Disappointing Evening

The only people interested in how good your high end Hifi sounds are people with high end Hifi's.

I think every audiophile has had this experience. It's one of the reasons I scoff when bloggers or hifi mag writers talk about rejuvenating the hobby by exposing people to great systems. I had this exact debate with Robert Harley via email. He is convinced that people can be converted to high end audiophiles by simple exposure to a good system. Not true and anyone that has demoed their great system for the unwashed masses knows this is a fallacy. Appreciating a good hifi is a skill that must be learned over time. It probably also requires certain brain chemistry/characteristics.

People just don't even know what they are hearing, and they typically don't care. Only once have I had the experience where my friend was blown away by my system and in that case he was a former music student and concert pianist and a genuine music lover. He "got it" from day one. Everyone else does not get it. My wife must be dragged in kicking and screaming to listen to one song.

But I don't blame people for this lack of appreciation. There are lots of hobbies I don't appreciate.

It is a shame and I empathize with the OP. Most of use would love to share our pride and joy systems with people that would enjoy them.

That's one thing that's great about the internet, but unfortunately we cannot hear other's systems, only see them.

again, don't sell people short. they may be able to distinguish good from bad sound, but they probably don't care. and as i said that aplies to other material things.

Some guests could be more polite, that's for sure, even if they can't hear a thing. It's not really about audio.

I agree with Jaxwired. I think only some people are cut out for this hobby. The rest are fine with ipods. I believe that alot of people can appreciate the increase in quality after being exposed to a fine system but it may take a long time. Some notice it before others...and a select few dont ever notice it. This tells me that the way our brains process sound has alot to do with whether an increase in quality increases pleasure. My best friend was really skeptical at first and claimed that he didnt notice that much difference. After teaching him more about the different characterists of sound (soundstaging, imaging, tonal balance, layering etc etc) he started to really catch on. Today he has put together his own system and classifies himself as an audiophile. He is now able to analysis a change in my system almost as well as i can. We are 22. My issue is that many "possible audiophiles" are not being exposed to excellent sound like they used to. Therefor there does seem to be some ignorance when it comes to sound in my generation.