Thanks George and everybody else. However, calling me an expert in hifi would be the over-statement of the century. More on that in the later part of this post.
The last year and a half has changed my life significantly. In this time, I have lost two very lovely people in our family, and a third person went through a surgery. My wife and I were the only people in a position to look after these elderly people in our family. In addition, our son went to the US for graduate studies in Aug 2013. In this period, I had to assume greater administrative responsibility in my profession (unfortunately in India, becoming a more senior academician usually always means a bigger role in administration). A combination of all this has changed our lives in a big way, and I have had very little time to interact with people on a social basis. Apart from my immediate family, two of my biggest involvement these days have been my new PhD student (I have accepted a new PhD student, probably my last) and my own music. Some of you may know that I am musician myself, but may not know that I have more than 30 years of rigorous training in Hindustani classical vocal music, and could actually become a professional musician. I was actually performing quite frequently in my younger days, but in the middle somewhere, I had to give more preference to my academic profession. But recently, I have started performing again on a more regular basis. So, obviously a lot of time beyond the office hours are now spent in riyaaz (practice) and also interacting with younger performing musicians who come to my place for discussions, listening and advice etc.
As already stated above, I am NOT an expert in any aspects of hifi equipments. In this whole forum, you would not usually find me recommending people to get a certain product more than something else. However, as a theoretical physicist, and at the same time as a musician, there are certain advantages which can be unique in a few cases. In addition, me living in the USA and Europe for nearly 14 years at a stretch gave experiences in hearing quite a few nice music gears in people's homes and also in specialized stores.
Let me give an example. I know cables are a hot subject in any forum. The non-believers of cable breaking-in or burning-in have the standard argument that there are no moving parts in a cable. But as a physicist I see a problem in that argument. Electrons inside the so-called conduction band of the metal do move. In addition, macroscopic pieces of metals as in a audio cable are never single crystals, neither they are perfect crystals. In all real life situation, there are domain-walls and imperfections (such as doping) in a crystal. Quantum mechanics is the subject that governs the dynamics of the electrons and the domain walls etc. In fact, this is a subject of current interest in some branches of condensed matter physics and material science.
I know the above is outside the domain of an average music gear enthusiast. It's better not to talk about such things in a forum of this sort. So people can share their experience, and that experience then has to be respected. If somebody says, I don't hear a difference, that's fine with me. If somebody else says, I hear a difference, that's also fine with me. But when people start ridiculing others based on their personal judgement or limited knowledge on a particular matter, that's not fine with me. I have not lived my life compromising with such opinions.
Certain things in life are not for everybody. For example, I cannot paint like a Claude Monet or a Matisse, or will not be able to design a Tajmahal. But I believe, everybody can appreciate the mesmerizing or haunting power of a good melody (and I include even Western classical music, all good specimens of that music has unforgettable passages of good melody in them). While buying a music gear, all people have to make sure, they love their favourite music in the system they are about to procure. Music should always come first.
As I am growing older, I have discovered that I am happy with almost any system provided the music is something I love, and the system has reasonable tonality. Everything else is relatively unimportant.
.... Was a pleasure reading your views.
hyeah:
