Ever watch one of those climbing shows where mountaineers scale a sheer cliff with their bare hands? Or watch those folks jump off a mountain and fly their bat wings before opening a parachute?
Just watching them in the safety of my living room gives me the willies, yet there's a certain admiration and wonder I also feel, one I think I probably share with most people.
We each have our own comfort level. Some of us are perfectly comfortable with a small 2-channel desktop system, while others pine for the half million dollar listening room of exotic wonders.
Me? I am kind of an in the middle sort of person. A wonderful pair of loudspeakers and all the trimmings is enough to float my boat.
But here's the thing. Regardless of where you find yourself on the comfort level spectrum, know that as an audiophile, you're in the extreme minority. To an outsider, even a pair of Aspen FR5s and an integrated amplifier is like climbing Yosemite's Half Dome compared to a Sonos speaker plopped down in the living room.
What we think of as normal, or even sparse, is most people's unattainable dream system.
It's all relative.
