@audio2design,
'More accurate would be there is brain activity before we are able to communicate an intention.'
Ah yes, the greatest mystery bequeathed by Doctor Freud.
The workings of the unconscious mind.
Who will unravel it first?
The race is indeed on.
The marketeers with their endless thirst for profits via ever increasing consumer control versus the research scientists with their FMRI machines, often funded by err hang on, the marketeers??
Consumers of the world unite, stop the steal. |
Intelligence is overrated. Didn’t help me much, for all I can figure out. |
drbarney193 posts11-28-2020 11:10amNeuro-scientists are still researching cognitive differences XY vs XX causes in the brain. So far, there is great overlap in any Gaussian bell curves of what they quantify. This makes a concept of gender too weak for me to ascribe this difference in interest in audio equipment to genetic differences between men and women. I think it is caused by environmental differences in what roles are assigned to males and females and these roles are purely arbitrary. Many women are engineers notwithstanding gender expectations. The same could happen to audio given the right social environmental conditions.
Audiophiles are, by definition, on the extreme end of any bell curve. That two bell curves have 'great overlap' in no way indicates there will be a similar number of observations at the extremes or tails of the bell curves. Take something we're all intuitively familiar with--height. Men are, obviously, taller than women on average. But there is also, obviously, great overlap between the bell curves. It is not at all unusual to find a woman who is taller than a man. It is completely unremarkable. But what about at the extremes? Compare the number of 7' or taller males to the number of 7' or taller females. A quick internet search indicates there might be roughly 70 men in the US 7' or taller alive today...and that there might be only 1 female in the US this tall. The specifics of this example are not important...it is the point that 'overlapping' bell curves are in no way a good indicator of what's going on at the extremes. That is the nature of bell curves. I think about this often as I am in an industry dominated by males (perhaps similar to many audiophiles). An important takeaway of bell curves is that they are often great at describing populations of data, but useless for describing an individual observation. So while men dominate--by numbers--my profession, I always remain cognizant that this in no way should prejudice your professional opinion of the woman or man walking through the door for an interview, etc. Audiophiles are, in some ways, 7' tall people. Yes there are women audiophiles, just as there are 7' tall women. And, just like 7' tall people in general, audiophiles are rare (although obviously nowhere near as rare as my extreme height example). Yes it is nature not nurture. No it is not because females are in some way being treated differently or not being encouraged in the same way as young people. Let's just stop trying to make everyone the same. I can remember disassembling a speaker down to the voice coil for the first time. I was so incredibly curious where the sound was coming from. We had a broken stereo and I begged my parents to let me 'look at it' as I would say. I was probably 5 years old. My father (or mother) had absolutely no interest in any of it. Nobody encouraged me, I just was innately, incredibly fascinated by it. Other people are fascinated by other things...and that is OK. |
Thanks focusd....One of the best first post i read here...
For easy reading on statistic and the illusory logic induced by Bell curves superficial analysis the many books of the serious but funny Nassim Nicholas Taleb.... |
@glupson Intelligence is overrated. Didn’t help me much, for all I can figure out
glupson you are on a roll tonight!!! remember that old sitcom sanford and son, redd foxx would call his son ’hey, you dummae’?? ... lol my old friends still call me ’dummae’ but i have no idea why, just can’t figure it out... but i am happy! :) |
i wonder what % of audiophiles are 6+ figure income? my guess is at least 75%. |
Using a very narrow definition of audiophile perhaps. From what I can tell, many are fixed income :-)
|
@Tony1954 Could it be as simple as people who are more interested in things than in people become engineers? There are more male engineers than female. Interest in people vs. interest in things. |
I wonder how many of us followed our same sex parent into our hobbies, thirst for technical knowledge, and magazines to read. How much does a male vs female school curriculum influence our lust for science and solutions? And, since it was mentioned, how much money do women spend on things to make them pretty, i.e.shoe comment?
|
@emrofsemanon - I would bet against you. Probably much lower % - median is probably $50-75K. Demographics of audiophiles are older, many retired or semi-retired with time on their hands to play around and experiment with stereo equipment. Younger (below 50) % of audiophiles is probably very low.
Mid-upper income people are probably working and don't have much time - they may spend a lot as part of an entertainment room or home theater but never used the term tonearm in their life.
|
Who cares? If you love audio then great...your not gonna convert anyone unless their young and open to the experience! |
@danvignau ,
"And, since it was mentioned, how much money do women spend on things to make them pretty, i.e.shoe comment?"
As long as we remain human, physical attractiveness will remain important.
It always did for many women, but now some men are feeling that pressure too.
The cosmetics/fashion/health industry probably dwarfs the audio one by a factor of millions. |
When someone wrote that the fashion and cosmetics industry dwarfs audio, I do not believe he was considering all of audio. How many actual audio drivers do you each own? I have several in my cars, a few portables, 10 in my main stereo system, six in my garage, two in my phones, some in my televisions, and computers, six in my bedroom, etc. I know I hoard, but I quit counting at 50. My boy, who is not at all into audiofoolerey, has 6 in his car, as many in his truck, one in his phone, six or eight in his stereo and who knows how many in his in wall home theater. Of course, the writer is spot on, when only considering our mutual hobby of self indulgent ear-brain tickling and massage.
|
Most of those drivers are a couple bucks bought once.
Fashion and cosmetics are regular ongoing purchases. Way way bigger. It's not even close.
|
« I became a cosmetic seller and a successful audiophile because i am too short to play chess»-Groucho Marx |
This has been said differently, but music, mathematics and critical thought are all processed in the same part of the brain (it is said that listening to Mozart for 30 minutes before a math test will make you do better unless you would already be 100%). These are all male related likes (yes, there are always exceptions) so I think that our biology plays a part as others here do. |
It is the other way around...
The 2 hemisphere of the brain play their part in all activities, be it music, maths or poetical tought and critical thougth... But one of the hemisphere can be dominating in each one of us, never mind the field....But we need the 2 at all times....
If not, we will loose what we called "reason"...Reason is not rationalism or exclusively some critical thought process located in the left hemisphere... If you think about the concept of "reason" think about sanity first then some balance must exist between the 2 hemispheres...
The poet William Blake is one of the most profound critic of his time, he was a very astute observer of industrialization and his link with technology and science...And he is a poet...
The mathematician Cantor singlehandly founded modern mathematic with a mystical vision....And he is a mathematician...
We can see the function played by the 2 hemispheres in each one of these 2 geniuses; in each one of them one hemisphere is the " inspiration" for a field where usually it is the antagonist hemisphere that is dominating....
|
Girls, girls. You're both pretty. |
Why are there a disproportional number of male audiophiles?
Maybe, just maybe, women are too intelligent to buy into, what a person has to buy into, in order to be considered an 'audiophile'. examples: hearing wire and fuses. Claiming LPs are superior to CDs, claiming every amp in creation has it's own distinct sound, directional arrows on interconnects etc...... Cheers |
@rok2id
I think you mean women are less gullible. Intelligence is not a huge factor. Many smart people are gullible.
|
@rok2id,
’Maybe, just maybe, women are too intelligent to buy into, what a person has to buy into, in order to be considered an ’audiophile’.’
Women usually have a different and more complex relationship with their biology than men do. Hence men tend to indulge in flights of fantasy rather more than women who get regular periodic reminders of reality.
Whether this is a good or a bad thing can depend upon one’s outlook or the use this indulging is being out to.
Can you imagine a woman stressing over cable differences? Or getting into a debate over amplifier topology?
There has been a very clever economically fuelled movement over the past 70 years to get women to behave as if they were men.
Thankfully, for both sexes, it can never fully succeed. |
Most women are not interested in audiophile gear because they are not interested, period.
If women were interested in audio but didn't like the way men do audio, they could get together with other women and talk about audio or listen to music. There is no one keeping them from enjoying better audio.
Women (non-audiophile) don't have any choice in the audio world. Non-a'phile (men & women) can't hear un-natural sound of hi-fi audio and all audio system in the world sound un-natural and veiled. Listening un-natural sounds is painful to non-a'philes' ears. Alex/Wavetouch audio
|
