Personal choices

Terri and I chose to live in the safety and quiet of Boulder, while my son Scott and his wife Teresa chose the much livelier city of Denver. They get the nightlife in trade for tolerating the city's chaos, something Terri and I have less interest in. All our choices come with baggage. I chose the Infinity IRSV because I wanted one of the best reference loudspeaker systems in the world. But I had to build a custom room and dedicate nearly $100,000 in "stuff" to make it what it is. You've made choices too, like where to place your investment. Conventional audiophile wisdom suggests speakers receive the bulk of funds apportioned to the sound system. Amps and preamps are next, followed by source equipment and cables last. Where's the room in all this? How about the AC power from which everything we hear comes from? Afterthoughts? It's rare we're ever in a position to have all the decisions made, roll up our sleeves, and build a system from scratch. Most of us start small and build up over time. What we inevitably wind up with is a patchwork of products that mostly work together. I have always been an advocate of starting with a solid foundation that begins with the room, then to the AC, building out from there. But it's not often we have a chance to do that. Take a look at your system with fresh eyes from time to time and see if the choices you've made are the ones you would have made given what you now know. It might just be time for change.