I spent £200 on a Nokia 6.1 smartphone the other week. That was my upper limit after a process of walking in and out of the Carphone Warehouse about four times and then asking whether the Sony or the Nokia was a better choice. And I have to say that it is quite good. The only problem was that the music wasn’t so great. Good, but not great.

So here we go again. I buy something any then I need to buy something else. This time, I decided to spend 89 coins on a Dragonfly Black 1.5 DAC. Then I had to work out which connector I needed to connect it to my phone. I needed a usb A female to udb C connector. At this point I’m almost happy. There was the choice of the Black or the Red DAC for £200, but I’ll never know – at least for the moment. I am happy, then I find out that there is software that can clean up even the highest quality music steam. This would cost me £100. Mmmmmmmmm. There is a £5.99 option for my phone though, and it’s amazing. I’m finally happy. Well, almost! At this price I will get good, but not totally reliable. But when it works it really is great, and I mean really great. I’m playing high quality on my laptop with a DAC plugged in and I can really tell the difference.

Good quality music is one of my pleasures and is one of my luxuries. Somehow, it makes everything ok when I’m blown away by the quality of sound I can listen to. The details aren’t too much of a concern. My decisions are made on availability and my affordability. And I’ve decided that I’m affording it by not drinking. This is a good substitution given that the music almost always make me feel better.

So for the moment, I’m happy, but there will be new headphones to by. And my Hi-Def music streaming company hasn’t paid its bills for a few months. I don’t want to think about that. It will really screw up my home entertainment system and lead to me shelling out more money, which really won’t be too much of a problem. We need to move on and up. The main problem is choosing the things that will add to our lives and give us a little happiness every not and then. And it’s a mystery to me why everyone doesn’t demand amazing quality music.