I'm frustrated with people who don't ...


Sorry for a long post...
Recently I was at a 3-day meeting out of town for work. For an evening activity we had a cook out at a colleague's house. While there, we gathered around his deck and a small fire in the back yard. I found myself in a group of 6 guys discussing hobbies. I mentioned my love for audio and began to describe my system and music library. Almost instantly, I was "pounced" for believing that any "hi end" component is worth the money compared to anything else one can buy from Best Buy. "Digital is digital" one guy stated, "an $89 player is as good as anything else out there". I attempted to defend my position but in no way was I able to convince anyone. I told them the next time they're in town, I'd have them over to my place and let them hear the difference, but I know most will not acknowledge the quality of sound. Footnote: I've known these guys for 3-5 years and they are professional level headed guys, I wasn't bragging, I made no grand statements that my system is better than anything else, I just talked about my interest and brought it up when they asked me. The icing on the cake was their disbelief that my system can only play one CD at a time... "you don't have a carousel on your CDP?" Man, I was frustrated.
mijknarf
One of the problems with our hobby is that quality is so tough to measure. It's easier to talk about the time to get from 0-60 mph or how many pixels your digital camera has. Lugnut is right that there are other hobbies like this (you spent how much on that reel?). It is frustrating and I normally respond that I enjoy it and love music. Generally, folks don't begin to get it until they really listen to a good system. Even then, if it's not a priority for them, they'll think I'm nuts. That's OK. I welcome the diversion from focusing on the real reasons for my insanity ;-)
So . . . Mijknarf, are you ready to admit that LP's sound better than CD's? (LOL)
--Neil
Well, Don't be...
It's realy easy to find a good CD-player among above 1k ones but very hard to find in low-hundreds range and even among carousels. Some of cheap Best Buy ones will sound like crap but some of them do deserve attention...
Hey everyone has their "thing". I have a friend who wears 3K watches, I have a friend who buys bottles of wine that cost in the hundreds, others are into automobiles.

Me I drive an Acura TL and love it, I wear an 80 dollar watch {and a 20.00 Movado knock off} and a 12.00 bottle of vino is just fine with me.

Thats how I explain my hobby to friends , and in that context, they seem to get it. Dont knock yourself out.
Enjoy the music.
You shouldn't get frustrated. You don't need to justify your hobby to someone that doesn't share the same thrill from it that you do. I have several other hobbies besides music and simply don't discuss surfing with my audiophile friends and vice versa, same with my other hobbies.
My next door neighbor has turned his entire back yard into a minature make beleive world that revolves around garden trains. I think it is silly but, would never tell him that, and I'm sure he thinks the same about my stereo system. So what.