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Love the gear (or listening to it) as much or more than the music? Sacrilege!

Back when I was in graduate school, an Art History doctoral student and I used to go to the art museum together. We saw some amazing paintings. But she was just as interested in their frames or their lack thereof.

In audiophile circles, in my limited experience, the drum that beats is always the same — "Remember, this is about the *music*." Or, "Too many audiophiles forget that the real goal is the enjoyment of music." Etc. There's also a variant — "Too many audiophiles are just listening to the gear, not the music." The finger only wags in one direction.

So...while no one would ever assert that it's ok to *only* love the gear (or listening to the gear, mainly), I wonder how many would be willing to admit that they love the gear as much or even more than the music? Is that something you have ever heard someone admit — or have admitted yourself? Because sometimes the music is pretty ugly and the gear is pretty beautiful.
128x128hilde45
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
I do audiophilia in a superior fashion by making many systems, not expending much on media, paying very close attention to the electronics and listening closely to them, seeking variety in experiences, and not being satisfied with what I consider average playback. Only when the system is performing at a very high level am I content and enjoy the music. But, when that happens, which is often nowadays, after years of striving, I enjoy music as never before.

I am a System Builder. :)

Oh, wait, for the benefit of all the Chintziphiles, Musicians, Pro Audio techs, Music Lovers, and Mediaphiles, I forgot to add YMMV. ;)
ejr1953
920 posts
 
Back in the late 70's/early 80's I was a salesman at some high-end shops in the DC area and I learned that people who seemed to be listening to the equipment not the music hardly ever bought anything.  So I took a lead from my more experienced co-workers and set the customer up in one of our sound rooms, showed them how they could switch from one speaker to another and let them do their thing.

I'll never forget a small number of customers saying that they intended to purchase an amplifier when "digital" amps became available.  This is 1978!
justmetoo's avatar
justmetoo
381 posts
 
Hm, I was years back often trailing behind a charming 'fiend' (no spelling error) who practically always when he went into shops or attending system audition only to share afterwards how crap everything sounded and was.
He never had the money at all, ever, to even consider buying even to least of equipment on offer. 
So, that way he was in the clear as all was sheit in his opinion. 
In his defence he played pretty good on a concert piano, which when he also auditioned, where just so, so as well. Never good enough, not any, to his expert assessments. 
I think sales men must have seriously hated the guy. Charming as he was in their face. 
He himself had really crappy looking gear but to him it was better than anything else on offer. 
I think he was a music lover - alsa a sightly psychopathic one.
I survived this acquaintance, including my 'crappy' ML system. Though he'd messed up my X350.5's bias settings and dc offset, seriously, and only much, much later did this bad deed transpire. 
After a most laborious and *very* time consuming  correction, my system didn't only still look nice - it also played more musical than ever. 
The moral of the story?
Be very mindful of apparent experts who you invite to advise and trust, to fiddle with your gear! 😎🙄
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