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Listening for pleasure is fun. Occasionally hearing something completely magical is okay, too, but not every day.

Objectivists and subjectivists are like the Palestinians and Israelis fighting over the same piece of territory—both being sure that the other side is wrong. Why not just let each other be? I get so sick of every Internet thread on cords/tweaks/mega-buck whatevers being hijacked by objectivists telling subjectivists there is no difference. I am tired of subjectivists shunning ABX comparisons and the utilization of the Scientific Method. Most of all, I'm sick of any audiophile who is not willing to appreciate that this is a hobby, we are supposed to be having fun, and that not everybody has to think like them.

When will DACs be installed on computers (via chip set or cards)? Will the greedy record companies finally give up attacking average citizens? Will there be a music download site created for jazz? Finally, will any downloading music site come up with a single yearly subscription that one can download any song they want for a flat rate—say $9.99 per year?

Give up subscribing to audioporn magazines. The money you spend over the decades will equal the cost of that high-end system you imagine you can't afford.

May we all get nuttier for the New Year!

Look for the reason you got into the hobby in the first place: the love of good sounding music! After that, how or what you need to get there is just a matter of taste, and beyond a short discussion on perspective, the last thing the world needs is another zealot preaching a gospel. Objectivist, subjectivist, sharpeners, levelers—take 'em all and send 'em up to a mountain to bark at the moon!

Get out before it's too late!

The loudness wars haven't stopped yet. Being unable to find unremastered copies of classic albums is driving me nuts. Almost without exception, every remaster is simply a brickwall-limited, flatline-compressed mess with no dynamic range and appallingly shrill sound.

Encourage others to enjoy high-quality music!

Stop the stupid escalation of gear prices. Ship manufacturers of exotically priced gear to re-education camps and reality. (Or, maybe they'll cover my tuition checks?)

This recession has hit many areas of the population and the audio business in particular. High-end stores have had to go heavily into home theater and smart-home technology. They have had to cut back on their products and some companies have gone away. You all know it is more difficult to find a store that also does competent service unless you live in a large market. Many great brands are shadows of what they were—or gone completely. If any of you have been around the last five decades, you have seen the rise and fall of a great hobby. Scott, Fisher, Saul Marantz, David Hafler, Altec Lansing, Nakamichi, Teac, Dynaco, Audio Alchemy, Carver, Acoustat, and many others have come and gone. People actually used to have time to sit and listen to music and the music was all around. Record stores and FM radio had DJs who knew the rare stuff and the new stuff from the greats. The Internet has changed the way we get our music and MP3/AAC has changed the way we listen and move it around. It's quicker and easier to manipulate. I like being able to go to iTunes and get whatever I want for 99¢. But—just don't think it is the same. Cleaning and holding a 12" LP was tactile. Recording onto cassettes and playing them in your car was great. No DRM then. Our rights as consumers of music were not being questioned and spied on. We were just too busy enjoying The Stones, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers or Marshall Tucker, or George Solti in Chicago. It had an immediacy and newness that is gone except for the indies online. The radio market has shrunk to formula after formula—the same in all cities. Gone are the pioneers who brought us the new music as it came out on the promo copies only the stations got before release to build up the hype. WLS, WYSL, WBCN, and KBOM AM you could hear all over the west. Now those stations play country or some other format that is on a loop. Remember when Rolling Stone had all of those audio ads throughout the mag? It wasn't just Stereophile, but also Audio and Stereo Review (who never panned a product—even a piece of junk Sansui with no power had its merits) Anyone who lived through that can take heart and know that we saw and owned some incredible gear created by some amazing designers. The stuff worked for decades, until the parts were not available. Some of it would go up in smoke or blow a channel from a sneeze but, most of it was built well and affordable. The business model has changed to a paradigm shift in technology and delivery. The music industry didn't see Napster coming or really understand MP3 until the genie was out of the bottle. Blockbuster didn't anticipate Netflix. Netflix is morphing into downloaded video and in Japan they have 60MHz Internet connections, as everything is streamed. Maybe with wider bandwidth (if we can catch up with the world on a technology we invented) the music can be high-end again? Until then, enjoy what audio you have and remember the part of the hobby that was the equipment and how it felt to the touch and senses—but it was all just for the tunes anyway. It still is.

Subjective/objective, vinyl/CD, analog/digital, tubes/solid-state, bookshelf monitor/floorstander, minimalistic/features galore, low-powered SET/high-powered monoblocks. Stereophile/The Absolute Sound, print/web magazines, jazz/blues/rock/classical/reggae/punk/folk/electronica/etc, Sam Tellig/Art Dudley/Mikey Fremer (Fremer for president!)/John Atkinson/Wes Phillips/Robert Baird/Stephen Mejias. Pick your poison. From where I sit, it all looks great from here. Thank you all, and let's keep the great hobby alive (and affordable and keep my subscription along with those super high luxury pieces reviewed, please).

Lighten up, my friends, ie, those of you who are very ardent or proud about your hi-fi opinions. This audio hobby is supposed to be fun. You are not a better or more genuine audiophile because of any of your opinions about what gear sounds best, which source medium is best, which types of music you like, which recordings are best, that a component that sounds good to some people can't be considered high quality if its specs and measurements aren't top of the heap, that the unquestionable goal of hi-fi is to reproduce the live performance experience, or any such folderol. Relax. Enjoy your music, gear and opinions, but don't take yourself seriously. Worry not, and don't believe trite drivel. Online sourcing is not the whole future of recorded music. Bricks and mortar audio retailers won't die out completely. Future science and engineering will be used both to invent new audio tools and to improve the quality of old technologies like tube components. Our lovely pastime is alive and well. Enjoy.

While going ga-ga over equipment can be fun, don't overdo it. Remember to come up for music.

No single piece of stereo gear should cost more than $5000.

I think it is time to turn to computer audio, like Berkeley DACs coupled with a Lynx sound card. Computer music servers are closing in on stand-alone CD players (and surpassing them, in some cases). I wish there was more focus on that, so that even better products tailored for computer audio would be developed.

24/96. Oh, and peace and sublime listening to all

It has been a good year with many cheap, high-quality, used vinyl purchases. Frankly, my system has never sounded so good. God bless all audio nuts, our troops, and the good old USA!

So sad that local store Graffiti Audio/Video in Bethesda MD has closed. They were an A/V retailer I could rely on for detailed and trustworthy advice. Good luck in retirement! (There's still another location, but it has different owners—so far, not shaking my timbers.)

Spread the word before it is too late.

http://www.avantgardeproject.org/index.htm Try this website if you like 20th century Classical music and 20th century academic electronic music. They are all legal downloads of out-of-print music all in FLAC! Most are from LPs and they are all meticulously done. The site even lists the transcription equipment used. This is probably my best find ever!

It confounds an old timer like me when I see people with the little white ear buds in all day long! I don't get it. Silence is a type of music; without it music becomes meaningless. Take a break, rest your ears, listen to the birds or the jet planes overhead. Music all the time is anti-music.

I always really hate to hear my otherwise respected contemporaries claim that there's no great new music out there. I can only put it down to failure of imagination, inertia, or laziness in this age of ever-greater opportunity to hear more new music via sources both familiar and new.

There's a lot to be said for developing the hobby still more. Good luck for those who forge better solutions. Even so, I am content with the status of my hobby, and will play happily at my current state—no more searching for me.

Keep obssessin' on your cables, check your cartridge, don't complain.
Clean your records and demag 'em 'til there ain't no glare and grain.
Mod your preamps and crossovers, polypropylene is yer game.
'Cuz I'll be f@&%!n all your women—it's a cryin' shame!!

Getting out of vinyl. My four-year-old daughter playing push me/pull me with my then-tweeters. Continually upgrading without a plan. All the usual challenges—but I got there in the end, though!

Stop worrying about your next upgrade and simply enjoy your music collection!

More coverage of multichannel hi-rez audio or sleep with The Listener.

Our hobby can be expensive at times. Recently, after a large upgrade, I decided to add to my home insurance to make sure my investment was covered in the event of something drastic happening—only to find that, while they have been taking my money for years specifically knowing it was for stereo, the insurance company only covers electronics to $5000. The company knew the added insurance was specifically to insure stereo equipment but they failed to mention their coverage limit. I have found that a lot of insurance companies are putting limits on what they will cover. The average I have found is a limit of $7500. My suggestion for the new year is to make sure that your investment is covered or you might just have a story if Stereophile again asks the question, "What was your biggest audio disaster?"

I have been fully enjoying recording 24/96 LPCM WAV files on a $40 Audio DVD Creator, burned to DVD+R, and playable in any DVD player. Why this could not become the next de facto hi-rez standard is beyond me. Needing a dedicated DVD-A player killed that format and SACD is limping along. This seems like a no-brainier to me, but I have been so wrong before. It certainly should be offered by smaller labels.