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Kids during audition - aaaaagh!!

It used to bother me a lot when I would try to demo my system for someone and all they wanted to do was talk during the music. I get it - not everyone is an auditory person. But I still found it off putting and a bit depressing. Like if you took them for a ride on a windy mountain road in your Ferrari and all they noticed was the nice leather.

But FAR WORSE than that is when you're trying to demo your system for someone and they bring their kids. It happened to me last summer, and again tonight. In both cases it could not be helped but it totally destroys the listening experience to have a 6 year dancing around in front of the speakers while the 2 year old sings along with Rebecca Pidgeon.  The listener is denied the chance of the listening experience that we all know and love. I found it actually painful, emotionally. A lost opportunity for a new person to be swept away by the musical experience that comes from a high end system. I guess this time it's like they strapped their screaming kids into child car seats in the Ferrari and only let you drive in the small parking lot. Why bother? And no, I don't have a Ferrari. But yes, with no local audiophile friends to appreciate it, I do yearn to at least share the experience with someone who's never heard good sound.

One other note. Isn't it funny that non-audiophiles often assume that you're going to blast their head off by playing Metallica with the volume set to 11?
bob5560g
seasoned's avatar
seasoned
181 posts
 
I once had a friend over to do some listening and all they did was spend the entire time on their phone answering messages while giggling. Ugh!
Also gotta love it when you have a couple audiophile buddies over for some critical listening and the neighbor’s yard crew starts up their lawnmower and string trimmer. Then, just when you have finished internally screaming and heart-rate reduces, the blower fires up. Ugh!
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n80
2,117 posts
 
My brother-in-law farmer had two or three hi-fi systems languishing in his dank basement for years that he had gotten from a cousin. I rescued one of them and that is my current system.

He did not know how to work them or hook them up etc so I got the second system (Rotel/ B&W based....mid-fi, really) set up in my cabin and it sounded pretty good, I had them come down to listen to it and offered to hook it up in their home or even his shop.

They and my wife talked through the whole audition with various forms of music that they requested. They were utterly unimpressed and did not want me to set it up for them.

It didn’t hurt my feelings or anything. Some folks are into it, some aren’t. But I did not have a use for the system, didn’t like the B&W speakers/sub and so it all went back in their basement.

In the end audiophile pursuits tend to be solitary and even when not solitary it is quiet and contemplative. If the music and the SQ don’t move someone then they’re pretty much just sitting there....which for most people is the definition of boring.
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
People today are so conditioned to sit in front of TV/phone screens that listening to music without accompanying images is uncomfortable - so they must start talking!
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,229 posts
 
People, and yes kids are people, singing and dancing to music is by definition being "swept away by the musical experience that comes from a high end system".  And you thought it was painful.  Sad.
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