The Radiophile’s Essential Lexicon: Word #1: Persnickety

You claim to be possessed by an arduous quest for the perfect radio but since deep down the journey is more exciting than the final destination, you need to make sure the perfect radio forever evades your grasp. To insure you’re unhappy with every radio you acquire, you evolve into a persnickety, that is, fussy, curmudgeon, who finds the slightest fault with even the most high-performance radio. You detect a bit of slop or overload, real or imagined, on AM. You notice a touch of hiss, real or not, on a weak FM station during a rainstorm. You hear the faintest speaker distortion. You find the knobs to be too small or too big. The ergonomics could be better. The antenna could be longer. The antenna is too long. You prefer a telescopic FM antenna. Then you wish you had a wire one since you’re less likely to bend and damage it than a telescopic one. You wish the radio came in a more masculine color. It knocks over too easily. Its display is too bright. Its display isn’t bright enough. The radio gives off an unsettling toxic aroma. The radio gets too hot. The radio gives off dangerous electrical waves that may encourage the growth of malignant brain tumors. 

You become so persnickety over the years that it becomes unclear if the radio is truly faltering or if you’re coloring its supposed defects with your rabid imagination. As a persnickety radiophile, you are doomed to be miserable with all of the radios you’ve amassed and this condition of constant discontent fuels the flame of your insatiable radiophile appetites. 

Comments

[Paul]

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[Tim]

The solution is to get rid of all the radios you don't really need - which can be rather painful - and to keep only a minimal number of the models that serve your PRACTICAL needs. This returns reason to the radio hobby once again. Then you have to learn how to be content with these, considering also that you might be spending too much time listening to the radio. Ask your wife; she'll be happy to tell you.

The danger of reviving the persnickety syndrone is found in continuing to watch every development in the radio world. This risks the acquisition of another unreasonable collection of brand new radios, so that the second state of that man will be worse than the first.

[Angelo]

I continue to look for my ultimate radio---but I've found that different radios serve different purposes. I use most of my radios at various times, in various places. They don't have to be perfect and well rounded---they only have to be very good at the task I assign to them. My Emerson bathroom radio is a good example. It's fine for getting ready in the morning.