i regard myself as an "audiophile". i think if you are one, the "ease" is an illusion. most people just want to consume music. we audiophiles ideally *worship* music and then build shrines for our devotion. easy it ain't.

let's admit it: sometimes people come listen to music at our shrines, state they love the sound, and then we talk about it and after about a minute the other person's face turns an uncomprehending blank stare.

i think the MQE formula is a bit of a fallacy. it should always be about the (M)usic. the delivery chain (QE) is just an expression of our devotion to the music.

i collected music as a teen, the QE was provided by my Dad's system (pretty decent, tandberg tape stuff and sansui amplifier is what i remember). as a student i had a the best cassette player i could afford (Technics) and OK headphones, and every time i went home during summer break i would calibrate tapes on Dad's Tandberg and record my new vinyl. fun memories.

the Q is a function of increasing disposable income into diminishing returns, but those can be gloriously satisfying. the E... we audiophiles think our systems are easy, but over 90% of people out there will go "what?". let's face it, our definition of "E" overwhelms the vast majority of people.

except for one, i have never had a girlfriend that didn't roll her eyes (thinking i didn't notice) when i explained the intricacies of my sound system, it was just "can we just listen to my fav song?" or "play the TV through it and shut up".

so my MQE stays solid at 90/9/1 :-D it's only the 9% has grown over time, and computer audio happened.

I love the simplicity and maybe complexity (depending on each persons point of view) of this formula, and would imagine we will see as much opinion about the formula itself as we do the results. For me, I have to think about this a while because I'm involved in the M & Q pretty deeply. In my mind they're almost one.

should be fun

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

I had to listen to a range of music over the last day to come up with my score. I found myself wanting to tune in almost all the recordings to bring the most out of them, so this puts me at 49/49/2

michael green
MGA/RoomTune