Reading · Marshall House Hifi

Most people agree that having a “purpose in life” is a necessary aspect of being. Even if you are inclined to push back on that, you likely live your life in such a way that lines up with that mode of being. What is a chair without someone to sit on it?… What is a fork and knife without a dry aged ribeye to cut into?… What is a tube amplifier without your Music Hall Stealth spinning Jazzbois “Song of Hope” through it while you are thinking about what to write next?… I am American through and through; that of course affects the way that I view the world and myself within it (something I try to keep in mind), but I don’t know if there is a better way to do this life thing.

Similarly, when trying to take Marshall House Hifi from the imaginal realm to something actual/tangible; I could not escape the idea that the only way to make it more than, just an idea, is to give it “a reason to exist”. I believe for a company/business, you would call that a "mission statement. Here is the Marshall House Hifi Mission statement (for lack of a better word):

Add something fresh/currently not there to the audiophile/hifi hobby.
Be a thread within the hobby; bringing together people and things that are seemingly unconnected.
Broaden the reach of the hobby to make it visible to outsiders’ bring in new people.

Circa December 2021, I had discovered the hifi hobby and the craziness of audiophile nature. I was intrigued. Not that I had not had hobbies in the past because as long as I have been me; I have had a thing. When I was young it was football and basketball. When I became old enough to realize the benefits of being in good shape (and there are many), it was fitness. There have been in betweens but the similarities in all of them are the extreme plateau that you find when you reach your peak (at those specific hobbies). Being an audiophile, in many ways, is inexhaustible which some of us find to be more negative than positive. There is no audiophile training that explains to us how the same heights you can reach with anything have the equal/opposite depths to them. In that sense, it’s clear that there could be an addictive side to this passion as you can and will literally find yourself getting “high” just listening to music. If you are new to this and have not experienced it yet, just wait!! Similar to a drug; this takes us to an addiction of upgrading pieces in our system; in an effort to “perfect” them. Let’s be clear; this IS stemming from the inexhaustibleness of it all. They are the same thing. In this line of thinking, the nonsensical aspects are what make the sensical aspects worth going after. Marshall House Hifi hopes to shine a light onto this and make sense of the nonsensical aspects of the hobby. Take an approach that peels off the top layer and figure out the who, the what, the where, the why, and the how... sharing ideas/music along the way.

Finding philosophy inexhaustible in the same way that I said above about hifi… I can’t help but compare these hobbies and my love for them both. In philosophy; you learn one thing… and then you learn the opposite. Plato will lake you all the way left and Aristotle will just as quickly take you back the opposite direction. However, just as Plato taught Aristotle, the history of philosophy is one where everyone talks (or dialogos since we are talking Plato) and this connects philosophy in a way that you can draw lines and parallels from one to another… here to there… ancient times to modern/postmodern/metamodern wherever you want to go. I haven’t seen that in Hifi the way that it is done in other hobbies. BUT WHY NOT!! Why isn’t Andrew Robinson having conversations about the importance or lack-there-of of DACs with Herb Reichert?! Why isn’t Michael Borresen of Audio Group Denmark talking about the love of music with Mark Schneider of Linear Tube Audio?! My personal goal: Jonathan Weiss of OMA has to have a dialogos about music/poetry and how it is the foundation or at least how it adds to meaning making; with John Vervaeke (famous for Awakening from the Meaning Crisis). Where is the platform where trust is established that this can be done in an open and respectful way? If there is room in the hobby for this style of conversation; Marshall House Hifi can be that platform. We certainly will make the attempt.

I have never met a human being who did not love music. I have also not met a human being who did not love food. The difference is… anyone who loves burgers is looking for the good burgers!! Anyone who loves coffee… is going to Starbucks (not me; I’m going to the mom and pop or ladies making coffee with funky furniture and plants all around where the barista is breastfeeding and working at the same time; spot: shoutout to A Lovely Little Coffee House)!! Why in the world isn’t everyone listening to Drake, Taylor Swift, and Sam Hunt through a McIntosh/Sonus Faber combo!! Maybe McIntosh/Sonus Faber isn’t your bag; IDC… insert your amp/speaker combo here. The point stands; if you love music and you listen to it daily… hifi beats a bluetooth speaker with 8 hour battery life without question. Audiophiles realize that these things aren’t even in the same league. It’s like Mike Tyson getting in the ring to fight Mike Pence!! We can all agree on that but somehow I did not find out about 2 channel audio before my thirties; it wasn’t even on my radar. Marshall House Hifi; not being jaded enough yet; is hoping to help fix this problem.

I believe/hope that I have laid out the plan well enough to take it from the realm of ideas into a space for it to begin actualizing. I think that it is worth saying this as well… Hifi is very much a community; something that is not as common as it should be in our modern society. Hifi is also rich with meaning, in a word where lots of hobbies are more about checking out. In a sense, our intense way of listening to music is kind of a drug. One who’s side effects are more on the piggy bank than anything else. Who doesn’t need a good drug that provides meaning and community? Why shouldn’t we push this hobby out into a more general space? If I am right here… that only leaves the how. And the how of it all, is the fun part. Leave a comment with your thoughts and ideas.

The Marshall House Hifi Saga...

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