As an audioholic, this made me crack up when I read it. It is an excerpt from
Constructing the Sexual Crucible, a sex therapy book by Dr. David Schnarch. The topic is reaching one's sexual potential. The author is wrong on audio in several ways (you will recognize the audiophoolery), but this is still pretty funny. Enjoy!
The quest for unfulfilled sexual potential is akin to the quest for excellence in sound reproduction. The pursuit of experiential realism in high-fidelity sound systems is disproportionately expensive, elusive, and difficult to document by scientific measurement. Yet it is the most salient portion of the experience to the true stereophile, who willingly spends every penny in pursuit of his or her subjective experience.
The vast majority of people make do with perfectly adequate, moderately-priced sound systems. Without the opportunity for side-by-side comparison, they are satisfied. Even upon initial exposure, the novice is unlikely to discern the subtle differences that mean everything to the person with a developed ear. The stereophile thinks most people don't knnow what they are missing. The normal individual thinks the stereophile is a nut. Appreciation of sound reproduction, like sexual potential, is an acquired taste and a matter of perspective. Some people enjoy their orifices more than others.
