When I was a young man, I spent a lot of time (and money) carefully selecting individual components to create the premier stereo system. The Editor-In-Chief of CD Review magazine wrote back in 1991, "An audiophile uses music to show off his system, but a true music lover uses his system to show off the music." I bought components from all over the world - my amp & cassette deck in Germany, my laserdisc player in Korea, my speakers & CD carousel in England. The only thing I wanted to do after work was listen to music, and listen to music I did.
The above scenario is a close representation of the proof-of-concept
It was during this time that I became aware of married servicemen with children bitching about their systems, their small televisions and cheap paper speakers. I thought to myself, "I'll be smarter than that - I'll build my system up so that I have absolutely everything I'll need prior to getting married and having kids!" I was so smart. Everyone who knew me was envious of my realized dream.
We split the system 18-months later but I've never forgotten it. I purchased some replacement speakers in Korea and continued to build on my system. I enjoyed listening to music and watching laserdiscs after work. I moved again and finalized my system. It was, in a word, perfect. Money can't buy happiness, but every dollar I had spent on the system and my music had given me joy.
I got married and had a child. A two-fold problem developed. I discovered I wasn't as smart as I had first anticipated. First of all, I had no time to sit and listen to music. My creation was being used for the news, and for chick-flicks. Secondly, when I did have time to sit and listen, I noticed my aging components starting to break. I hadn't expected this - and now I certainly couldn't afford to replace them! My perfect plan ended up in disaster. I was becoming what I despised most.
Fine. As I spent most of my time in front of a computer, I picked up a fine pair of Bose MediaMate speakers for something like $250. They were my new release - if I couldn't have my stereo, I could at least have these. Time passes and I was commuting 3-hours a day and wasn't able to listen to music at volume at work, so those were mostly sitting idle. I relied heavily on my car's stereo system for the two years I made that daily 3-hour commute. My Sebring LXi had a fantastic Infinity system installed - which was great until my second child was born, forcing me out of it. Eleven years after I purchased them, my Bose computer speakers died.
Hi. My name is Eric. I'm 37 years old and listen to music from a set of $50 Logitech's.