This is a multi-fold problem.
First: The price of most gear is ridiculous. This needs no expounding upon.
Second: "Hi-end" has very little exposure into the mainstream. When people do become aware that such a thing exists, they are then greeted by a snobby dealer that wants to push a very expensive system onto them. This scares the hell out of them and they run home with their tails between their legs. Once they get there, they think that their receiver doesn't sound all that bad and wonder how much better "hi-end" could be for ALL that money. The fact that the gear in the dealers' showroom didn't sound all that much better due to poor set-up only aids this line of thinking.
Third: Most audiophiles are males and most males are competitive. As such, we tend not to want to attract competition and do little to "infect" new people with the "disease". If we do find someone that is "into audio", the first thing that we want to do is to compare components, systems and see what sounds better, who's gear is "prettier" or who spent more money. Once all that is done, the "winner" gets to gloat about the size ( or lack ) of their "johnson". This obviously does not apply to women. As we all know, women audiophiles are a rare thing, probably because men have alienated them from learning about such things.
Fourth: The high end market is a niche market to start off with. To make things worse, we now have niche markets within a niche market and we have done this to ourselves.
We have hi-end broken into tubes vs SS. From tubes, one can go SET, Push-Pull, OTL, Triode, Pentode, Arachnophobe, etc.. For SS, you can go high power, low power, mosfets, bi-polar, etc... From there, one can use monoblocks, single stereo amp, bi-amp, tri-amp, etc... When multi-amping, you can then mix and match tube and SS, etc...
Then we have sources i.e. digital vs analog. Digital offers the choice of one box vs two box, tubes vs SS, etc... Analog offers belt vs direct drive, linear tracking vs pivoted, straight low mass arm vs S or J shaped medium / high mass arm, suspended vs unsuspended, etc...
Speakers can get into various designs i.e. dynamic, planar, electrostatic, horns, omni's, single driver, etc.. or almost any combo of the above. I think that you folks already know about the diversity of cables and thoughts / opinions on that subject, so i won't bother going there.
As such, by the time one finds the "niche" or "combination of niches" that we like as individuals, we have not only alienated ourselves from the general public, but to some extent, from one another. While the diversity of products and design ideas IS what makes this such a great and fun "hobby", it only helps to divide us at the same time due to personal preferences. After all, we wouldn't have such vocal opinions about so many different items / subjects if there weren't such vast differences between products / styles and what we like as individuals.
The bottom line is that we have somewhat stuck ourselves out in the desert and then wondered why we are the sole voice out in the distance. We've done very little as a whole to go out recruiting others and share the joys of being an audiophile with them. To top it off, when asked about such things, many of us resort to attacking Bose and other "less than acceptable" brands of products that they look up to. As such, we probably need to change our attitudes and way that we go about doing things IF we want this field to prosper.
I say "we" as i've been guilty of the above too, so i'm going to try and apply this lesson and things that i thought of when typing this up to my life in a personal manner. I hope that others that agree with these points will put forth the personal effort to do something about this too. Hopefully, this "eye opening experience" and new thought process will be evident in both my personal life and my posts. After all, "civilians" are less likely to ask for help or be drawn into this field if they don't like what they see or read right off the bat. It leaves a bad taste in their mouth when the "experts" or "fellow hobbyists" can't even agree amongst themselves. Sean
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First: The price of most gear is ridiculous. This needs no expounding upon.
Second: "Hi-end" has very little exposure into the mainstream. When people do become aware that such a thing exists, they are then greeted by a snobby dealer that wants to push a very expensive system onto them. This scares the hell out of them and they run home with their tails between their legs. Once they get there, they think that their receiver doesn't sound all that bad and wonder how much better "hi-end" could be for ALL that money. The fact that the gear in the dealers' showroom didn't sound all that much better due to poor set-up only aids this line of thinking.
Third: Most audiophiles are males and most males are competitive. As such, we tend not to want to attract competition and do little to "infect" new people with the "disease". If we do find someone that is "into audio", the first thing that we want to do is to compare components, systems and see what sounds better, who's gear is "prettier" or who spent more money. Once all that is done, the "winner" gets to gloat about the size ( or lack ) of their "johnson". This obviously does not apply to women. As we all know, women audiophiles are a rare thing, probably because men have alienated them from learning about such things.
Fourth: The high end market is a niche market to start off with. To make things worse, we now have niche markets within a niche market and we have done this to ourselves.
We have hi-end broken into tubes vs SS. From tubes, one can go SET, Push-Pull, OTL, Triode, Pentode, Arachnophobe, etc.. For SS, you can go high power, low power, mosfets, bi-polar, etc... From there, one can use monoblocks, single stereo amp, bi-amp, tri-amp, etc... When multi-amping, you can then mix and match tube and SS, etc...
Then we have sources i.e. digital vs analog. Digital offers the choice of one box vs two box, tubes vs SS, etc... Analog offers belt vs direct drive, linear tracking vs pivoted, straight low mass arm vs S or J shaped medium / high mass arm, suspended vs unsuspended, etc...
Speakers can get into various designs i.e. dynamic, planar, electrostatic, horns, omni's, single driver, etc.. or almost any combo of the above. I think that you folks already know about the diversity of cables and thoughts / opinions on that subject, so i won't bother going there.
As such, by the time one finds the "niche" or "combination of niches" that we like as individuals, we have not only alienated ourselves from the general public, but to some extent, from one another. While the diversity of products and design ideas IS what makes this such a great and fun "hobby", it only helps to divide us at the same time due to personal preferences. After all, we wouldn't have such vocal opinions about so many different items / subjects if there weren't such vast differences between products / styles and what we like as individuals.
The bottom line is that we have somewhat stuck ourselves out in the desert and then wondered why we are the sole voice out in the distance. We've done very little as a whole to go out recruiting others and share the joys of being an audiophile with them. To top it off, when asked about such things, many of us resort to attacking Bose and other "less than acceptable" brands of products that they look up to. As such, we probably need to change our attitudes and way that we go about doing things IF we want this field to prosper.
I say "we" as i've been guilty of the above too, so i'm going to try and apply this lesson and things that i thought of when typing this up to my life in a personal manner. I hope that others that agree with these points will put forth the personal effort to do something about this too. Hopefully, this "eye opening experience" and new thought process will be evident in both my personal life and my posts. After all, "civilians" are less likely to ask for help or be drawn into this field if they don't like what they see or read right off the bat. It leaves a bad taste in their mouth when the "experts" or "fellow hobbyists" can't even agree amongst themselves. Sean
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