What's Your Level?

A very smug hifi buddy has recently entered a phase, where he can proudly say that he has gotten off the hifi upgrade merry go round. Instead of upgrading his hifi, he has been upgrading his room over the past year or two!

He started with a decently sized purpose built "Golden Ratio" room which was pretty practical and sounded very decent along with his hifi, which is pretty high end too. Over the last year or so, he had re sized and re shaped his stone wall room six times I think. In Malaysia, labour and work force is dirt cheap if one uses foreigners. That partially explains the afford ability factor, but that's besides the point.

The work often includes lots off absorption and diffuser panels built too.

This buddy now tells me that there are 3 levels audiophile hood.
Remember this movie starring Jim Carrie? Not exactly hifi cable(level 1) guy, but a cable guy nevertheless.

Level 1: The cables guys. These guys feel that cables can cure all audiophilia related woes. They believe that they just need to find the "right" miracle cure for all their hifi woes.
Does all this hifi equipment seduce you? If yes, then you're at level 2.

Level 2: The equipment guys. These guys have just realised that cables just can't cure their audiophilia woes. They now know there's no magical silver bullet(a.k.a. cable) to fix their thirst for better sound. Then they realised that it's their equipment synergy after all!(also commonly known in Malaysia as "HiFi Matching"). So they go on an equipment upgrade binge.(Does the 2 contributors here fit the bill? You are free to make your own assumptions. He!, He!)
The "SIFU" telling all others what to do. If you find your self teaching others how to play hifi and room tune, then congrats! You're in level 3, a.k.a. the SIFU level!

Level 3: The room tune guys. Having just learnt the painful, not to mention expensive lesson that equipment swapping still doesn't really fix their audiophilia woes, these guys now turn their attention to the room instead. Since the whole hifi is in the room, the problem must be the room then? Some take the easy way out, consult the room tune experts, and get the contractors in. Other's like my dear buddy, prefer to take the harder path. The problem with room tuning on this path is that the whole process is a learning curve, and like my buddy who had to re-sized and re-shaped his room and panels no less than 6 times to get nearly satisfactory results.

Here's the hierarchy in the scheme of things, level 2 guys consider them selves superior to the level 1 guys. Level 3 guys just believe that they are at the top of their game(at this point, they'd all like to be addressed as "SIFU"). I have a theory about the next attain able level, a.k.a level 4!
The next level after "SIFU" level, go HT or give up! Hmm.........., I really don't mind if my HT room looks like this and snuggled in such fine company.

Level 4: The given up guys! After advancing from level 1, to level 3, some might feel that they have obtained sonic nirvana. The level 4 guys are those whom have gone thru all the levels from 1 -3 and are now never quite convinced sonic nirvana is attain able? As they wise up, they go back to basics, by selling all their hifi equipment, and caving in to family demands, set up a home theater instead! With this here we go again, up grading Blu-Ray players, projectors, sub woofers and all other stuff HT related! There's a group of very smart level 4 guys though, after selling all their hifi gear, they just go and buy a mini compo instead! Then they tell you "Just listen to music!"

Which level are you? And lastly, where do you see your self heading in the near future?