Should people who can't solder, build or test their speakers be considered audiophiles?
So, if you bought that Porsche but can only drive it and not fix it do you really understand and appreciate what it is? I say no. The guy who can get in there and make it better, faster or prettier with his own hands has a superior ability to understand the final result and can appreciate what he has from a knowledge base and not just a look at what I bought base. I mean sure you can appreciate that car when you drive it but if all you do is take it back to the dealership for maintenance and repairs you just like the shape with no real understanding of what makes it the mechanical marvel it is.
I find that is true with the audio world too. There are those who spend a ton of money on things and then spend a lot of time seeking peer approval and assurance their purchase was the right one and that people are suitably impressed. Of course those who are most impressed are those who also do not design, build, test or experiment.
I propose that an audiophile must have more than a superficial knowledge about what he listens to and must technically understand what he is listening to. He knows why things work and what his end goal is and often makes his own components to achieve this. He knows how to use design software to make speakers that you can't buy and analyze the room they are in and set up the amplification with digital crossovers and DSP. He can take a plain jane system and tweak it and balance it to best suit the room it is in. He can make it sound far better than the guy who constantly buys new components based on his superficial knowledge who does not understand why what he keeps buying in vain never quite gets there.
A true audiophile can define his goal and with hands on ability achieve what a mere buyer of shiny parts never will. So out comes the Diana Krall music and the buyer says see how good my system is? The audiophile says I have taken a great voice and played it through a system where all was matched and tweaked or even purposely built and sits right down next to Diana as she sings. The buyer wants prestigious signature sound and the audiophile will work to achieve an end result that is faithful true to life audio as though you were in the room with Diana as she sings. The true audiophile wants true to life and not tonally pure according to someones artificial standard.
So are you a buyer or an audiophile and what do you think should make a person an audiophile?
Showing 50 responses by geoffkait
isochronism Geoff, Yesterday a post of mine was removed. Going by Agon’s guidelines of the four offered reasons, in their email to me, abuse towards another member" had to be it. The only member it possibly be toward is you. Was I wrong? 😔 >>>>Give me a couple days to think about it and I’ll get back to you ASAP. |
luciano33 All I can say, mahlman you’re the man. You have just started the anti audiophile snobbery movement. I am following you now Kuddos! >>>>>You’re close! Very close. He has started the anti audiophile anti-tweak movement. No tweakaphobe left behind! 🤗 Next up, are anti audiophiles actually snobs? |
glupson "Good move as you had bottomed out with your own."We have two bottoms moving. >>>>And one of them with glubson’s nose still in it. 🤗 |
isochronism geoff, You can’t take what you dish out? You delete some of your posts after I deliver comeback zingers! HA 😝 >>>>>As usual everything’s topsy turvy, me topsy you turvy, spider man 🕷 Your posts are childish and tickle. |
sounds_real_audio One of the symptoms of covid 19 is on display. >>>>One can’t help wondering if some symptoms of Covid-19 are loss of the sense of taste and the sense of smell is loss of hearing acuity another symptom. You know, you can‘t tell the difference between tape and digital any more. 😳 |
phusis @mahlman — Whether I was serious with my now deleted message dissing sarcasm? You bet; I find your OP to stand on its own and read it sans sarcasm. Indeed it’ all the more effective this way clearly expressing your POW while asking others about their stance. >>>>>Is there going to be an exchange of POWs? 😳 |
glupson "why do so many audiogon threads become ’one liner’ dumpster fires?"Attention span is not that long these days. Write more than one line and you lose them >>>>Thanks for holding your post to one line. Much appreciated. |
danvignau I just read the rest of the posts. What is wrong with the person who wrote, "This post is GAY." Have we devolved into petty bumholes? This post does not even warrant a reply, but WTH, I am quarantined and bored. >>>>Go ahead, let it all out. You’ll feel better. |
Funny you should ask since my early career involved reverse engineering alien and foreign technology. My office was located just down the street at Wright Patt AFB from the US Air Force Operation Bluebook that investigated UFOs. Coincidence? I also was taking a graduate course in aerodynamics of reentry vehicles at the time. But I’ve already said too much. Wasn’t Wright-Patt where they took the alien 👽 recovered from the crash of the UFO 🛸 in the desert at Roswell? 😳 |
d2girls Some of you guys make no f*cking sense. Get your head on straight. Also, the guy above me shills Synergestic Research. GO FIGURE! HAHAHAHA >>>>Is there a Report Whiner button? |
roberttdid Maybe the system was accurate, and you don’t like accurate systems? In my experience, musicians will tell me what sounds most accurate, and what sounds most pleasing and often they are not the same, it all depends on the person.
>>>>>I hate to be overly judgmental in these matters but I must be a better judge of sound than you are. Especially involving a system I heard and you didn’t. |
mahlman OP So yes. Going to see live performances is mandatory if you consider yourself an audiophile. And the more you see, the bigger of an audiophile you are. At least in my eyes! Who even cares about the stupid darn equipment as long as it sounds accurate. Accuracy begets dynamics, begets realism, begets emotion. If you have a system that is capable of rendering true concert recreation, with a good, and flat frequency response, everything will fall in line. And most speakers can do this with proper setup. It’s an audiophile myth you need to spend stupid amounts of money to get a true connection to the music. Believe me, I would know. I have the classical trained ears to hear what does and does not sound accurate. You can trust me over your own ears. >>>>I’m getting a bad feeling. One of the worst sounding systems I’ve come across was the system of a professional musician. First Oboe, National Symphony of Washington to be precise. It’s not that his components were bad, either, on the contrary. He was a dealer for Cello speakers and electronics. So, the moral of the story is being a musician doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything. An ordinary man has no means of deliverance. 😬 |
Give me a break. Just another in a long line of troll posts by the OP, to whit from 2 years ago, mahlman OP “What is trully important? So I read about all these expensive bits of gear here and I have some thoughts. In the world of large money bands and their touring where individual seats can cost well north of 5G is there any sort of restriction on equipment they can buy? I don’t think so and they want fidelity. What do recording studios use for session recordings? Is the idea of true to life important and what do you use to get there? Does real life reproduction matter or is some sort of electronic pure tonal thing the most important even though you will never hear that in live venues.I am fascinated by the amount of money spent that the pros never spend to get results and the pros are a purely result driven group.“ >>>>>>There is also this jewel, cut me some slack, Jack! https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/so-what-is-real |