Pointing others to be troll is the only certain way to reveal yourself like one...
People able to discuss dont point to each others, trolls did.... Sorry....
People able to discuss dont point to each others, trolls did.... Sorry....
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?
529 responses Add your response
millercarbon: If you could only see the worlds I’ve seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JjJzMBGUwo What a shame! All the comments, deep thoughts and moments we've all shared on this inexplicably long and inane thread will be lost in time, too, like tears in the rain. Alas for mercy's sake, perhaps it's also time for this thread to die? Uh oh, gotta go. I'm late for solder practice. Rutger Hauer |
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. I'm with noble100. Kill this thread. |
"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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During the last 50 years I have built many DIY speakers, amplifier kits,
simple electronic components, installed electronic component upgrades
etc. Due to a worsening vision impairment I am no longer able to do any
of there things. Does this suddenly make me a non-audiophile? Don't
be ridiculous.
" So if you were to read a book do you just peruse the first and last paragraphs or actually read the whole thing? |
I only read books with pictures, those little ones with the cartoon like colorful action drawings. My predominate allure in this hobby has always been the music, understanding that my attraction is almost completely emotional in nature. Personally however, I not only enjoy the emotional connection to the music and the way it makes me feel, I also emotionally enjoy admiring all of the designing and engineering precision represented in each of the individual components, the gear itself. Of course, the majority of my emotional satisfaction is derived from my great admiration for the accumulated knowledge, experience, creativity, wisdom and incredible skill level of the individual responsible for so expertly selecting, assembling and configuring such an extremely high quality a/v system in my room. Tim |
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mahlman, I don't understand your question. What does it have to do with
the question at hand? I read as much or as little of a book as pleases
me. That doesn't make me a non-reader.
" What it makes you in this case is uninformed as to why this post was made to begin with. Doesn't make you a non reader just makes you one with superficial knowledge of the topic if this is how you read. |
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I only read books with pictures, those little ones with the cartoon like colorful action drawings.
" 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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mahlman, I don't understand your question. What does it have to do with
the question at hand? I read as much or as little of a book as pleases
me. That doesn't make me a non-reader.
" What it makes you in this case is uninformed as to why this post was made to begin with. Doesn't make you a non reader just makes you one with superficial knowledge of the topic if this is how you read." Mahlman, I call bovine defecation on this entire thread. If I have already read nine books on a particular subject and the tenth book on that subject I sample is mediocre putting it down neither makes me superficial nor a non-reader. The longer this thread goes on the more you flounder. |
" 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? |
When the torero pass many red flags in front of the bull's head, he does not mock him, he plays silent, with no justification... He does not say to the bull: " how stupid you are for being here..." Especially when he has created himself the arena for his own " exploits"... Bulls are bulls, we all are "stupid audiophile bulls"... Not you for sure....You are the "enlightened" torero who owns the theater.... Congratulations! |
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No the ones with money can just get the maintenance man to do the soldering or the cleaning ladies son.
" 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? |
My car’s mileage recently passed 71K miles so I’ve been absent from this forum for a few weeks researching which newer/lower mileage used buggy to swap it out for. The good news is that task has now been completed successfully. The bad news is that I returned here today to find this always pointless thread continuing to flop about like a fish out of water. I’ve witnessed this thread’s predictable devolution since its inception due to its author, mahlman, creating it as an experiment designed for his, and perhaps a few willing cohorts’, personal entertainment and amusement that was based from the onset on deception, a lack of candor, a hidden agenda and sarcasm. What could possibly go wrong with a thread intentionally based on such a contrived,baiting, deceptive, dishonest and self-serving premise? Unfortunately but predictably, I think we’ve all been continuing to experience the answer to this question in an excruciatingly long and detailed manner, apparently in slow motion. I would describe this thread as a deliberately poorly designed plane, overburdened with inane assumptions and childish intentions, hurtling earthward in a death spiral with Mahlman at the controls grinning and giggling right up to the inevitable impact with the incredibly hard surface of the earth, metaphorically representing common sense, honesty and truth in this little analogy. Consider this my farewell from this doomed thread as I parachute out the back door of this thing. BTW, there are a limited number of chutes left at the rear of this proverbial plane for those similarly inclined. Later, Tim |
Why someone can enjoy people burning themselves in a fire? Because he start it ...Say someone using, speaking of himself, the third person.... If we think one second, we can say this thread reveal more about the OP than about each people participating at the end.... If this thread was an image of the world, this attitude would be seen as totally immoral...But think a minute, this thread is indeed an image of the world.... Ok, i will let you think if you can.... |
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The rest of y'all have to leave. I'll stay and talk to myself." Hello trentmemphis, Don't forget what happened during your last conversation with yourself. This time, it may be best to just nix all that yelling, headlocks and punching during the conversation. Treat yourself like you would want to be treated. Tim |
Who dont want to be at the same time a perfect tantric yogi master and the best lover in the world? Me... How is it that this 2 could be contradictory? I am an audiophile because i am a music lover, and i am a better music lover because i am an audiophile... is the relation difficult to understand? if to difficult, read a book..... :) :) « All doors go to the same place at the end... »-Groucho Marx |