Fake Audiophiles

A person who believes that the latest upgrade improved the sound :)

A true audiophile uses his ears.

A fake audiophile uses his eyes.

True Audiophiles have a sense of humor and realize they sometimes make
mistakes.

Fake Audiophiles have long-winded definitive answers to subjective audio
questions like this one.

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?

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.

About modern electronics...

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.

Audiophile: the one who does as they see fit in search of the perfect sound as they feel it would be.

Fake: the one who buys the most expensive stuff they can find so they can tell everybody about it so they can be the cool guy.

Real audiophile listens to lps and a fake audiophile uses digital and CDs

I disagree with Beeswax. IMO.....

True Audiophile:

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 .

Jmcgrogan2,
LOL ;-)

Are you talking to me?

I don't see any one else here.

Real audiophiles have real issues.
Fake audiophiles have fake issues.

Cheers,
John

"True Audiophile - Sound is magic"

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.

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.

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. :^)