Whats wrong with audiophiles?

[3db]

http://www.twitteringmachines.com/2011/03/whats-wrong-with-audiophiles-part-1/

 

[highfigh]

Nothing, if we're compared with people who dress their tiny, yapping POS dogs in those cute little sweaters.

 

[davidtwotrees]

Nothing wrong with audiophiles. Becoming adept and expert at a hobby is a good thing. Audiophools are people who buy the snake oil of cables and are worthy of our scorn.......or pity.

 

[Crescendo]

All criticisms of audiophiles aside... it's because of them that we are not flooded with more poorly made or mediocre A/V equipment than we already are.

The audiophiles and the specialized manufacturers with their stringent demands over the years have upped the bar and forced the large mainstream manufacturers and recording companies to put out better product than they otherwise might have.

... and I for one thank them for that.

 

[jamie2112]

Yep I agree ,and to all the audiophiles out there : I like turtles .That is all.

 

[3db]

All criticisms of audiophiles aside... it's because of them that we are not flooded with more poorly made or mediocre A/V equipment than we already are.

The audiophiles and the specialized manufacturers with their stringent demands over the years have upped the bar and forced the large mainstream manufacturers and recording companies to put out better product than they otherwise might have.

... and I for one thank them for that.

I disagree.Take look at the frequency response of Wilson speakers, particularily the Watt Puuppy. At $200K I would expect a linear response but I can gather a dozen speakers in the $700 to $1500 dollar range that measure much flatter and have a better off axes response. Audiophiles are NOT helping there very much. Another example is the Lexicon knock off of the Oppo. Its $4500 dollars more than the Oppo and I fail to see that a Lexicon face pllate would make it sound better other than to audiophiles.

I believe its the mid market stuff purchased by people like us who look for better performance/$ that truly has made the difference. Audiophiles (not all mind you) generally propogate audio myths that give the industry a bad name.

 

[skizzerflake]

All criticisms of audiophiles aside... it's because of them that we are not flooded with more poorly made or mediocre A/V equipment than we already are.

The audiophiles and the specialized manufacturers with their stringent demands over the years have upped the bar and forced the large mainstream manufacturers and recording companies to put out better product than they otherwise might have.

... and I for one thank them for that.

I don't think we really have much to thank them for. Most of my contact with the ap world includes contact with very simple components that, but some sort of magic and wizardry becomes extremely expensive. Turntables for vinyl records use 60 year old technology. Simple tub amps have been around for just as long. Speaker designs are usually quite conservative; basically none of this stuff contributes anything to advancing audio technology or spins down to the mid-end because what's unique about the components is not their design but their purported execution, like $500 wires. The mid-end is usually very similar to the low end but bigger and better while the high end is like the stuff we had decades ago, just with a amazing price.

It reminds me of my most recent foray into a high end shop while on a trip to NYC. I walked in and the very idle salesman sat me down in an easy chair, gave me a glass of white wine and showed the "system of the day". I don't recall the brands but it was a turntable, pre-amp, power amp, two speakers and the required interconnects. It was "on sale", just today, for 100K. I listened to a couple tracks from records and remarked to myself and the salesman, "pretty good". Now my vinyl system is worth about 3K and sounds...well, "pretty good". Was the SOHO system 33 times better than mine? NO. Was it twice as good as mine? NO. Am I enough of a fool to put down 33 times as much? NO.

 

[jliedeka]

Part two was good, too.

I have a co-worker that I'm friendly with that writes subjective reviews of pre-amps and CD players, etc. He just spent a bunch of money on Wilson speakers and is driving them with OTL tube amps. I haven't heard his system since he got the Wilsons but he used to have some Audio Physik speakers that sounded pretty darn good.l

This co-worker has expensive speaker cables, inter-connects and power cables. He also has his speaker cables lifted off the floor but he at least had the good sense to use chopsticks and rubber bands rather than buying cable lifts at $20+ each.

The guy I'm talking about is otherwise very intelligent. A lot of what he believes was considered true at one time. Things like tube amps sounding better than solid state, that was actually true before amplifier designers figured out that transistors act differently from tubes. He thinks global feedback ruins the sound, that was sort of true at one time. Of course, those things haven't been true since the 60s or 70s.

Even people who think they are experts don't keep up with current research.

Jim

 

[sterling shoote]

This question could be re-phrased to read, what's wrong with marketers exploiting the mentally defective. Take any advertising headline which uses the word audiophile and replace the word with something like obsessive/compulsive, manic depressed, or anal retentive and you'll understand the brilliance of the marketing guy who coined the word audiophile.

 

[highfigh]

This question could be re-phrased to read, what's wrong with marketers exploiting the mentally defective. Take any advertising headline which uses the word audiophile and replace the word with something like obsessive/compulsive, manic depressed, or anal retentive and you'll understand the brilliance of the marketing guy who coined the word audiophile.

"what's wrong with marketers exploiting the mentally defective."

Over 100 years ago, PT Barnum said "There's a sucker born, every minute".

Any questions?

 

[Whitey80]

Well.....babies are squirmy, and sometimes can get dropped.