Often I naively just write down what I've noticed and what I concluded from observing something. I refuse to prep every post in such a manner in which it would be impenetrable. I'm not expecting people who don't know me to first approach me as being absolutely daft. Sometimes this is a starting point in conversation with some people. Generally the ones I don't quite like. But then annoying little pricks push you into over explaining every word you've used and it is because they chose to get offended on someone's behalf - every single time.
First I wanted to see who really wants to be considered by others as being an audiophile. I've noticed people here don't really yearn for that demarcation. They can take it or leave it, or simply say "well I must be, since I'm in these forums". Here, you don't have those "here's what you need to fall into this category" questioners.
When I find people who find it hard to even question whether they are audiophiles, they always have this affinity for high prices, luxury finish, exotic brands, tubes, vinyl, separates, obligatory "over 1k" DAC and so on.
When an audiophile invites me to listen to his rig, all he does is keep repeating how much it costs, how few of those units exist, how rare and precious they are, what noble metals were built in, how he rewired the transformer with pure silver, how his shun-mook stands cost more than the entire rig of his dumb neighbour who doesn't know first thing about sound with his "Kenwood-insult". The music audiophiles mostly play is laboratory music produced to pose a "challenge" to your rig. They never play real music, unless these two come in package like some legendary recordings.
If you offer a cheaper solution that "does the same thing", they take it almost as an offense and they simply draw a conclusion about the aptitude of your ear. The verdict is always: it most certainly doesn't "do the same thing" for less buck, but you can't hear the difference, so you would be happy with a Sony.
This is where I drew my conclusion and I invite you to correct me (and really, I can be corrected): I've noticed that it is actually the demanding and sensitive ears of this person that made him unfit for anything less than pure gold cables, 1k DAC's, vinyl's natural sound, less than zero crosstalk (they can actually hear it if it's zero, don't laugh). And this is why I say; audiophiles have equipment that in fact makes a statement about their own heavenly sensitivity of their ears and soul. Very often the music comes as a challenge like in those commercials for Ginsu knifes "it'll cut whatever you throw in front of it".
Now, the division between audiophiles and hifist's is my own. I wanted to point out what separates these people and regardless of eljr's hastiness to rise above us, these two are really different.
When a hifist invites you to hear his rig, the only price talk can be "look how much I've accomplished for so little money". Or; it measures the same as rigs five times the price. They don't care how exclusive their brands are, it's often no name, chain-stores, global brands... And no one, my simple eljr friend can "drop a brand" in front of ya if the brand is Denon. There is nothing exotic about Denon. Nothing rare. Nothing overly priced. "No voodoo that hear only youdo". No one gives a truck about entry level Marantz, they're on sale all the time. Stores are full of them. What brand dropping are you talking about??? Not to mention Yamaha. If you were to pile up all the Yamaha's of the world, Staten Island dump would look like a deck of cards. Who can you impress with a Yamaha? What kind of a brand-rush can you experience by owning a Yamaha???
And still, people in Audioholics forums will say: "save your money, buy a cheap Yamaha for the same result that some gold-cast equipment gives you". Where's the brand dropping??
And, once again, if Yamaha started producing poop gear, people here would say: "stop buying Yamaha".
That's why I named them hifists; no need for all the "water-muddying", the goal of home audio is quite a simple and straight forward one (though difficult), I mentioned it a couple of times: an artist makes something and you're trying to reproduce it as accurately as possible in your home environment. That is a hi-fi approach.
