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What is "good enough"?

Like I said, I really don't know. I rather feel that knowing you've got a truly superior X than almost everyone else and not bragging about it because you derive satisfaction from knowing that you could brag but don't is still status seeking.
I may be reading too much into our typical trolls telling us how declasse we all are.
 
Newly discovered great music, music that you tried a bit and forgot about, but found later and loved, and music you never get tired of. In my case, the latter, maybe that's 20% of what I've collected for 50 years. All those are more than good enough. Technology, that's an ever changing sport.
 
I think I'm more of a hedonic treadmill type. You get a certain euphoria or high when you listen to music and it is immersive. I tend to think better equipment will allow me to get into that zone a little faster. Up to a point, it does. I've pointed out in other threads there are some pretty powerful non-equipment tweaks one can also employ.
How to get your freak on is personal. I don't actually need good SQ for that, I just need the right music and mood, for which booze can help. When I'm listening carefully, as opposed to emotionally or casually then audible defects are the issue and mitigating them is what I spend $$ on. Defects are distracting.

Since lurking here, I suspect that adequate bass, flat midrange. low distortion, and wide, fairly even, dispersion are sufficient.
Yes, indeed, that's exactly what's sufficient. But that's not easy or cheap if you require sub bass (significantly below 45 Hz, let's say) and high dynamic range with decent coherence in your listening room. Genelec 8351B standing on W371A would do the job for me and I guess a lot of us but at those $$ it's naga hapn. So I make do with the defects I got.
 
If you don't post about it or show it off? Maybe not, although I bet people collect all sorts of expensive things seeking status.

Can one show off to themselves? Like an introvert version.
I may be guilty of that. I have a few components "because I can" but I don't really talk about them. Friends know them from visiting but I would be too embarrassed to ever admit how much they cost.
 
'Good enough' gets nearer the more you drink
I found the opposite true for me. I'm there(which doesn't mean I still don't like trying out different gear/music), and got there after being sober a couple of years(almost 7 now). Really heard the music and the gear both, without trying. When I was drinking, I was always wondering "can it get better, and how?" No more, and glad to be off that train.

But to each their own.
 
Perhaps the audio industry of today is guilty of that.

The audio industry of yesteryear was completely the opposite.
Much knowledge was actually to be found in old manuals to both electronics and mechanical things when I was a kid. Explanations of concepts and how-to's (engine valve adjustment, power band figures explained for economical driving etc.)

Decades ago when I was working as a troubleshooting auto electric mechanic (yes that's the title) and an apprentice was up for his final practical exam I got a call, it was him, while doing the exam, asking me for troubleshooting advice. They were allowed phones and pc's. I believe the picture below pretty much sums up the cause for a lot of stupid things that you encounter today.

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We have a little Sonos Roam portable speaker, it’s the first thing I pack when we are going on holiday. That little device is always good enough for me when the alternative is no music - I guess good enough is highly contextual !
 
Correct. My question was: Does it also count as status seeking?

I'm inclined to think so because no matter how little we brag, we learn pride through social processes and we measure it relative to social variables and this pride is a social status.
It might satisfy some personal sense of it but nothing else if it never comes up in conversation and you use it exclusively.

Edit: In a word, no.
 
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Correct. My question was: Does it also count as status seeking?

I'm inclined to think so because no matter how little we brag, we learn pride through social processes and we measure it relative to social variables and thus pride is a social status.

Thinking of that list of sins, envy is certainly a social function because it explicitly requires an other. Pride depends. Would a human (hypothetically) raised in isolation still feel satisfaction when learning a skill or crafting an object? I don't think pride requires an other in all cases.

The definitions of pride are fairly broad in that respect: a 'feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements' may be personal; but pride 'from qualities or possessions that are widely admired' is more obviously social. And so on.
 
I don't know where this talk started about sins. But PRIDE should not be a sin. If you learn to do something and you do it well you should take pride. If you finally acquire something you've saved up for for many years, you should take pride. If you start a life changing part of your life and come up on top, you should take pride.
Let the people with the real sin suffer, those that ENVY you..

Be proud and take pride in yourself!
 
I don't know where this talk started about sins. But PRIDE should not be a sin. If you learn to do something and you do it well you should take pride. If you finally acquire something you've saved up for for many years, you should take pride. If you start a life changing part of your life and come up on top, you should take pride.
Let the people with the real sin suffer, those that ENVY you..

It's part of the classical formulation of the seven deadly sins (the first on the list, in fact). I'd assume you are familiar, but maybe not, in which case you can of course read up. Note that in Evagrius Ponticus formulation, pride is used in the sense of self-overestimation, arrogance, or grandiosity. Not the positive aspects. And he would have used a Greek word.
 
It's part of the classical formulation of the seven deadly sins (the first on the list, in fact). I'd assume you are familiar, but maybe not, in which case you can of course read up. Note that in Evagrius Ponticus formulation, pride is used in the sense of self-overestimation, arrogance, or grandiosity. Not the positive aspects. And he would have used a Greek word.
Yeah, it just occurred to me that's a language thing. In my language we have a separate word for the biblical (negative) definition and one for the positive traits.
 
Curious, what are the biblical sins that you are talking about? .. are they "good enough" .. I mean worth it?
 
I don't know where this talk started about sins. But PRIDE should not be a sin. If you learn to do something and you do it well you should take pride. If you finally acquire something you've saved up for for many years, you should take pride. If you start a life changing part of your life and come up on top, you should take pride.
Let the people with the real sin suffer, those that ENVY you..

Be proud and take pride in yourself!
Sure. And that should be enough, We don't need "unboxing videos" so you can show it off, etc...

Be proud you achieved something, but when that object defines you it's not healthy.
 
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