Disappointing Evening

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.

Good quality sound is readily available everywhere at low volume levels.

People need to get over the fact that the entire industry has caught up with the 60's audiophile crowd (who at that time had a huge advantage over everyone else).

Today, I get great sound in the car and great sound from my desktop Genelec Active speakers when connected to my iPhone and playing 128 KBPS files (even cheap digital setups sound darn good compared in a way that cheap analog never did). I could even get great sound for much cheaper - a pair of Audioengine 5's for example.

What I am saying is that great sound is readily available to the masses!!!

And, you ain't going to impress any guest unless you can significantly trump what is easily available to everyone.

IMHO, the only way you will impress people is through a demonstration of high quality sound at live concert levels. This is where major differences can still be found between ordinary systems that sound like crap as soon as you increase the volume and audiophile quality reference systems. A high quality system that is capable of sounding like a live drum set will always amaze people because all ordinary systems give you nothing but distortion at anything approaching the proper levels of live instruments.

If you want guests to be impressed then I would suggest upgrading your equipment (primarily speakers). If you don't care what guests think then quit moaning.