And just as a person’s life story is influenced or even determined by larger events, these individual pick-up-cartridge journeys will be affected by the wider history (or journey) of the cartridge, and of hi-fi as a whole. Even sensible audiophiles who have just one turntable at any time (as opposed to someone who might hypothetically have as many as six operating units) will typically go through several cartridges on that particular turntable.Īll audiophiles are therefore on their own pick-up-cartridge journey. But it strikes me that of all the elements in a hi-fi system, the one best suited to the journey metaphor is the pick-up cartridge because, despite the astronomical cost of some high-end cartridges, it is replaced more easily and more frequently than any other component. Here my own mind goes back to a pair of behemothic Amcron/Crown hybrid electrostatics that I sold in 1980, and which I still miss. Try bringing to mind all the speakers, for example, that you’ve owned, and then try to see that, er, journey in terms of, say, progress or otherwise. This sort of thinking might pertain to one’s hi-fi system as a whole, or it might focus on one element in the system. It is, moreover, a journey that can be thought about in terms of various narrative structures and patterns, with or without specific destinations or end points.
After all, a life spent in hi-fi, buying one piece of equipment after another over decades, is a kind of journey.
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