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Who has the Sickness, the Phile or the Non-phile?

So often I find myself resenting the fact that there are only so many hours to listen to HiFi and I think of those that don't hold this resentment.

I used to think anyone who wasn't obsessive simply lacked exposure, but even though I have introduced many, I have discovered no takers.

At audiophile club meeting it seems to me that the attendees are mostly gear-heads and posers; they say "Ooo & Ahhhh" to anything presented and you can see 1 or 2, maybe 3 in the seats nonchalantly looking over in the direction of the ooo-ers and Ahhh-ers; those few get it. And before anyone is defensive because they know, lashes out that I'm this or that....I don't care. These are obviously my opinions and I'm looking for the opinions of others On The  Question  At  Hand  and not whether or not I am a deluded self important snob.

So, if it is not a lack of exposure, is it a lack of ability?

Surely we are all different, short, tall, smart, obtuse, near sighted, far sighted. Are the ears and or the brains of an audiophile just wired differently than others? Can non audiophiles just not hear what we hear?

Was it childhood exposure that caused this difference in wiring? My father had Altec Voice of the Theater horns and the accompanying gear. Was that it, being exposed to HIFi during brain development? My daughter gets it and boy was she pissed when I sold my VPI TT. I never got along with my father, but was he responsible for my affliction by introducing me to superior sound as an infant?

And, who are the sick ones, the philes or the non-philes?

 

TD

128x128tonydennison

Showing 3 responses by frankmc195

frankmc195's avatar
frankmc195
141 posts
 

To my surprise... my two best friends and son in law can care less about good quality sound....My two friends run Karaoke on a regular basis and my son in law says he isn't interested in that audiophile stuff. They all really like the sound of my system for the clarity but not interested in having a system themselves. I can't understand it. To be fair I let my two friends listen to some cheap but very good speakers and they went out and bought them but they say they don't listen to music much at home. It made me realize that being an audiophile is relatively rare.

frankmc195's avatar
frankmc195
141 posts
 

I have several systems and one of them is for watching DVDS and listening to music.... but it is not a surround system because I really don't like them and if I hadn't looked at the chart here on this post, I would think surround systems would be a thing of the past and on their way out. I use 4 speakers.... two in front and two in the back which really makes watching DVDs and listening to music wonderful. I use a good amp which is 4 channels of course and you can't beat the sound. The center speaker in a surround system has never been adequate for me but if it works for you then I'm happy for you.

frankmc195's avatar
frankmc195
141 posts
 

Lol one thing that really comes through is that I bet that the majority of audiophiles here can't agree on what they consider good music. I'm a female jazz singer listener and other styles of music are nice to listen to once in a bluemoon (no association intended) but not really my cup of tea. For instance bal-de-vis apparently exclusively listens to classical music and hit it on the head about his listening. Classical is nice but if that was all there was to it, a $100 speaker would do for me but certainly not for bal. If you think we are rare as audiophiles, when we brake down our taste in music we are even rarer.

I was in a music store once looking at the jazz section when a woman approached me asking for a recommendation on what cd to buy for her new boyfriend because he was an audiophile and loved jazz. I told her that Diana Krall was the best jazz singer and she couldn't go wrong by any of her cds. She then said that it wasn't what he liked and went on to describe his taste as fusion jazz.... I didn't have a clue what to tell her and said I was sorry.  All the cds in the section were very famous editions and I was sure her new boyfriend had all of them so I didn't say anything. We can still be audiophiles and not really relate to one another.

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