spend more on music, your first name is Audiophile
My Ratio would be 7.5 to one if I excluded 1000 CDs I've given away or traded in. And most of my equipment was purchased used, or on a clos-eout sale, or DIY, costing about half the usual retail price.
I guess that affects the Ratio too.
.
.
.
Richard BassNut Greene
Subjective Audiophile 2007
The Gear:
My gear is a mix of vintage and newer. The electronics have all been rebuilt with new, High Spec parts. The gear is quite collectible now but most of it was purchased 2nd hand, prior to it becoming so. It's hard to put a dollar value on most of my playback equipment. If I sold it today I would probably get $5000 to $6000 for it.The Music:
6000 records all VG+ or better. 50% rock & roll, 50% blues, jazz & "other".
1500 CD's
--
Al GSilence is Golden
Duct Tape is Silver
;-)In our main system there are precisely five items of gear I/we bought new - the CDP a double tweaked (factory mods) Rotel from 1995 (we), and my Thorens TD150 from 1971, the SME arm and its damping pot from the later 1970's, and the Audiosphere Model 3's bought 1979 - biggish concrete sphere spkrs, two-way 8 inchers 35-13,000 +/- 3db.
Mind that there are lots of new bits inside most of my gear!
And it all still blows other 'philes away!
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio ScroungerAnd gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
Gear..by a long shot.
........…I haven’t kept tally and I have way more gear than I use or need. ( I at least have all my software accessible to use. )I never sell anything and I have a lot of gear in the store room and given lots away.
I’m not sure what I have spent over the years on hardware & software but I am fairly certain it is way more on hardware but it is not something I really think about or can even guess any sort of ratio.
Smile
Sox
nt
Gear by more than 2 to 1...almost 3 to 1.Do people really buy music anymore? Isn't most of the stuff realeased these days over engeneered crap...like Justin T'lake bringing sexy back??
I am a music collector. This is a constantly growing thing. I can go years without replacing a component. Been using the same turntable since 1989!
At what I paid for the it the music beats the gear by about 20%.
...somehow works for me. ;-)
My music collection far out value the approx. $6k I have in electronics. I haven't kept count on my cds and Lps, but I think I have over a 1,000 cds and about 500lps.
Before Don Allen: 3-1, in favor of gear....
After Don Allen: 5-1, in favor of music....My posting history will reflect this, by the way.
Who is Don Allen and what did he do for you?
.
.
.
Richard BassNut Greene
Subjective Audiophile 2007
.
____________________________________________________________
"Nature loves to hide."
---Heraclitus of Ephesus (trans. Wheelwright)
2-1 over gear.
.....as i have 6000+ Lps, and about 4000 shiny silver digital thingies.....and i have recently lowered my speaker investment.
i slowed way down on software aquistions about three years ago or i would be a good deal ahead with music. in the last three years i've also been close to revenue neutral on hardware.
OTOH the room project was a bit spendy (but it's an appreciating asset).
mikel
...music I have, the more I want. 'Hmmm; that new cd was excellent. I wonder what other titles they (he, she) have?' Three more cd's on the way. ; )
The problem with gear is that you pay 100% more for about 5 to 10% improvement in sound. The records and/or CDs aren't going to go bad, if the system improves everything just sounds a bit (or a lot) better.
.
As a music software collector since 1971, I'd say the ratio is probably 50 to 1 in favor of music.Consequently, the thought that all music might be available only as a download in the future is disquieting to say the least. Then again, 78 RPM records have been out of favor for 5 decades and I can still buy a turntable and 78 cartridge so I'm probably making much ado about nothing. I don't have another 5 decades to live!
.
some of those records are hard to come by. Some of those CDs too...The music matters first, it's the proverbial icing on the proverbial cake to have a decent system to listen to it on.
"I always play jazz records backwards, they sound better that way"
-Thomas Edison
.
HowdyTho my DVDs only number in the hundreds (and my DADs/DVD-As around 100 my CDs and SACDs each number in the thousands...
-Ted
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