Through hard work, dedication and an element of jamminess, I think I’m approaching Peak Gadget- the position where there aren’t really any other shinies that I either want or need.
My progress towards has been helped by various review products I’ve been sent over the last few months, including a 4K telly (which is wall mounted in our bedroom, making it look more like a hotel room than somewhere we live but hey, it’s got a Netflix app, so all is good), and more recently an Xbox One and a Huawei P9 smartphone. I’ve built myself a ninja PC for in the living room, which is not worth upgrading until the next gen graphics cards are well established, a decent laptop (Surface 3), a nice tablet (Shield), a good NAS set up, and some solid streaming gear.
Last year I hardwired a large chunk of our house with Ethernet cable to sort of WiFi issues, so I don’t have anything to worry about there. The only improvements I can really see as necessary are upgrading the three FireTV Sticks to proper FireTVs (with Ethernet ports) to cope with higher bandwidth streaming, and possibly adding a SONOS or two the set up. I also like to replace the NAS box every few years in case of drive failure, so I suppose that’s something to aim for but it’s hardly inspiring. I think I’ve reached peak busy as well as peak gadget, and the two are probably intertwined.
I would like to get an amp and a turntable but that would cost me around £80,000 (we’d logistically probably need an extension to have somewhere suitable to put it, which is something we’re looking at, just not for the purposes of playing Pink Floyd on vinyl though).
Yes, I suppse there is tech out that that appeals to me- I’d like PS VR or an Oculus Rift, a modern DSLR that can do 4K video recording, and maybe a more powerful portable Hi-Def audio player than can actually drive my AKG headphones properly- but in reality, would I actually have the time to properly appreciate the damn stuff? Probably not.
As I get older, I’m finally seeing (probably as I see it in my son), that for me, a lot of the thrill is in the chase, rather than the actual acquisition and subsequent use of the stuff I’ve lusted after. I’ve got two action cameras at home, the last time I used either of them was to tape it to a vacuum cleaner over the weekend. That’s hardly hardcore, although I did admittedly get some nice footage that proves I do some cleaning occasionally.
I think the one thing I would like to do is make a MAME arcade cabinet. I fear my wood working skills aren’t up to even a table top job though. Who knows? This may be the year I try…
