This is not a post about bragging about my stereo.

First off, it is a nice system that sounds quite fantastic, but it' not a system that was just thousands and thousands of dollars. It is not an audiophile system. It’s about a $1500 system. Klipsch Reference RF-42 II speakers, which were the bottom of the Klipsch line of floor speaker when I bought them. I think they cost about $250 each. They sound great. They are enough. They are rated for a max of 75w of power. The receiver/amp is a Yamaha R-S300. It give you 50w per channel. Not giant, but again, plenty for our small house and the front room. It will fill up the room quite nicely with the speakers – a nice rich sound. The new CD player is a Yamaha CD-S303. Again, it a nice single-disc player. Frankly I think it sounds better than the one it replaced. I don’t know a lot about technical stereo stuff. The turntable is an Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB. It sounds good. It is maybe the only component I might switch out in the next few years, but I’m in no rush.

When I replaced my old stereo (a big mistake! It was great!), there were not a lot of simple stereo systems available in the stores. Not like in the 1970s and 80s. I finally found this amp and speakers at Fryes. They were trying to get me to look the home theater systems. Nope. I have NO INTEREST in home theater. If I want a theater experience, I’ll go to the theater. I just want a simple 2-speaker stereo that sounds awesome and is only for listening to music. That’s it.

Second, I know times are tough for young people. They were rough for use when we got married in 1990, and I think times are tougher now. Our jobs sucked, but at least if you had been to college you could almost always find a job with enough pay to live on and health insurance if you looked for a couple of weeks. We had enough for a nice apartment on Barton Creek in Austin and we could buy a couple of CDs every week. Which we did. We still have all of them. And we had a nice stereo back then to listen to them. I think it is just harder for young people now, and I think a lot of young people prefer to be more flexible and mobile. They don’t want to carry a ton of records or CDs around with them. And why would they pay $25 or an LP or $15+ for a CD when they can have everything for $5 a month on Spotify. I mean, if you are listening on ear buds or a small device, that’s fine. It make sense.

I also know that many people simply prefer to keep their lives simple. A small apartment, not a lot of “stuff”. That is a good way to live. But man, I love having this stereo and just submerging myself in the music waves filling the room. It is maybe my one real extravagance in life, and I’m good with that.