I remember in my twenties discovering things in old music when I purchased my first good stereo. I have recently started to make new discoveries again with Hi-Res audio files and improving dacs with better headphones.
I remember in my twenties discovering things in old music when I purchased my first good stereo. I have recently started to make new discoveries again with Hi-Res audio files and improving dacs with better headphones.
Oh, gods, so many things.
A few years ago, I quit smoking. That’s a massive savings, and I splurged on a few things that I’ve never been able to justify, as a reward to help fill the gaps smoking left.
One of those things was a set of decent headphones, beyerdynamics, alongside a fairly decent phone with the ability to drive them, an lgg7 (those and the g8s really are great).
One of the songs that really made me glad I got the gear is “if we were vampires” by Jason Isbell. He’s a bit of a dick, but an amazing songwriter. That song has a thermamin in it that I had never heard before. It’s this haunting note, bending in and out of the more traditional instruments and his voice, and I had never heard it despite loving the song for quite some time (it’s brutal, in the best way).
That’s the song that sticks out the most, as showing exactly how much difference even entry level gear can make with music.
My ears aren’t “sharp” enough to benefit from the really top end audiophile stuff, and I know that because I’ve had a chance to try stuff out. Past a point, there’s just no difference to my ears. But I can, just barely pick up differences in something like a flac file vs an mp3, even on cheap gear. On my stuff that I have now, it’s easier to detect.
Since then, I’ve gone through all my favorite music, multiple times, and there was so much I had missed.
It might not matter to everyone, regardless of being able to tell there’s a difference. As my sister says, “why should I care, it’s just music to pump while I drive”. Which is perfectly valid, imo. But if you really do want to immerse yourself into music, it’s worth a few hundred bucks
Congrats on quitting! Did it myself in '97. Its hard to kick.
There are times I’m like your sister. I swing back and forth. But when something grabs you, its worth getting the whole album and putting some intention into your listening. Especially if the artist/producer has put the effort into the album. I’m glad to see some artists going back to creating albums as a whole.