Disappointing Evening

One of the worst things you can do is play BS music when entertaining. What do I mean? There's a member of this site, who played a CD of music that lasted no more than 10 seconds each.

He marveled at the soundstage, timbre and image specificity. To call his selection "music", would be a misleading. "Aural gobbledygook" seems correct.

A lot of people do not know what good music is. They have spent their entire lives with cheap i-pod plugs in their ears or walmart boom boxes on high volume as if they sounded good. Ever been to somebody's place and they have this awful sounding musical device you have to listen to all night? Not much different than if your in a bar where it sounds so bad you can't stand it. Then I know people who listen to bad background music all day every day, at home, in their car etc. Bad music overload. I can't call these people music lovers. Other than a minority, sitting and listening to music over a great sounding system is of no interest to most people, sad to say. I-phones for god sakes.

Don't ask. Just play a short piece on the B&O, then say "I have something else for you to hear"....

People are social and it is normal to have concern about what other people think of us. Afterall, we cannot succeed materially or emotionally without the feedback/appraisal of those around us. To say we do not care what other people think of us is really just a statement of denial.
As for the stereo system, I am happy to play something for someone if they show in interest in my system. I have no feelings about it one way or the other. Many people seem to barely notice my system and I don't bother to play it unless they ask and it happens to be on. On the other hand, on the rare occasions that I get to have a fellow audio hobbyist over to hear my system, I actually feel a little nervous. I guess because I know I am going to get a valid critique from someone with knowledge and ability to evaluate my system. I appreciate honest criticism because it is easy to get complacent or used to a certain characteristic and their fresh viewpoint can give us a direction to go for further improvement- if I feel like it is worth it, of course.

hi tonywinsc:

unless you are a mindreader, the statement "to say we do not care what other people think of us is really just a statement of denial", is a conjecture.

what evidence do you have to back up that statement ?

i take people at their word.

if someone were to say they are not concerned with what other people think, i would accept it and not assume that they were in a state of denial.

consider the concepts--other and inner directed.

the inner directed person is motivated by his own thoughts and desires and may not consider the consequeneces of others' opinions or reactions.

Everyone cares about someone which means everyone cares about what at least one person thinks about them. Sure, you may not care about what the guy passing you on the sidewalk thinks, but I can't accept that a person cares about no one in this world. We all should care about the ones around us- ergo what they think about us in some way. If a person lives as a recluse, perhaps it is more about fear of what others think rather than apathy. I'm getting out of my element here, I am engineer not a psychologist. From my perspective I can't imagine not caring about people.