Music addiction

[heliumflight]

Hello Friends,

The idea that Music has overtaken me and controls me, and can be considered truly addictive in the same way as substances like nicotine and alcohol is controversial. Nonetheless, many of us spend huge amounts of time watching TV, alcohol, movies, porn and GF– if we are honest – often more than we would like.

Music, it allows us to alter our emotions, to learn, to comfort our stress ships with fictional characters, who can serve as substitute friends and relatives. And all this from the comfort of our sofas. In the digital age, where access to a plethora of online content is just a click away, it's no wonder that discussions about the addictive nature of music have become more prominent, at least for me. This instant gratification leads to the reinforcement of the behavior, encouraging repeated engagement with music. My better says that "why is the music always playing in my house, “is this a hotel?”. I leave the music on even when I go to sleep. Do I need help? Or if I don’t get music, I need help!

Best!

 

[Analogous]

GF?

 

[heliumflight]

GF?

Girl friend. I think you don't have one.

 

[Analogous]

Girl friend. I think you don't have one.

You are correct

 

[heliumflight]

You are correct

When you have music, you don't need GF

 

[Analogous]

When you have music, you don't need GF

Thanks. I understand what you are saying.
Music is important.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

I think I understand, can't say for sure since I am not in your head.

I do think that most people in the "hobby", at least online, are not interested in music. They seem primarily interested in gear and setup to show off and feed their ego, and to socialize, to help the first goal by seeking like minded people and to socialize because humans tend to be hardwired to do so. Forums (including this forum) are an excellent example of this, people on forums, at least the regulars, are just feeding their ego/showing off and socializing. I wager most of them have spent more time on the forums than listening to music in the past 5-10 years. Anyway the point is most people don't actually care about music, that is my observation and opinion over decades. It is good to see you care about music. Enjoy. I will add two things, one you don't need help in my view and two you might not want to listen to music while you sleep, it lessens the importance/enjoyment of music, at least it did for me when I tried it a long time ago. I stopped doing that. Once again enjoy.

 

[mbhangui]

I don't think you require help. Le me explain how I feel about Music and compare it with watching a move/tv series on Television.

I love sci-fi. I have been watching start trek tv series back to back for the last 10 years or so. I have 3 tv sets in the house. One 65" plasma in my music room, one 55" LED in my bedroom and another 55" Oled in my son's room. Mostly I watch it in my music room because my preferred comfort time is after midnight. I love the big screen and also the sound because it is full 7.1. Sometimes I watch it in my bedroom, the sound is through the tv speakers and just doesn't compare to the sound what I get in my music room. Ditto for the OLED tv, where the sound is nowhere near the quaility I get in the Music room. But regardless of where I see it, I don't feel the need to upgrade the sound quality or the size of the screen.

With Music it is very very different. Music stirs up your heart. And when you listen there is a constant itch to improve the sound because somehow you feel that you will be happy if the sound can be improved even by some miniscule percent. And this itch to improve is addictive. You keep on experimenting with room acoustics, equipment changes, experiment with different cables, etc. The big problem with Music is that the brain also does some kind of processing and every each person will hear the sound differently with the same room, same sitting position and same equipment, same song. Everyone human being is affected by psychoacoustics. A good example is when you buy a new equipment. It sounds great. Sometimes it doesn't sound great and few days it sounds great and your brain fools you by saying burn-in has happened. Cables don't burn in. Speakers are mechanical devices, they can sound different after few days. Capacitors can change after usage. But most other components don't. So with Music many of us (not all) are never 100% satisfied with what you are hearing. Ask the female species and you will find they are happy even with music coming out from the mobile phones. No wonder female audiophiles are extremely rare. What you may say, men and women are wired very differently.

I have the same issue with coding. I love coding in C language. And Yes you can write bug free programs if you check every statement in your programs for errors. So when I write something I make sure every line of code works and if it fails, it gets reported. One example is I don't use any function that doesn't report error. A great example of this is the printf() function in the C library. The printf function is a great example of a bad function. It returns the number of arguments written regardless of whether the message actually got printed. But to write a printf equivalent which returns a useful error in case of failure requires you to write at least 6 lines of code instead of just 1 line. So when I look at any programs written by my employees, I'm never satisfied.

Same with Music, because even if it sounds great you make out that the sound coming out is nowhere near to what you hear something live without any amplifiers. Many of use (especially men) have the itch to reach perfection and many times at great costs which affect personal life, at the cost of relations with other people and so on. Watching movies is also unreal. It is not like you are seeing it live, but still your brain accepts that and you don't feel like that it should feel real. No wonder 3D came and went.

So music is addictive and that's just a sign that you want perfection. I don't think there is anything wrong in trying to achieve perfection.

 

[prem]

At the end of the day it’s a hobby. It’s akin to playing a game or reading or movie watching. Trying to achieve perfection is fine. But if in that process it’s leading to unhappiness in your family life, you need to figure out what’s going wrong.

In pursuit of any hobby, I strictly follow two things. One is not to spend more than what one can afford. Two, it should not be a hindrance to my immediate family.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

At the end of the day it’s a hobby. It’s akin to playing a game or reading or movie watching. Trying to achieve perfection is fine. But if in that process it’s leading to unhappiness in your family life, you need to figure out what’s going wrong.

In pursuit of any hobby, I strictly follow two things. One is not to spend more than what one can afford. Two, it should not be a hindrance to my immediate family.

Maybe for some it's a hobby. Music is far more important than that for me. I understand for some it is just casual. I cover this in my previous post. So I disagree that it is a "hobby", for most yes. For some? No.

 

[Sushant Sharma]

These degenerates and scum of the earth. I petition to change the name of the forum from hifivision to musicvision. These heathens only listen to their equipment and not music. Appalling.

Serenading to a "GF" or enjoying music playback with a "GF" in my book are both great feelings. Doesn't have to be exclusively this or that. But yes then again, I like alcohol and cigarettes too. I think my opinion doesn't count. I am an addict.

 

[souravin]

Music is omnipresent in life to every emotions. Till the time, source/ quality agnostic, it's enjoyable and solace.

I know people, banging head over better and better quality of source (read vinyl) and ultimately bringing unhappiness to life and surroundings

 

[Nitin K]

When you have music, you don't need GF

Life is short, why not be happy with both !

 

[Sean de Silva]

At least for me, music is food, nourishment and comfort for my soul. As Frank Ocean said - "When you're happy you enjoy the music, but when you're sad you understand the lyrics". This quote totally applies to me. Without music in my life, I'd be a living zombie. I am not into movies at all. I cannot live a day without music whether it's via headphones or the 2ch home hifi system.

 

[arj]

Music is a pleasure and getting best out of music a hobby.
The former can live without the latter ie you can love music and not care about equipment
But the latter by itself makes no sense

Now if you are enjoying the former ie music what the harm music can co exist with most things you can do in life, but if it is the latter you obsess about, you do need help as it can consume time and money and even more!

 

[deafbong_kolkata]

obsession with gear and vinyl pressings can get to a point of not making much sense (to others ), but it all starts from love of music , a mad devotion to a particular musician , composer, band.

I’m a vinyl guy and I obsess about scoring the best , the absolute best pressings available for my favourite albums. I prowl like an insane person on vinyl dedicated forums , ebay and discogs and local brick and mortar shops in my area , pore over matrix numbers and variant etchings and lacquer source and I get pure pleasure out of it.

I have a decent tube setup which I’m happy with , but I don’t obsess over it.

 

[Analogous]

Most mornings I wake up, go and switch on my set up and while it’s warming up I head off to brush my teeth (and ablutions).
During this time I make some important decisions…
Like…What kind of music I want to start my day with and set the mood for the morning.
This is not as easy as it sounds with the endless choices available on Qobuz, Apple Music and other streaming services.
My SO is usually in deep slumber while such vital events are happening.
This behaviour also led some deep introspection a few years ago (was it a need?, was it an addiction? was it a habit? Etc)
This introspection didn’t last long as I had better things to do; like immersing myself in music.
But I also discovered another critical fact:
I would not switch on my set up as much, first thing in the morning if I was not happy/satisfied/thrilled with my system and set up.
But when I was, it’s pretty regular and a good indicator/barometer of how much I liked my set up and its performance.
A very objective measurement

And then there is this. Safe to assume a proportion of these numbers in all regions are addicted to alcohol and start their morning with a drink.
They need help…

 

[ssf]

Want GF. Can't get GF. Keep getting called 'Uncle'

Music does not judge me by my age.

My system sometimes tells me 'You don't know how good I am, you have old ears !!!'

So, music it is, for me.

ps: I have given up alcohol. It's been more than 10 months now. Quite a few wine shops have closed down in my neighborhood due to my giving up alcohol.

 

[Analogous]

Want GF. Can't get GF. Keep getting called 'Uncle'

Music does not judge me by my age.

My system sometimes tells me 'You don't know how good I am, you have old ears !!!'

So, music it is, for me.

On the brighter side…. so many nieces!!!

 

[Analogous]

This morning two addictions came together in song.