I did not know that digital could sound so good. Then one day recently I entered a hifi store and my world became a bit more hi-def. I was finally ready to upgrade my Adcom 2-channel analogue gear, but I didn’t really know that until I heard the music through equipment designed to play back transparent sound.

I’ve always been skeptical of hifi esotericism. I don’t mind saying that. I still am to a degree … I mean, a power cord for $2,500? … but now having spent a few grand, I have renewed my love affair with music.

My old system was respectable, as far as it went. I know I was proud of it when I bought it. The Adcom 535 Mk. 2 pre-amp and amp, a Denon DP37F turntable (with Shure V15 Type IV carried), and B&W Pyramid bookshelf speakers. I had a CD player and cassette deck but both crapped out on my right around the time I was digitizing everything for playback over my iPod then my iPhone. Though I have thousands of CDs, most have been played only once when I ripped them to my drive.

But now? Weepin’ woofers Batman! What a difference a day makes. I believe that economists would say that my utility of this money spent was well worth it. Even my very supportive wife overcame her skepticism about the cost when she heard a fine pressing of Talking Heads’ Remain in Light. And here’s the thing: I don’t believe that my enjoyment would be ten times better if I had spent ten times the amount. I believe I hit the sweet spot on the graph between cost and enjoyment.

So of course now I’m obsessing about re-ripping my quality CDs (I have so many that are, in the language of the olden days, AAD), using Tidal (not Apple) to match those tracks that I can. I’m obsession about bi-wiring (but not bi-amping (that I’ll save for my retirement, god willing and the creek don’t rise). I’m obsessing about Roon and whether I should’ve bought a Nucleus (I didn’t; I bought an Intel NUC and I’ll figure it our).

If my parents had turned me on to hifi when I was a teenager, I would not have spent all my money on drugs, that’s for sure.

And so I am here, on this site, communing with the like-minded and with the purists.