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How To Field Questions About Your Audiophile Lifestyle...

We Audiophiles often have a bit of "The Adams Family" about us to other people..especially to neighbors and those who come into contact with us often.Here are some of the most common questions that come up and some suggestions on how to field them.

Q."About that stereo of yours,; "what kind is it?"
 A. Looking at your watch, "It's a q
uarter to 5."

Q."How much did it cost?"
 A. "I'm not sure.I stole it."

 Q."How come my stereo doesn't' sound like that?"
 A."You need smarter friends with better advice." "I hear they really kick"is 5 words from hell, if you are really serious about your selections.

 Q."Why do you play "Aerosmith" and the "Butthole Surfers"then switch to that "Beethoven"
 crap?"
  A. "Beethoven was a musician too."He went deaf without any rock music at all.

  Q."Why is your furniture differently arranged than everybody else's, all diagonally?"
  A."It has to do with the lighting,"or "Thats the way the previous people living here liked it."

  Q."Why do you always walk backwards when there is a strong wind coming at you ?"
  A."I like to protect my nice face from aging" or "I forgot my ear muffs today."

  Q."Why do you play your CD player with the top off and why does the Xmas tree near it always have greenish blue lights."
  A.It has to do with the absorption of stray laser..Err it's too long a story."

  Q."Why do you have a Xmas tree still up by your CD player?"
  A."It's already September..Might as well just keep it up now."

I hope this helps.

supertweak
scorpio1951
189 posts
 
   I have had people see my Apogee Duetta II speakers for the first time, marvel at their design and how "thin" they are and then ask me to play them so they can hear "how loud they will play." I politely decline, and change the subject. I have had some people see my McIntosh separate components and comment that they didn't know that Apple also makes stereo components. Hmmm....
rlb61
789 posts
 
I’m too old to tolerate that crap. I usually say ... "If you don’t know or can’t figure it out, then I’m not gonna tell ya until you're much older." Seems to work everytime and makes the questioner feel pretty stupid ... just the way I like it.
prof
3,471 posts
 

I'm about a clean aesthetic, so the source components/amps etc are in a separate room, and cables for my speakers are essentially hidden.  Thus people really just see a pair of nice looking speakers and - if they aren't interested in such things, don't comment.  If they are it's usually "what nice looking speakers, how do they sound?"
But man, when I see some of the systems some audiophiles have, every bit of technology just in your face, cables everywhere, risers, tweaks on walls, etc...yeah...that would take some 'splainin'
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,973 posts
 
I try to keep it hidden, and it’s not that hard. My system is in a spare bedroom with a closed door. People who visit overnight and get shown around by someone other than myself usually glance at it blandly and move on, and those who have even a bit of knowledge pretend to think its interesting for 2 seconds, and move on. I myself never show visitors. Oftentimes during a party at the holidays etc. there will be music playing on the rig with the door open so guests can hear it in the gathering room, but it ’s rare that anyone asks where the music is coming from.
To me, it’s just a personal thing for my own use, not something to explain or justify to visitors. When I was in my twenties it was different, Back then, a number of my friends were actually interested.
supertweak OP
90 posts
 
 Putting your source hidden away in another room is a good idea, both visually and sonically.The farther the source is from vibration producing speakers the better.I once experimented doing that with 2 turntable set ups whose overall sound quality was at least 20% apart.When the lesser turntable was placed in a room around the corner with a wall between it and the speakers it narrowed the gap at least by half.The better turntable with the vinyl platter continued to be preferred for naturalness and transient definition.Of course I needed long interconnects and in that configuration it is hard to keep them off the floor and not touching "anything", or as little as possible.Long interconnects are better than very long speaker cables.The old presumed assumption that speaker cables lose damping at 50 feet needs challenged.I hear it at way less length than that.It became widely accepted that speaker cables need to ideally be at least 8 feet long.That should be weighed against the possibility of using speaker cables just long enough to hang from amp to speaker without touching the floor or anything else.Of course if you have something as aesthetically beautiful as an Oracle Delphi (which I always thought of getting),  its ashamed to not be able to look at it.Also doing it in a way where the preamp is way out of reach is downright inconvenient and maybe arguably, going farther than having a tweaked looking room.
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