Music is one of the most popular means of entertainment. If we think about it, it is probably also one of the oldest. I guess it’s as old as storytelling and far preceding other diversions. Yet, in recent years we pay less and less attention to the act of listening to music. And listening to music played in good quality is even rarer.

A Brief History of Listening to the Music

In the beginning, to enjoy the music you needed to get close to the musician. This wasn’t that hard since everyone could be a musician. The instruments used back then were simple and available everywhere. So were the melodies. But this little effort of being near a living person meant that we enjoyed the music consciously.

Fast forward a few millennia and our musical instruments grew a lot more complicated. A guitar is much more elaborate than a flute, a grand piano is more elaborate than a guitar and organs are even more elaborate. What didn’t change was the need for presence. To enjoy the music you still needed to be close to the performer. Concert halls and cathedrals made it easier to enjoy the music on a massive scale. But presence (of both body and mind) was still required.

Are you present when you listen to music?

Around a century and a half ago, people learned how to store music for future reproduction. Listening to music no longer required being close to the performer, but it still required being close to the reproducing device. And these devices required a conscious effort to play.

Edison with the phonograph

If your grandmother wanted to listen to some music she needed to make a choice to listen to it. She’d prepare a record, put it on a turntable, sat in a chair and listen for some twenty minutes. After those twenty minutes were up she would stand up, change the side, and listen to the rest of the album.

This physical requirement of changing the sides, just like the physical presence of attending a concert hall, makes it impractical to not listen to the music actively. In case, you are wondering active listening is the conscious act of listening to the music. In a single-tasking manner. Just the music. No reading, no social feed scrolling, no dinner cooking. Listening.

When was the last time you actively listened to music?

Things changed when music reproduction started to get more and more convenient. Cassette tapes allowed us to store music. Auto-reverse mechanism made it possible to listen to music without the needs for manual intervention. Finally, the digital players allowed us to prepare an all-day long playlist and just put it in the background.

The music ceased to be a form of entertainment. It started to be just background noise. Something to distract our mind when we wash the dishes, drive the car, or fill the columns in a spreadsheet. Music simply lost its appeal.

Convenience over Quality

Photo by Alexandre Boucher on Unsplash

For the biggest part of human history, we strived for the best quality. Music was a goal of its own. The better the quality the better the enjoyment. Concert halls and cathedrals were architected to allow the best possible sound. Hi-fi manufacturers wanted to make equipment that allowed for the best reproduction. But once convenience showed up, everything changed.

Convenience pushed music to the background. It was no longer important how well the musicians played. All that mattered was for the song to be a bit louder than the traffic noise. Convenience made it possible to focus on the quantity instead of quality. That’s the whole premise of the audio streaming services: you can access a vast quantity of music.

N owadays most people don’t feel the need to listen to music, they just want to hear it.

But quantity makes us stop listening. We hear, but we pay no attention. We don’t focus. We’re too busy with social media, with work, with chores. It’s like with junk food. The convenience and low effort of getting junk food make us mindless about it.

Today having a playback device with unlimited access to music is easy. And once we satisfy our initial cravings in that matter (yes, we still need and crave music) we may lose interest in going any further. This means most people have no idea how good their favorite songs can sound like.

What’s the point of buying expensive Hi-Fi when my phone streams music from YouTube just fine?

There’s nothing wrong in listening to music in low quality, just as there’s nothing wrong with dining from McDonald’s once in a while. But if you want to truly enjoy the act of eating and be mindful about it, you’d rather prepare a meal yourself or go to a restaurant.

Would you prefer all-you-can-eat groats buffet or a tasty meal once in a while?

Hi-End Equipment is Cheaper Than Streaming Music

Photo by Ingo Ellerbusch on Unsplash

Recently I was pondering whether my stereo needs an upgrade. I started digging through the second-hand ads to check the current prices of the gear. What I discovered was that my setup didn’t change much in price. I calculated the difference between the now and then and came to a surprising conclusion.

Hi-End stereo system can cost you less than $15/month!

How I came to that conclusion? I subtracted the original cost of my gear when I bought it in 2010 and the current prices those boxes sell for nowadays. Then I divided this figure by the number of months that passed since.

It was roughly $3400 minus $2300 which makes it $1100. If I sold the stereo today I would be $1100 short. But! I’ve been listening to it for 8 years now. That’s around 100 months of musical pleasure. Of time shared with friends discovering previously unknown moments in our favorite songs. Of re-listening to my whole collection of albums to check out how much they improved since I first heard them on a cassette (Spoiler alert: a lot!).

If you take this into account you’ll see that all this fun cost me around $11 each month. Yes, $1100 divided by 100 months is only $11. A few beers in a pub. Less than a meal at the restaurant. Less than a concert as well, though concerts and records are two very different things. You know what else costs around the same? Streaming music subscription!

Hi-End stereo system can cost you less than a streaming subscription!

Spotify has around 83 million premium subscribers. I wonder how many of them own a good-sounding Hi-Fi?

My friend bought a different stereo from the same manufacturer. It was 2013 and he paid around $1900. Nowadays second-hand prices for this equipment are in the area of $1600. Quick calculations show us his monthly cost of owning a Hi-Fi equals $5. Five dollars.

Would you pay 15$/month to enjoy your music even more?

Some of you might object that $3400 in 2010 is not the same as $3400 in 2018. What if, instead of buying a HiFi I would invest the money somehow? Considering a 3% interest rate this $3400 would bring us $4300 nowadays. Putting this into the equation we still get $21 monthly cost of owning a HiFi. Tidal Hi-Fi charges that much, by the way.

Tips for Thrifty Music Lover

There’s a catch of course. Buying just any Hi-Fi won’t give you the same results. There are pieces that age better than others. There are brands that hold their price steady over time. You need to do your research before you buy.

Some tips to keep in mind:

Don’t buy brand new units. An ex-demo item can save you some 30%-45% of the unit cost. A second-hand item can save you even more.

Be careful with mechanical parts. Turntables and CD players damage easily. What’s more, a faulty turntable may damage your records. Consult an expert on the matter. Your local hi-fi seller should do it free of charge.

You don’t have to splurge several grand for a system if you are just starting. You can get a vintage amp for around 100$ and quality speakers or headphones for around the same price.

Solid state is easier than tubes, so avoid tubes unless you know what you are getting into. Trends are dangerous if you don’t understand them.

Keep your gear tidy, ideally in a smoke-free environment. This can help to sell it later on.

If possible, keep the original packaging. Many buyers would feel more secure that way and this means better resale value.

You don’t need to have a lot of real-estate. Some amps are only slightly bigger than a cell phone!

An Exercise

Pick a song. Any song. Find the best way to play it back. As a rule of thumb:

YouTube < MP3 files< Streaming Services < FLAC files, CDs, vinyl records

3. Set a time in your calendar when you sit down, turn everything else off and just focus on this particular song.

How many details have you previously missed?

4. Make sure to share this song in the comments! We all love discovering great new songs.