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All I can say,
mahlman you're the man.
You have just started the anti audiophile snobbery movement.
I am following you now
Kuddos!
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Well I thank you for the compliment. Speaking as a farmer might for just a second here. There is just so much fertile soil here to till and it grows such fine crops with huge yields. Just have to check in every once in a while and spray for bugs.
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I will say the manure is spread deep 😄
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Have to have it to grow good crops.
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I prefer to refer to him as "Mr. Pebbles".
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It ties in to other things he has. Have you ever heard of Pebble Reactors? What I think is that if you pried one of his flying saucers apart you would discover a miniature reactor powered by, of course, pebbles. He has commented on his superior alien taught technical skills in this very thread so who knows what all he does in "Area X".
Probably a graduate of Alien Technical University although since we are not supposed to know aliens are among us the degree is not official or public.
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I don't think this was necessarily a superb video it was just the first one that amused me. Have to admit I was thinking of the $250 beeswax impregnated fuses and $60,000 speaker wires (Hey that is what they are, right?) I have seen for sale and found some of the comments funnier than the video. It's the utter absurdity of so much of what I read that was on my mind when the video was picked and I was not going to waste much time looking for the perfect one.
The pretentious flowery audiophile jargon seen in so many listings is an immediate danger flag to me that says here are people buying/selling things based on phrases as much as anything. Then they can turn around and tell their friends what they are hearing in those same exact words and it looks cool and on and on it goes. What was it PT Barnum said some time ago?
My belief is a lot of the claims I read for a lot of "audiophile" grade must have improvements are just junk and word salad meant to appeal to the same bunch that inspired this thread. Beside this video were many others extolling the virtue of wires and fuses and speaker cables with directional arrows because you know electricity follows the arrows. Most were hawkers of such gear or reviewers sent free gear I figure. |
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Once a troll always a troll. If people respond sometimes it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. 🐟🐠🐟🐠
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This is true. I see you are up to 23,178 posts now
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Gosh, mahlman, you’re very observant. Did you take a smart pill this morning?
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It's all natural with the exception of the caffeine. Don't bother me right now. I am busy shooting fish in a barrel.
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"Take a look around Mahlman, I believe you'll find you're alone and an easy target in that barrel."
Awaiting the fiery darts of audiophile wrath to descend upon me. I hope I can survive the harrowing experience. By the way when you get around to firing some make sure the directional arrow on the arrow shaft is pointed the right way else it may not work.
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" I would have to ask: Can one be an audiophile without caring at all about the equipment?
I love music, first and foremost. I love the community that it engenders, the primal power that it has to move human beings across time and space in a way that can’t be matched by other forms of art.
I have found that beautiful, artistic, meaningful music, played skillfully, sounds better on thoughtfully designed reproduction equipment. So, To a point, I enjoy pursuing the kinds of knowledge and insight an audiophile cultivates.
Only to a point though. At some point, the quality of reproduction is not really the focus, there is not enough music that, if reproduced at absolute fidelity to the source, is actually worth hearing at that level of clarity. The focus becomes the process of reproduction, and from where I stand (a guy who neither knows enough to be a truly informed shopper for $10,000 amplifiers, nor enough to work on one) are extremely dedicated to the technical aspects of being and “Audiophile”. I wonder; though, whether they give a damn about music? "
I would say yes but then how do you feed the resultant desire to hear good fidelity music? It does require thoughtfully designed and assembled equipment.
I think you can reach a point where you are satisfied with what you have and the tinkering stops and then the search never ends for well engineered recordings. For me the metric is how close can I get to a live performance where the acoustics are good or where I want to remember what it was like to be there, which often means not so perfect recordings but there is a sound I want.
I really like the things you say and yes I believe there is a point in time where the technical aspects can over run the audio quality. Then you have achieved some sort of "tonally pure" electronic standard but have lost the life of it all. Really fine audio does not have to cost a lot but to do this you need to know more than the average guy or have some good advice.
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Oh man, I thought we all agreed:
No More Soldering!
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Well since right now I am not building or altering crossovers technically you are right. It's crimp connectors right now. How ever I know how to do that and have the correct tools so I have audiophile grade crimp connections.
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Well, okay. But please make certain that all required official
audiophile forms and permits have been submitted and been approved, your
audiophile dues have been fully paid, you're clad in all official
audiophile mandated safety gear and that you're strictly following
official audiophile crimping procedures.
Additionally, you must
utilize the most recent version of the official audiophile crimp
connectors and recite the audiophile pledge with extreme conviction and
righteous indignation, prior to proceeding any further with your
crimping endeavors. "
Well as the codifier of the only relevant set of working standards for Audiophiles I think I can say I am aware of what is required. I am afraid you have some work to do.
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Right. So how did you end up on a forum full of standards and audiophile qualifications and towering opinions?
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Oh I don't know. Look around and you tell me.
Initially I came here because I was curious after reading comments on other forums. Now I come here because it is a strange mix of people who do know things and strange diatribes on weird high dollar stuff that does nothing but drain bank accounts. It is the oddest mix of all the forums I have been to and quite fascinating.
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So, you are trying to save us from ourselves? You do know how old this argument is?
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Why yes, I do know how old it is. The topic lives because the source material keeps piling up until it draws attention once again.
As has been stated before, but apparently not read by many who stop in, this is for my entertainment. Thanks for your contribution by the way.
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" mahlman, This may seem like an obscure question, but do you happen to wear a wristwatch, and maybe own a couple? "
Last time I wore a watch was before 1980. Do I owe you anything for psychological analysis?
" 10 pages .... and the intended humor and sarcasm of the posted topic .... is still lost (on some). It has been an interesting psychology experiment @mahlhan. "
@roberttdid
In grade school, back in the days when real teachers with moral values taught you, we had a little lesson given on following instructions. It was also a test of your ability to understand what you read. The teacher handed out copies and told us to read it. The first paragraph told you to stop reading and wait. The vast majority continued to read and when finished the teacher got to point out how many of us failed a simple thing like reading comprehension and following instructions. Human nature does not change as far as I can see, just the sophistication of our toys is subject to great change. |
@roberttdid
Which door do you think the following quotes author would go through?
" My thoughts were that the topic of this thread you created was implicitly exclusive, snobbish and pretentious since it contained the inane exclusion and limitation of non-solderers from being considered audiophiles. "
The more I think about this the more I think it smacks of elitism. Just way to many look down your nose words in play here.
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" malhman, I asked about a wristwatch because I know many that like them VERY. much, but can’t service their own at all "
I like precision things and in real life I am a 3D CAD designer and a CNC Machinist. I do not do well on hands on mechanical things. I would not be an Autiophile by current standards for being a "phile" but I do drive two different vans.
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doode i am in awe of where you work and that you do non stoopid things and like wow man it is so cool you are here and like talking to us doode and just like you know i bet you are intense in person and running a test lab and all is so cool and i am humbled that you deigned to comment here and stuff and like wow man this is so totally awesome and to think stuff in the air is flying around because of testing validation is like waay cool and i bet the mars things are in there too huh and man this is exciting to know that tested/validated components are being used as we speak.
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@roberttdid
Don't know what he said as the email notification cut him off after flat pack but it must have been amusing since the moderator axed his reply. It's a shame the email notifications don't have the complete comment text as I bet this one was a hoot. So much anger, so much hostility, so much angst. He was on a roll for sure from the couple of sentences that did make it to my inbox. And just when I thought it was winding down too!
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So no, to be an audiophile you simply need to be an enthusiast of audio,
even if you cant afford it, I will share mine with you and give you my
chair.
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Yup I agree and being an audiophile precludes being pretentious and instead it is the end result. Some of the systems I hear are not very good but it is all these people can afford and we can share love of music. Personally I would rather visit with these than the ones who have kept price tags on things.
Funny thing about all this high dollar stuff with people I personally know. They invite me over and I go. I invite them over and they stay away because I guess my stuff is part home built el cheapo in their eyes. Why would they waste their time listening to inferior junk I guess is their opinion and have such towering egos they never even try to find out what might be at my end. You invite me over I will go at least once. You start telling (bragging to) me how much things cost I won't be back.
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Sound Table is the ugly winner for me. Of course I am a certified Solder Aficionado and Audiophile so I might not be qualified to judge here. Which do you choose?
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OK lets assume you are right. Why is it a stupid question?
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"No true Scotsman, or appeal to purity, is an informal fallacy in which one attempts to protect a universal generalization from counterexamples by changing the definition in an ad hoc fashion to exclude the counterexample."
Quite sagacious, erudite and pithy I must say. Once you get done digging in wiki for all that highfalutin jargon of yours check out what started it all. The pretentious nonsense offered in all seriousness by some here is mind boggling and worthy of satire. One of the things most entertaining with this thread has been the serious studious responses to what I said but the dismissal of the basis for which I said it. It's kind of like ignoring what you can see if you look so you can hurry up and and sound all serious highbrow audiophile like. Thanks for your contribution! https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/should-people-with-no-turntable-or-reel-to-reel-be-considered... |
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No the ones with money can just get the maintenance man to do the soldering or the cleaning ladies son.
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Interesting thought. So people with money achieve discernment through hiring others to do things? Lets take that to a logical continuation. Can we assume the buyer of a $60,000 set of wires with a box and knobs in the middle of the wire pair for his speakers has used superior judgement to surpass others? Or $250 beeswax fuses?
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Apparently I stumbled upon The Onion...
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You stumbled upon rejection of hoity toity holier than thou audiophiles who then delivered in spades the attitude that caused me to write this post to begin with. The onion is second best when compared to price tag audiophiles.
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No one should be an audiophile -audiophiles are mostly about bad music brand names and amounts spent not performance.
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There are two types of audiophiles. One that wants to sadly demonstrate name/price tags and another group that wants you to hear things. Type A tends to gather where they can get self validation for what they bought into and Type B works on improving what he hears.
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Say did you read the whole thing or just skip to the end?
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I only read books with pictures, those little ones with the cartoon like colorful action drawings.
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And forum topics where you can't post little cartoons sadly enough. You have read enough of this thread that you should know why I did it. The rest of what you say is self evident and should be understood to be a part of the audio journey. Minus the pretentious snooty attitude that goes with many highbrow sophisticate types of course.
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" But stirring the pot too long ,with many justifications, made sarcasm no more efficient and transform it in provocation... "
It is amazing to me this thread has gone on for so long and continues to draw the indignant in. Evidently there is something to this topic that has touched many here for better or worse as comments keep coming in. It is appropriate for a site with so much nonsensical claims of false technology and audiophile attitudes.
Just remember that I am not the one who gives this thread legs it is you who so graciously continue to post that give this thread legs.
" The longer this thread goes on the more you flounder."
I see you are still reading so this is a book you can’t put down. So what is your reason for being here?
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Mahlman was never on the remote controlled plane. He did enjoy the remote cameras though. See you in a while.
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