Isn't an audiophile simply someone who cares about home audio sound quality?
Am I missing something?
Why would someone fake an interest in sound quality? The only reason I can think of is to sell something to a true audiophile. Much better ways to spend one's time otherwise I would think. An indicator of such a person might be a strong bias towards a certain product or products alone. Happens a lot around here. :^)
My honest opinions. True Audiophile - Sound is magic, not technology. The older the better. Fake Audiophile - Sound is technology, not magic. The newer the better.
if true, then it would seem all Audiophiles are delusional. Maybe to some degree, but I think I can identify a knowledgeable audiophile for every one that relies mainly on "magic".
I will admit that I was more that way myself when young and first getting started. Luckily, I believe I learned some things over the years.
Everyone has to start somewhere, even an audiophile. Live and learn. At first, it may well seem like magic.
DEF'N: Quest for classy and ever-improving sound is the ethereal satisfaction we call "magic", and the magic quest in this hobby is a lifelong journey that includes upgrading gear as you go, AND embracing new technologies as a part of that magical road to OZ. As the gear evolves, you still enjoy the music at every price point strata and also at every evolving technology milepost in that journey.
Fake Audiophile (two streams that can also intersect each other )
DEF'N #1: That ethereal magical sound quest / Road to OZ is slurred and degraded to a fake by a cheap-as-U-can-get-it race-to-the-bottom price-wise and/or quality-wise. It's the hallmark of selected types that measure success by throwing around nickels like they are manhole covers and ignoring the inalienable basic tenet in this hobby (as in life) that you get what you pay for.
DEF'N #2: Old is somehow always better and "Vintage" audio rules!.... full stop,
"Vintage" in audio is not any automatic segway of implied performance superiority. Nor is it stretched to the same interpretation of "vintage" as in fine wines ...
In audio it has a plain meaning of "old" ... with all the warts attached to that term... and usually is ameliorated with a very subjective kind nostalgia wrapper .
When it comes to amplifier design, the Holy Grail is to have the new amplifiers perform as well as the old class A amps. The ultimate in fidelity is when you run the amps class A, but the design drawback is that they are heavy and wasteful of power. To reduce the cost and shipping weight of the product, a class D amp is the best. But trying to design a class D that matches class A performance is a real task. Class D has the greatest efficiency of power, which makes the heat sinks much smaller and the power supply much smaller.
When it comes to capture and replay of sound, the digital storage techniques have the benefit of long term fidelity that doesn't change over hundreds of years. The old capture techniques that used analog storage were very good when the sound was first captured, but with age the fidelity decomposed, so 100 years from now the signal to noise ratio would eat that up and you end up with something that no longer was what the musician intended to present. The Holy Grail of digital storage is to get enough bits of information into the data stream to fully represent the old analog recording methods.
So modern technology is just shifting techniques to provide low cost, low weight, and long term fidelity that can still compete with the quality of the old technology of class A with analog recording.
You know you're a true audiophile if, when you see a listing for an interesting piece of gear, the first picture you click on is of the back of the unit.
I personally believe in the Analog God but the Digital Devil whispers in my ear. I have never heard of these fake audiophiles. Could it be an invention of the Audiosnobs?
I understand your meaning in your query. A true audiophile cares about the best home audio reproduction. Conversly, a fake audiophile makes little to no effort in obtaining the best home audio reproduction. Happy Listening!
My take on vintage audio-some of it stands up to the best of today.
And, a lot of that great vintage stuff, was ridiculed and called obscenely expensive back in it's day. Some things never change.
If a piece of gear that is expensive gets a good review, the cost of such gear always draws negative responses from the folks who base their judgement on the cost, not the performance.
I think there is a lot of stuff made today that will be the much sought after vintage finds in the future.
It's a good thing the audiophiles of yesterday ignored the cries of indignation concerning costs. The vintage folks would be out of luck.
They bought that stuff at full price in yesterdays dollars with yesterdays wages.
I've never seen those folks called audiofools,with more money than sense.
I agree with Mapman's first post. You are an audiophile if you care about sound quality regardless the kind of source (digital or analog) you listen to.
I don't think there's a fake audiophile. Its better to spend your money on a Rolls Royce or Ferrari in terms of showing off. Chicks digs luxury ride and not your components.
I am very careful with such statements. All have their opinion about something which is not shared from everyone. Just an example - maybe you know that from own experience - you visit a show with 3 audiophile friends and let's say, the Demo is really good but with unknown brands and maybe they are cheap or expensive. Do you think that all 4 agree, that is is a super Demo? I don't think so :-) For one it is too cheap, too black, too big, too expensive, too ugly or whatever ...and for the next, it sucks :-) Or another example, you hear a Phono Stage/ Cartridge, Preamp / really expensive, but it is really hard to bear, you go to the Distributor and say honestly "That's a bit strange, isn't it?" -:) He will tell you, he sold all, there is a waiting list of 6 months and you are the first who say that ....
And when you write that in Forums, the Manufacturer and the rest of the chain who live from it or owners who spent their money and are afraid for the drop in resale will not write your name in their "Book of the friend guys" ...
I don't have anything original to contribute, but I was impressed by the thoughtful posts of Akg_ca and Tom32. I'd guess most of us see our audio systems as just a means to an end, the enjoyment of music, although just looking at my Thrones TD 124 and its SME II arm is a treat in itself. I suppose I might say the same thing about the handsome KEF Reference 107/2s, but the rest of the stuff, nah.
Nice! A lot of good responses concerning a somewhat silly (stupid?) thread. I like the direction it took :)
I guess what I was trying to say is that over the past 5 years in this hobby I have seen many different peoples personal set ups from buying so much gear used. The commonality is that 95% of the rigs I've seen have just been set up soooo poorly. They will have some really nice equipment but because of the way it is set up, they are only getting 50%-75% of the equipments actual potential.
I would say that most of them, and some of them have, called themselves "audiophiles". I know that being an "audiophile" really isn't cool but it's like cars, most men like them and talk about them like they are experts in the field. I love sitting back and listening to someone try to school me on cars (some people can by the way).
I think that to be an audiophile it really has to do with how developed a listeners ears are and then being able to understand why a system sounds the way it does and how certain changes will effect the sound. I think this comes with experience and a desire to learn.
I figure that most of you here are what I would consider to be true audiophiles so I was wondering if you have experienced what I have in regards to seeing so many systems set up like junk. It's like I would show up to buy a Classe amp and they would have it hooked up to $3000 bookshelf speakers sitting on the ground hooked up with 18 guage wire from radio shack. Oh, and another one that I just remembered; whats up with people just cranking up their system as loud as they can in order to try to impress you?
There are so many other aspects of sound quality that I look other than how loud it can play. I don't judge a car by numbers or sheer outright speed. There's so much more to the experience. How does it feel? How does it sound? How does it speak to you? When you turn the knobs, is it a refined, machined feel, or a notchy plastic feel?
Just because I drink alcohol occasionally does not make me a wine connoisseur. I imagine a wine connoisseur looks at the wine, swishes it around to see the legs (? or something like that), smells it, then very carefully tastes it. Then they can describe all the flavors and body. They can pick up on hints of flavor that the grapes took on in their respective environment. I, on the other hand, can tell if it's red or white, sweet or dry and that's about it, and there is a lot lost on me when it comes to wine.
I think the same can be said for many so called "audiophiles", but I suppose like Cypher said in the Matrix, "ignorance is bliss", so crank it till the windows rattle and you go deaf :)
Zavato, It's seriously visa versa to what you said. I realized that equipment that I have is too good to me and I can even have it simpler to enjoy terabytes of hi-rez digital downloads and near 10,000 of vinyl records.
A real audiophile can talk in depth and with great detail on equipment he has never seen nor heard, and people listen to him. A fake audiophile is the person that listens to him.
Czar - My understanding is you are a record store dealer? Ever done time (work related) in a graveyard ? :^)
true story - While waiting for my wife in the mall parking lot I spot a thrift store and go in to see if any records. They have four box bins set up. I am browsing through one with a young (hipster) in the bin next to me. I pull out a Edgar Allan Poe Album and as I pull out the Gold colored record the light catches it and the young hipster notices it. These albums are all $2. He offers me $20 for it. I let him have it.
I am record store dealer! I'll think about work-related stuff at or near graveyard especially knowing lots of customers tellin' their neighborhood storries'bout whenwhowherehow. I should probably start publishing some books based on that for the beginning. There's always room to make some cash on anything you see LOL!
The last one I've heard is there's an old man 85 years old from Greensboro with HUGE record collection of jazz and classical all in sleeves and protective jackets near-mint...
Czar email me with the name and address of your shop in NYC. I would like to stop by there next time I am in the area, usually once or twice a year or so. We always do a lot of walking in various neighborhoods to soak in teh NYC ambience and I always stop in record stores I discover there whenever I have the opportunity. Maybe I've even been to yours.
. Real audiophiles a certificate or license to verify that they are a real audiophile. If they don't have a license or certificate, they are fake audiophiles. .
I'm not sure of my classification but I truly love good music from the system I have put together and absolutely love learning from those more knowledgeable than myself. I think if you loose the ability to learn and grow you will loose what this is all about
I think it can be both, very enjoyable because maybe as an audiophile you can have a greater appreciation for both the music and the gear, or it can be a curse because you are always trying to get better and better sound, which gets expensive.
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