If you have a piece of equipment you want fixed or apprasied, we're here to help.
There's no gatekeeping here, no barrier to entry, no reason to be intimidated...
we love all this stuff holistically, in all its forms and fashions.
There's no wrong way to listen.
Not only would it be incredibly rude to show up to a friend's party and critique their little bluetooth speaker's sound quality, it would be wrong. Music is made to sound best for the equipment of its listener. Professionals mix their music for their audience; some mastering engineers will mix country records to sound best on a pair of F-150 speakers. Classic rock artists remaster their old records so they sound better on Apple airpods. Its not just reasonable, but entirely likely, that your friend's bluetooth speaker is being employed in a studio right now to check for clarity. It's not as crazy as it sounds.
There's no perfect sounding record.
What defines a "great recording"? Is it the pristine sound of the percussion or the guitar? Is it the expression and energy of the musicians playing? While there are beatiful records whose contributors worked tirelessly to capture reproductions of tone and warmth in the instruments, their are noisy and gutteral records that command your attention with their energy. The studio itself is another instrument, capturing a performance or creating one.
There's a whole lotta junk out there.
Value is a fickle thing, isn't it? Just because something is old, doesn't mean that it's in-demand. Sometimes gear can surive because the owner was a good shepard of their equipment over the years, or left it in the box because they never had the gift receipt. Just like the iPod speaker dock sitting in your closet, or a once-admirable 8-track cassette collection uncermoniously gathered up in a plastic bag in the basement... some things simply don't accumulate value or get left behind by consumer tastes.
...all that being said, you have to admit,
some of this stuff is pretty cool!
Have you ever listened to Marquee Moon on a Zenith SFD283 Console? It's incredible. Great hi-fi equipment is like owning a performance car; it may not be practical for every day or every person, but it can be exhilerating when the time is right. Just like there are countless ways as to how a car can be fast, there are countless ways to elevate your listening experience. There are speakers, turntables, receivers, consoles, and more that deserve respect for their craftmanship and how they reproduce sound. They're worth maintaining, preserving, and above all enjoying.