rogger
24th December 2005, 05:55 AM
I have been upgrading my system over the last few months.
As a consequence I, have increasingly been building up a collection of componentry that has become superfluous to my needs.
The final upgrade has just taken place and I am now the proud owner of one of the finest pair of speakers around - coincident total victory 2. Unfortunately I am also heavily, but just managebly, in debt.
I have been selling my amps and cables [ still have cd player, pre, and some cables to go ] and finally have just sold what has been a great pair of speakers for us - our jamo concert 11s. My wife just loves them and has been very protective whenever a new set of speakers came into the house seeking to replace them. Till now.
It took 4 minutes of listening to the new arrivals from Canada for her to change her allegience. [ Thank God ]
And here begins my confession :
A couple I know had often admired the jamos and had made it known they would love speakers as fine looking if they could ever afford them. [ they have children - need I say more? ]
I got a call the other day from them asking if I had bought new speakers yet and if so could I let them try out the jamos.
Yesterday I took them to their house to give them a listen.
I thought I would give them some speaker cable that would go with the jamos. In this case some Goertz alpha core cable.
They have a great listening space and we quickly set the speakers up. When it came time to hook up the cable I found that their amp was so old and low end that the speaker outputs would not take the cable terminals. They had sprung loaded sockets designed to take a piece of wire shoved into them and my friends were currently using standard 2 wire lighting flex.
My jaw dropped, but I thought " oh well" and hooked up the light flex and wound it around the binding posts on the speakers.
And then we turned it on.
It took 5 seconds for 2 normal, lovely, well adjusted people to have the hook of the upgraditus beast set irrevocably.
And this is my crime.
They looked at each other. They looked at the stereo. They looked at each other. Their eyes widened. Then started to shine. And then came that awful incriminating smile. They loved what they were hearing! In their own house. With their stereo.
I must say I was amazed that the speakers could sound so good with such basic gear and such a crappy signal path, and also how people could be happy with such poor quality sound. And then I remembered someone just like that several years ago - me.
I am excited on their behalf but also feel guilt for their new obsession, knowing I have been instrumental in bringing it to the surface.
And so I make my confession hoping, a little like the ancient mariner, that in the telling my sense of guilt will be somewhat assuaged.
I walked out of the house with a cheque in my hand and the words of the man of the house in my head - " so now I really need to get a decent amplifier don't I ? "
May God have mercy on me.
Merry Christmas everybody, and thanks Michael for providing this forum for us confirmed addicts.
rogger.
As a consequence I, have increasingly been building up a collection of componentry that has become superfluous to my needs.
The final upgrade has just taken place and I am now the proud owner of one of the finest pair of speakers around - coincident total victory 2. Unfortunately I am also heavily, but just managebly, in debt.
I have been selling my amps and cables [ still have cd player, pre, and some cables to go ] and finally have just sold what has been a great pair of speakers for us - our jamo concert 11s. My wife just loves them and has been very protective whenever a new set of speakers came into the house seeking to replace them. Till now.
It took 4 minutes of listening to the new arrivals from Canada for her to change her allegience. [ Thank God ]
And here begins my confession :
A couple I know had often admired the jamos and had made it known they would love speakers as fine looking if they could ever afford them. [ they have children - need I say more? ]
I got a call the other day from them asking if I had bought new speakers yet and if so could I let them try out the jamos.
Yesterday I took them to their house to give them a listen.
I thought I would give them some speaker cable that would go with the jamos. In this case some Goertz alpha core cable.
They have a great listening space and we quickly set the speakers up. When it came time to hook up the cable I found that their amp was so old and low end that the speaker outputs would not take the cable terminals. They had sprung loaded sockets designed to take a piece of wire shoved into them and my friends were currently using standard 2 wire lighting flex.
My jaw dropped, but I thought " oh well" and hooked up the light flex and wound it around the binding posts on the speakers.
And then we turned it on.
It took 5 seconds for 2 normal, lovely, well adjusted people to have the hook of the upgraditus beast set irrevocably.
And this is my crime.
They looked at each other. They looked at the stereo. They looked at each other. Their eyes widened. Then started to shine. And then came that awful incriminating smile. They loved what they were hearing! In their own house. With their stereo.
I must say I was amazed that the speakers could sound so good with such basic gear and such a crappy signal path, and also how people could be happy with such poor quality sound. And then I remembered someone just like that several years ago - me.
I am excited on their behalf but also feel guilt for their new obsession, knowing I have been instrumental in bringing it to the surface.
And so I make my confession hoping, a little like the ancient mariner, that in the telling my sense of guilt will be somewhat assuaged.
I walked out of the house with a cheque in my hand and the words of the man of the house in my head - " so now I really need to get a decent amplifier don't I ? "
May God have mercy on me.
Merry Christmas everybody, and thanks Michael for providing this forum for us confirmed addicts.
rogger.