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Audiophiles & music-have you got it wrong?

This thread is partly inspired by comments on "would you refer this to all the interested parties" but also by general comments made on a regular basis.

Of course each person to their own, I do not advocate my views are the definitive ones and I do consider myself a music fan who takes an interest in high end equipment rather than being an out and out audiophile.
However despite some reservations about certain audiophile beliefs I don't come on these forums and say burn in it doesn't exist,interconnects are a rip off and exhibit little more than fine tuning etc.etc.
Why?
Because I don't feel I've explored these issues fully nor do I really wish to therefore my comments would be largely uninformed even if they are accurate from my point of view.
And yet some audiophiles seem to make constant negative remarks about the price and quality of music currently available-are they right?

First up the price of music-this is not to say greed doesn't exist within the record companies but are CD's really that expensive when we compare them to how much we spend on our equipment?
My collection is now worth close to double what my equipment is.
Am I nuts or do I have things in perspective?
I consider I am probably at the extreme end of things with regards buying music but aren't some of you at the other end of the extreme?

Is it the quality of the recordings that's an issue?
Ok-I can't say sometimes that recorings don't disappoint or indeed the fact that older CD's can be badly mastered.
However is it possible that some have attuned their ear to a level of perfection that only exists in a limited number of recordings?
Nothing wrong with that but should our hobby be about matching that ideal or should it be more like how I see/hear things-getting the best audio reproduction possible but accepting that recording will always be flawed or indeed subjective?
Is Robert Johnson any less powerful despite the primative nature of the recordings?

Finally there's no new good music.
I read that endlessly here on Audiogon.
And I ask one question-how do you know that?
Do you read about new music?
Have you the interest to search it out the way you tweak or try to perfect your system?
Do you know what's been remastered recently?

There is plenty of new music that is good but even ignoring the new stuff,there is an endless supply of music already existing that you've probably never heard.
Do you try to expand your tastes?
Does it even interest you to try?

If your relationship with this hobby is about the equipment then fine,that is as valid as any music lovers quest however please refrain from these glib criticisms if you haven't taken the time to make sure you know what you are talking about.

ben_campbell

Showing 1 response by zaikesman

zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
I'll probably never have as much invested in gear as I do music, but I've come closer than I ever thought I would just a few years ago. Which actually disturbs me - not only because I think of audiophilism as being fundamentally silly and wrongheaded in many ways even while I pursue it to a large degree, but also because this trend is probably at least partly the result of my not liking current music offerings enough to keep me occupied going to concerts and buying new recordings. I spend less and get more records now than 20 years ago, simply because almost everything I buy these days is scrounged up used. Still, it's really impossible to ever run out of worthwhile music you don't own, and I do buy a fair amount of reissues and comps.

What I really need to do is get a better computer and connection so I can discover music online, since radio where I am is useless nowadays. It's not a method of exporation I enjoy thinking about, but I'm so limited in my ability to exploit it right now I don't really know what I'm missing. Or maybe, like 20 years ago, I just need to get a part-time job in an independent record store (or what the hell, open up my own). Except that being exposed to or wading through too much musical crap depresses me, and I no longer care about being hip or current. I figure that at my point in life (40 this year), I finally deserve to be a curmudgeon, and am blessedly free to hate almost everything, no matter how many try to tell me it's good. When it comes to art, I think there are limits to how worthwhile what's produced outside of a thriving and organically evolving millieu can be, and the forms I love most are way past their golden ages. (BTW, that also mostly goes for art, literature, architecture, industrial design, cinema, TV, and radio. I told you I was a curmudgeon.)

One thing I am looking forward to that audio technology can assist me with is fully experiencing the record collection that I already have. I've got many thousands of 45's that I would like to play more, but it just takes so much time and effort, when even having to flip over LP's can be a distraction. I intend to get a real old-fashioned jukebox one day, but would also love to eventually get into the kinds of digital hard-drive based storage systems I think are coming down the pike. Additionally, I forsee myself seriously considering adding some kind of digital satellite radio capability to my system (and car) in the future, because who wants all the music you hear to be stuff you own?

Anyway, I've pissed off enough folks around here before with my diatribes about stereotypical audiophile listening habits, and I don't think we need to go there again on this thread (and especially not for the people posting to it, for whom such bile generally wouldn't apply, thank goodness).

P.S. - Nice going on the Lips show Sean. Sorry about the sound, hope you've managed to get over it :-)
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