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I am not an audiophile but

I am not an audiophile and yet my life has been touched by music. 

One of my older brothers was an audiophile. He loved music and he was passionate about audio systems. He gave me my first lessons in music appreciation and in audio quality. We became close because of it. Coincidentally I was also very good friends with several very talented musicians who went on to make careers out of music. I spent my teenage years surrounded by music and musicians. 

It is important to realise that music was more important to young people back then than it is today. Music was the foremost cultural phenomenon of the age. If you were a teenager back then the bands you followed defined you. Despite this I didn't follow any bands and I didn't buy any records. 

My brother suffered from serious mental illness. When he was in the grips of psychosis he would use music  as a weapon to disturb the neighbourhood and to deny people from sleep.  

I had a complicated relationship with music. 

I am sixty years old now and these events are in the past. Several years ago my brother died a lonely, early death surrounded by thousands of records and multiple Hi Fi systems he had collected over the years. 

I am not an audiophile but I can tell the difference between a terrible audio system and a half decent one. I have come to realise that this is not a common ability. I guess I have my brother to thank for that. 

I do realise however that there is a gulf between "half decent audio" and true high fidelity. This is a gulf I will probably never cross. I don't understand the arcane rituals of true high fidelity and some of it ($1000 ethernet cables!!!) seem to be bullshit to me. 

On my PC I have recently acquired a pair of Swan OS-10 speakers which are a noticeable improvement on the Logitech Gigaworks T20 I was previously using. Probably still not good enough to qualify as Hi Fi but enough I think to be considered "Half Decent". 

I also have a set of Synthesiser HD598SE headphones which I love because they sound good and also because they are supremely comfortable to wear during long gaming sessions. 

When I am out and about I use a set of Lenovo XT98 noise cancelling ear pods. By every law of logic these €22 ear pods should be a piece of crap. They certainly don't meet any definition of Hi Fidelity but I mainly use them to listen to podcasts and they have served me perfectly for 18 months. I expect them to fall apart any day now and I will probably look for a higher quality pair when the do. 



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