Getting bored with it all? (LONG)

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raif get rid of the cd3k. Nothing made me as sick of listening to music as those phones. The treble energy, plus the big "fake" soundstage, really made me feel like I was only analyzing a collection of sounds rather than listening to music.

I have had quite the opposite experience, no cans I've owned have let me get as emotionally involved in the music as the CD3K has.

Quote:

Originally Posted by raif Just take a break from the overemphasis on critical listening and go back to enjoying the music.

That is the point. It's not what you're listening on, but how you listen. You can hear the flaws in even the most expensive system if you are trying to.

I would also say that perhaps you just need to try some new music, or stuff you haven't listened to in a long time, that usually works for me when I get tired of my recently heavily played stuff. I've recently been on a classic rock and baroque binge

 

[raif]

no slight on the cd3k, I am just trying keep him addicted like the rest of us.

honestly though, I felt like I was really immersed when listening to the cd3k, they were easily my favorite short term listening phones. The excessive detail does tend to present system flaws though, which at least for me, would lead to concentration on reproduction and not the music.

Plus, I have actually moved sideways, out to left field and ended up backwards(cd3k->senn 650->akg271s+zu->a900) The many changes kept me interested in the "upgrading" aspect of the hobby, while also adding some flavor over just trying to find "the best."

Good luck with the apathy pbirkett, it's a b*tch to overcome. I guess taking a break is probably the best advice.

 

[spaceman]

I got kind of bored as well, so I found a setup I am happy with, sold off a few amps, and now I am investing in Canon "L" lenses for my DSLR. No more boredom, and plenty of excitement, especially when trying to convince the wife why I "need" such expensive glass.

 

[pbirkett]

Thanks for the replies, it is very interesting to read these opinions, and you all have good points to make. I think I am somewhat burned out by it. I think forums may be slightly to blame, causing the desire for things I wont be able to afford, but I think its more than just that, because by and large I enjoy visiting this and other forums for the socialising aspect of it.

Lobstersan had the idea of downgrading my kit. I have thought about this actually, not just tonight, but several times in the past too. Maybe not as daft as it seems in some respects, as the higher up the ladder I go the less satisfied I seem to get. Something is not right there. Nevertheless I think that would probably be pointless, but its something I'll always probably keep in my mind.

Dustychalk says I am doing it wrong. I couldnt agree more to be honest. If I feel like this, then I am probably burned out yes, but then I aint doing it right to be honest, my mindset has changed and in this case its not a positive thing. Indeed, it is not my equipments fault, but it is my fault. I know this, and perhaps this is why it has got me down.

Raif mentions my CD3000's. This is a very interesting point actually, and one I did think about a lot last night. The CD3000's for me are indeed a very mixed blessing. While on one hand they are my very favourite headphones, generally I like a lively upfront sound, and while I am unlikely to ever get rid of them, interestingly, I feel in some respects they have failed me. Why do I feel like this? Well, again, its probably my fault more than anything, something I had my doubts before I got them, and maybe I should have followed my gut instinct, but alas curiosity got the better of me. Now, why do I feel they are a bit of a flop in my system? Well they sound good, sometimes they sound great, but the latter is rare. Most of the time they dont really sound much better than my old Beyerdynamic DT531's, and in fact, unlike the CD3000's, the DT531's were strangely enough a headphone that DID make me forget all about my system and just listen to the music. Why they had this ability I do not know, but let me try and elaborate. They were very forgiving while seemingly being almost as detailed, they did not make me concentrate on faults. Once again (and I believe I said this before, in my original CD3K review) I feel the Sony's take faults in the sound and force feed them to me, drawing my attention to them. The Beyers, being "groovalizers" just presented me with music, sometimes I feel the Sony's present me with noise. Although when I asked my mates to make comparisons they always preferred the Sony's and seemed a bit puzzled as to why I had a soft spot for the Beyers, but you have to listen for a while to appreciate why, whereas the Sony's do tend to wow you on first listen. Perhaps I need another cheap pair of cans

Seriously though, I have enough of a fond spot for the CD3000's that I think they will always remain in my collection. For high quality electronica recordings, they simply are the best, but I'll be honest, recordings of such quality seem to be quite rare ultimately. Also, for movies the CD3000's are also great. So I will not sell them, but I feel that selling my Beyers was probably one of my biggest mistakes I've ever made in hifi - a true example of a cheap product that simply played music.

As usual I agree with Fewtch here... I feel that you probably feel the same way I do, its just I am being more vocal about it... oh well, I've never been one to keep my mouth shut!!

Ampgalore, I cannot remember off the top of my head what model number it was (back then I didnt really care, and that was great for the enjoyment of music, actually), but it was a pretend mini-seperates system from 1990. It was one where you could actually pick your own CD player, Amp, Tuner, etc, but it had to be from that particular range. It sounded damn good actually for its time, and I still dont think it sounds bad today. One thing it definitely isnt is clinical, neutral or analytical or anything like that. It simply makes a nice noise. Its not hard to see why it has survived nearly 15 years in this house, longer than any other hifi by far

All you other guys have great points, I am going to have to stop here though because I gotta go to work now

Rest assured I wont be leaving the forum or anything, I do kinda like it round here, but if you guys have helped me decide anything, it is perhaps that I need a secondary, inexpensive pair of cans a bit like the DT531s, and that I probably also need to take a break from it for a little while.

Cheers

 

[john_jcb]

One thing I found that revitalized me at times when other things were competing with music for my time was getting together with some friends for an afternoon or evening of listening and discussion of the music. I find that listening to headphones alone in a room can get to you after a while and it helps to add social interaction into the mix.

I have been putting together a speaker based system for sometime now and it has consumed much of my time. Auditioning various speakers has been time consuming but I do not want to rush into a purchase.

 

[spaceman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbirkett Lobstersan had the idea of downgrading my kit. I have thought about this actually, not just tonight, but several times in the past too. Maybe not as daft as it seems in some respects, as the higher up the ladder I go the less satisfied I seem to get.

This is exactly what i did. I sold my Corda HA-2, not because I disliked it, but I just did not want to keep dumping money into this gear, especially when I was happy with some of the less expensive gear I had. Why keep spending when you are happy with what you have?

 

[HiWire]

I'm also burned out. Fortunately, this will do nothing to prevent me from enjoying music in its various lo-fi guises in my lifestyle

It will be a long time before I can upgrade to anything decent, and nothing I own is going to break anytime soon

So I'll enjoy what I have. Life is short - keep groovin'

 

[Norbert]

If burnt out that is a sign one must pay attention to. It may be something calling you in a completely different direction. Let the rig go. Let head-fi go. Go fishing. Go wherever your next interest lies. And don't worry. At some point you will find yourself in a used cd store and discover a sound you never heard like that before, and then you can take it home to a system you have utmost confidence in. Until then, DO NOT FEEL BAD.

Walk away my friend. Feel the loss (this is burnout afterall), but see what is behind the next corner. Who knows, you might be a future member of some kayak forum! Not so bad afterall. What would concern me is if you are running from one interest to another and never achieving some kind of inner peace. I hope the problem is not deeper than burnout because then we need to have a different conversation.

 

[h3nG]

this happens to about every hobby (of mine). no doubt it will get to me too, or maybe it already has. but like my previous hobbies, if you just take some time off, you come to appreciate it again. basketball, tennis, videogames, just to name a few. unless you're about to outgrow completely this head-fi stuff, like i once did with basketball/baseball cards. then no doubt you'll catch on to something else.

lately i've been purchasing or trying to purchase more than usual. it's kinda fun, doing all the research and what not. and the satisfaction of gaining that silght increase in performance (thought sometimes i wonder if i actually hear the difference, rather than precieve). i think once i've reach that point, the point you are at, where i can no longer afford to upgrade given my status as a college student, boredom would no doubt coem to me.

but i definitely get what you're talking about. i remember the first time i got my sony pcdp, i loved that thing. then i got my grado sr60, and it made me realize how crappy it really sounded. i've recently sold my grados to upgrade, and have been addicted to this place since. but sometimes i do wish i never moved pass the grados stage or maybe even my pcdp. music seems less satisfying, at times, because of my quest for better sound.

but i guess there's no going back right? hope you snap out of it.

till then,

(is there really a difference betweeen the 'big grin' and 'all teeth' smilie face?)

 

[tomek]

I'm sort of going through the same thing lately.

1) take a break. there is some sort of obligation you feel to listen to your gear once you have invested a lot of money into a system. this i think is the burnout portion of your decreased enjoyment.

2) it's hard to get lost emotionally in the music if you are just listening to the gear. i think this forum has got me slowly listening more and more to the quality of the cymbals, the richness of the voice, and not taking in the whole gestalt anymore like i used to. the key to solving this is to just settle on some gear. once you stop comparing you can start listening again.



yep. i recently got myself an expensive two channel setup and the madness of setting it up, moving the speakers, playing with this and that has got me thinking that i'm not enjoying music like i used to. i thought something was wrong with me because i'm just not getting as emotionally involved, i'm not getting lost in the music. but i haven't listened in a few days and today i actually got through about 3 songs before i caught myself comparing and analyzing instead of listening.


take a break, and good luck. i've also hit upon the same idea as you that sound quality and musical enjoyment are not only not necessarily related, but they sometimes work against each other if you're not careful!

toodles

 

[aerius]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomek 2) it's hard to get lost emotionally in the music if you are just listening to the gear. i think this forum has got me slowly listening more and more to the quality of the cymbals, the richness of the voice, and not taking in the whole gestalt anymore like i used to. the key to solving this is to just settle on some gear. once you stop comparing you can start listening again.

This is definitely a problem I've noticed with a surprising number of people, they learn to listen critically to evaluate their equipment and then they get stuck in critical listening mode and can't turn it off to enjoy the music. There's a time for critical listening, like when you're making changes to your system or writing a review, the rest of the time you should just be listening for fun.

I'm a proponent of alcohol & drug therapy when it comes to fun listening, just keep drinking beers or your alcoholic drink of choice until you're too zonked out to listen critically. If you do it right you'll be sitting there with a stupid look on your face while bopping along to the beat of the music and making weird gestures. Congratulations, you are now having fun.

 

[3lusiv3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aerius I'm a proponent of alcohol & drug therapy when it comes to fun listening, just keep drinking beers or your alcoholic drink of choice until you're too zonked out to listen critically. If you do it right you'll be sitting there with a stupid look on your face while bopping along to the beat of the music and making weird gestures. Congratulations, you are now having fun.

Yeh, but stay out of web and email forums while drunk because it can cause unwanted responses which you may regret later.

 

[SunByrne]

I find the thing is to stop worrying about equipment and such for a while, and worry about the music instead. I think from January to April I checked Head-Fi and other sites maybe a dozen times, total. Just needed a hiatus, and I'll probably take another one after I get over my current bout of upgradeitis, which I am for the moment thoroughly enjoying.

Getting an iPod really re-sparked my interest, frankly. Now when I don't want to think about equipment, I'll instead think about new playlists, and will go dig into CDs I haven't listened to in a while just to rediscover a track I didn't like before, but now fits in with some new concept. Or I'll experiment with new wierdo criteria in smart playlists and shuffling, just to see what comes up (the failures here are often as fun as the successes, as long as they never get listened to again).

 

[Snufkin]

I recently found myself in a similar situation

I hadn't had access to my Talisman T-3H, my DT531 or my MS-Pro (my 3 favourite pieces of equipment) for a few weeks and I'd started questioning my enthusiasm in the first place.
I've been on a steady diet of MG Head OTLMk2 and Alessandro MS-2 instead (all I've bothered to hook up for long periods), it's a nice combo and I do find myself rocking out on occasion, but the times where all i wanted to do was put my headphones and listen to some music have been pretty rare. This week I got my T-3H back, then my DT531s and it's back to happiness for me

Now I've never heard the CD3000, but comments about it forcing you to listen to flaws are the #1 reason I disliked the Beyer DT931. After I got over the initial "omg, these are incredibly cleared and detailed" factor, I rapidly realised that I didn't want to hear all the detail in it's wonderfully poor-recorded glory and ultimately the soul was sucked out of everything.
Thus ended my listening-affair with the DT931 and back to the DT531 I went

 

[tomek]

another factor that i think that plays a role in enjoyment of music is the size of your collection.

tell me if this sounds familiar, because i thought i was the only one until several of my friends complained of this independent of me mentioned it to them:

as the size of your music collection grows, it becomes more and more difficult to settle in on one album and you find yourself changing to one album part way through another. rarely do i listen to a whole album anymore. after a few songs, i find myself thinking about what to put on next.

with mp3s, my one friend said that he doesn't even listen to whole songs, just half of a song, then moves onto the next one.

i think another instance where too much choice has made things worse, not better. gone for me are the days where i knew a whole album from beginning to end, instead i find myself hoarding music and listening to things briefly.

i've made a rule with myself that whatever i put on now, i have to listen to the whole way through.