Disappointing Evening

For so long now, we have all been reading articles about the death of audio as a hobby. We have to save the hobby! We have to find a way to get our younger listeners to appreciate a high end setup. We have to expose other people to the hobby! Exactly how is that done? If nobody cares then it's inevitable, the hobby will die!! It seems to me that many posters on this thread have found a way to avoid even attempting to do this because maybe they got the shaft like Mark. I say that people do care, otherwise this hobby would have died a long time ago. Turning someone on to music played on High End equipment is an act of sharing and spiritualism. It's not always a case of wanting to impress anyone with your equipment, it can be that you just want to turn on a friend/stranger/music lover/by presenting them with an opportunity for a better musical experience.

Maybe if you had insisted that your friends just sit down and take a listen to your main rig things would have turned out differently. Maybe not. Occasionally you get the 'right' reaction. An old friend of mine is visiting for a few months and she came over. She's a music lover and she said yes when I offered to 'show off' my system. She couldn't get over what she was hearing. She went on and on and was so appreciative of the quality of it all. I had a proud audiophile moment. Some people will tell you it sounds good but theyr'e very bland and understated about it. There's no enthusiasm. Not with this friend.

I just added a third system. A Squeezebox radio with a pair of 30 year old Realistic Nova 45 headphones.

It replaced an alarm clock on the lamp table next to the bed.

Hey, the sound here is really good!

Its a sharp looking little gadget! Top notch WAF.

Ipods are pretty spiffy looking also and sound pretty good to most.

Given how relatively inexpensive and easy it is to get at least decent sound these days, I think the shock factor of a newbie seeing some of the rigs on this site would be the biggest conversation piece, more than how good the systems sound.

I remember when I was a kid, my first stereo was a Motorola all in on record player with fold out speakers.

Then, as a young teen, I got my first real stereo, for $200 an all in one Sanyo with radio, ceramic cart phono, tape, and speakers, a big step up, but still not really close to the best hi fi of teh day.

Then, finally, going into college, I got a good deal on some real hi fi, Lafayette Criterion integrated and tuner, speakers with Heil Air Motion Transformer, and a Technics belt drive table with MM Pickering cart. A true jump towards hifi. It impressed the other kids (mostly male) in my college dorm so much that they all to come into the shop I worked at then and I sold them their rigs.

Impressing anybody with hi fi has been all downhill since then. I mostly gave up a long time ago. I will show someone my stuff and give them a listen if they ask, but that's about it.

Mark
I could tell a similar story about having friends over for dinner and opening a very expensive bottle of Pinot from Oregon.. little appreciation for it.
People need to build up to things like that to understand and appreciate. The big sound stage can really intimidate new bees. Overwhelm them.