WHY IS THERE SO MUCH HATE FOR THE HIGH END GEAR ON AUDIO GEAR?

viridian

...hate is for audiophiles, not the gear. Completely deserved ...

Hate is a very strong word. Why have hate for a fellow human? Why so angry?

I acknowledge there are a few unpleasant people here, but they're easy to ignore. Hate isn't required.

Some bullet points based on perceptions of what’s under the bell curve. The modal demographic. For context.. I’m a 58yo audiophile. Supposedly. In the hobby since the 1980’s.

- Young ppl (under 30.. maybe even 35 to 40yo’s in cities) tend to live in apartments (so headphones) or their parents homes.. so, headphones.. or if lucky, a minimal near-field system with a cheap computer, PlayStation, Apple TV or Wiim as a source. They don’t want to see our expansive spreads of hardware.

- Older people (traditional audiophiles) tend to own their homes outright and spend a lot on gear.. they can leverage their home equity.. have a dedicated room.. a yard as a buffer zone.. and home audio is after all a part of our homes, and complete systems can now easily cost more than was paid for the home originally. The market has shifted to reflect this low-volume, high profit margin demographic as SFR home ownership diminishes and MFR’s flourish.

This is systemic in many areas of the economy and (imho) largely because of Federal Reserve banking practices over the last four decades as a response to the fear of 1929 reoccurring.

- High-end audio can now be described (somewhat metaphorically) as male jewelry.. ’the big watch’ ..with opulent superfluous finishes where the cosmetic attributes of the gear could even describe something pre-Bolshevik.. an ostentatious attempt in visually underpinning one’s supposed affluence by owning it. However.. unlike a watch.. it’s personal.. you don’t flaunt it in public, but you may invite people over to enjoy it. It is largely personal but it’s more than that.

- Young people hate this. Perhaps they want theirs but can’t afford it.. and likely will never be able to because of student loans and the unlikely prospect of ever owning a real home to enjoy high-end home audio (let alone spending an additional $50k on their system cabling for an extra 5% in performance). They may reject all this merely in principle. They are stuck with a ’hot-head’ in their headphones. Literally.

I personally respect (and prefer) companies who cram quality components, a mountain of R&D and passion.. under a cost effective utilitarian surface, but if someone wants to opt for a $5k up-charge for their speaker’s hand-lacquered rosewood, carbon inlays or hand-burnished rhodium contacts.. go for it. I won’t agree, nor complain.. but others might.. and it might get passive-aggressive.

Ego tripping.

When men were men and dinos roamed the earth there was Usenet populated by knowledgeable guys having knowledgeable civilized discussions. It was naturally self selecting cuz you had to be an academic or work for a think tank to know about Usenet. Then came America On Line (AOL) and the appearance of the 1000 posts a week guy who got drunk on suddenly having this megaphone for his opinions. The knowledgeable people fled cuz they had better things to do and here we are.

You can still find thoughtful knowledgeable guys on Audiogon, if you dig. Just like you have to dig through the dreck to find the good gear.

* The systems part of Audiogon proves there are plenty of guys carefully putting together great systems. 

@gbmcleod @mahgister i agree fellas. A lot of people have no experience with high end equipment.  I have heard a lot. I have owned some. I have also had 1 to 2 extended in home demos that allowed me to hear and know the differences. Some see price and automatically shut down. Can’t do it that way.  

same reason you have Marxist in this country, ENVY its one of those sins god talked about a lot :)