Hi Wellen; This morning, I asked my 29 year old daughter this very question. She is a music lover, but I am an audiophile (and music lover). I helped her put together a good sounding $5K system, but beyond that, she has absolutely no interest in obsessing about "the gear". She said that women are much more interested in "multi-tasking", and they don't have the time, interest, or money to constantly mess around with audio gear. OTOH, I admit to being somewhat of an "equipment junkie" and I'm willing to spend time seeking the ultimate stereo/music experience. But at the end of the day for me it's still about the music. That said, us guys seem to get hung up on "sound AND music", whereas women are only interested in the music. I expect my daughter will have her existing system for the next 20 years, and if there are any changes/upgrades it would have to do with format changes, eg DVD-A or maybe HT, rather than obsessions with sound. BTW, she, and her friends, are well paid professionals and could afford the "obsession" if they wanted. She made a convincing argument, IMHO. Cheers. Craig.
The gender-split in audio
Are there any theories as to why audio seems to be such a male interest? I KNOW that there are some female audiophiles out there (and, of course, that most men are not audiophiles), but there seems to be a very large imbalance within the audio world. I think audio should be important to any music-lover. There are lots of women for whom music is an important part of their life, so why the gender-split in audio? As I said, I am wondering about theories, not anecdotes. For example, maybe it's all about marketing, not the accurate reproduction of music per se. But I look at my gear and some ads in audio magazines and for the most part there doesn't seem to be anything intrinsically "male" about them or how they're pitched, and I doubt it would be sufficient to account for the apparent imbalance if there were. However, maybe I, as a male(!), underestimate these factors.