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?
mahlman
geoff, You can't take what you dish out? You delete some of your posts after I deliver comeback zingers! HA  😝

isochronism
2,044 posts
07-01-2020 7:33pm
geoff, You can't take what you dish out? You delete some of your posts after I deliver comeback zingers! HA  😝

Yep time after time, of course it had nothing to do with the thread..

Just between the three Musketeers, thanks...ay...I can solder, some.

Regards
Yea, I shouldn't contribute to the nonsense. But hey,... I don't solder. Tho I DO always enjoy the helpful posts and fellowship!
"It should come as no surprise that audio, like other hobbies, has a bottom. "

....🤨....y'all have been lividly living up to That nadir rather effectively imho...

...but don't let me interrupt...I haven't seen this level of carnage around here for awhile.

OK...."Lord of the Flies, 'Audiodefiled Version', take 355....

ACTION!"
Soon to be a Major Malestrom of Immoral Madness.....Brought to your tiny cellscreen in noxious novelty...

WAR OF THE 'FILES

"I couldn't understand WTF they were on about...."
(Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times)



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. 
"" >>>>>As usual everything’s topsy turvy, me topsy you turvy, spider man 🕷 Your posts are childish and tickle. "
Says the man looking at himself in the mirror.
Nice to see you’re copying some of my Comebacks.  Good move as you had bottomed out with your own. 
You used that one also? (Seinfeld) Other's jokes? No originality? I figured you'd recognize that one. That's a first for me, as I come-up with my own material.
"Good move as you had bottomed out with your own."
We have two bottoms moving.
Post removed 

     Like pcrhk mentioned earlier, these forums are a means for us all to have the freedom of just calling things as we see them or hear them, like an umpire calling balls and strikes. We're just generally doing it in essay form. rather than true-false or positive-negative, and doing it with regards to  a/v equipment, room acoustic treatments and source content and with price/ performance ratios baked in. 
      An umpire improves his performance through knowledge and experience, an accurate knowledge of the strike zone and the experience of  seeing many pitches, closely examining each pitch's qualities and worthiness, before rendering his decision based on the merits.
     Hmmm, grasshoppers, perhaps the essence of being an audiophile or videophile is very much like being an umpire?  Of course, we're not all reliably objective umpires since we each have varying levels of knowledge of the audio and video strike zones as well as personal and subjective factors that influence our judgment decisions.  Factors such as general audio/video performance characteristic preferences as well as preferences for specific component technology types and even brands tend to skew judgments from objective and toward subjective, much like a bribe tends to skew an umpire's judgments to be less objective.
     Experience is important for gaining a good understanding of the performance capabilities of currently available technology, equipment and source content.  It also allows one to compare and contrast the  performance levels of available a/v equipment, room acoustic treatments and source content based on their own merits. 
     I continue to believe mahlman's premise on this thread is misguided, unnecessarily exclusionary, irrelevant and possesses absolutely zero intrinsic value.   However, I also believe a thread premise, about what qualities an effective and competent audiophile or videophile should ideally possess, would constitute a reasonable, inclusive, relevant and valuable endeavor.
     Unfortunately, I consider myself as an a/v, HT and music enthusiast and lack the motivation, interest and time to do so.  Just calling them like I see, hear or double-naught figure them.

Tim
Mahlman was making fun of Sokogear's elitist post w.r.t. whether you needed to have a turntable or R-R to be considered an audiophile, then went on to equate it to the difference between Porsche SUV drivers and Porsche sports car drivers (Porschefiles). Surprisingly or not surprisingly that was lost on many.
" Mahlman was making fun of Sokogear's elitist post w.r.t. whether you needed to have a turntable or R-R to be considered an audiophile, then went on to equate it to the difference between Porsche SUV drivers and Porsche sports car drivers (Porschefiles). Surprisingly or not surprisingly that was lost on many. "
  I think many could be redefined as most. This thread has fascinated me with how many apparently respond but do not really read.
If someone have his head hard like an hammer, he will look for a nail to hit.... :)


« The sex appeal of a nail for an hammer » -Groucho Marx

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. 🤗
   

  Inside joke between mahlman and sokogear?

     And mahlman thinks most of us didn't read the posts with close enough attention to get it?  C'mon mehlman, knock it off.

Tim
" Inside joke between mahlman and sokogear?

     And mahlman thinks most of us didn't read the posts with close enough attention to get it? C'mon mehlman, knock it off.

Tim "
  Part of what is so amusing about all this is I have stated clearly, more than once, why I posted and still deep thinkers try and figure it all out.
I can teach a 6 year old to solder and a 10 year old how to read a crossover schematic.

Speakers are not complicated. As a MSME I find this post comical it is not like designing a. Transmission system for an Apache or drives for the Mars Rover.


"Tim,
Part of what is so amusing about all this is I have stated clearly, more than once, why I posted and still deep thinkers try and figure it all out."

Hello mahlman,

     I wasn't really trying to figure it all out, just sort of skimming through your thread and must have missed your explanation about why you posted.  But I'll take your word for it, my fault and no harm no foul.

Thanks,
  Tim 
 Report this
    
nonoise....😏....but like your selection, the stake keeps getting pulled out for the hammer function....;)

The ? remains:

Are they having fun yet?
"  I wasn't really trying to figure it all out, just sort of skimming through your thread and must have missed your explanation about why you posted. But I'll take your word for it, my fault and no harm no foul. "
No problem on this end and have a good Fourth.

     Yes, hope you guys have a good 4TH, too! My wife, youngest son and I are going to Chicago to visit my oldest son for the weekend, he lives near Montrose and Oak st. beaches on the north side.  
     A thong, face mask and "Trump Happens" hat are a hip look for a  62 year old guy with a cane on a Chicago beach nowadays, right?

Tim


Hello geoffkait,

     Yes, those north side yuppies can get unruly when well lubricated.

     I also enjoy wearing a bra on my head after a few cocktails for a look with a hint of wackiness, promiscuity and devil may care all rolled into one.

Tim
Im an Audiophile i hire a dude to do my soldering and get MAGICO to build my speakers.HELLO!!!!
"" Im an Audiophile i hire a dude to do my soldering and get MAGICO to build my speakers.HELLO!!!! "
   Well I don't know about all that. What true audiophile standards have you met to get into the penultimate audio category?
All I can say,  mahlman you're the man. 

You have just started the anti audiophile snobbery movement.

I am following you now

Kuddos!
True audiophiles know who they (he/she) are and don't need to convince anyone. Their music is at a high level of satisfaction BUT and AND it always can be better. Systems don't NEED a turntable or be SELF-soldered.


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?
let's be absolutely real though. A turntable SHOULD be included! Records are KING!
To turn this argument around, Is a tone deaf repair person a better audiophile than a lifetime enthusiast who plays many musical instruments.  I think not.  Maybe it's fun, but being able to make something sound better is rare, and not necessary, but a nice adjunct to audiophilia.

Could we get back on the topic of OP?

So, is Panamera with rear bench seat a real Panamera, or a hint that driver is just a pretender?

Post removed 
glubson, your question can take a back seat to the original OP topic.. soldering.

isochronism,

I was revisiting the very first words of the OP...


"So, if you bought that Porsche..."

glubson, I went back to re-read the beginning of original post and you're correct there. What cockamamie thread is this anyway?? I suppose an analogy would be if you go out for a drive in a nice Porsche, you may never know where you'll end up. In regard's to your question, in the true nature of Porsche, there should only be room for two. In the evolution of the mark anything is now permissible. I'd very very satisfied with an old air-cooled car.
Yes, you are as healthy as any highly evolved (read obsessive) audiophile can be expected. Meaning normal in this group 👍
" All I can say, mahlman you're the man.

You have just started the anti audiophile snobbery movement.

I am following you now

Kuddos! "
  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. 
" >>>>>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? "
Geoffy baby, U mind if I call U that? Apparently you are one of the ones who has comprehension problems. Tweaking is where it is at as I clearly stated to begin this wonderful thread.

I guess you must be starting a reality distorting anti-reality anti-truth and no alien left behind movement. Next up are anti-flying saucerphiles actually snobs or just normal people?
" I will say the manure is spread deep 😄 "
  Have to have it to grow good crops.