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Why are audiophiles perceived as being wackos?

I have been pursuing this wonderful hobby of high end stereo equipment and music for almost 30 years. I do consider myself a passionate audiophile who loves to listen to music on a daily basis. The reason for this post is because it has been my experience that the great majority of people who do not pursue this hobby think of audiophiles as being wackos/screwballs because of the amount of time, money, and passion they put towards their systems. I find it very interesting that individuals who spend tremendous amounts of money and time pursuing esoteric tastes such as wines, watches, coins, etc, are considered connoisseurs or aficionados with a serious passion that is often respected even if it is not the other person's cup of tea. Another example would be people who love high end cars/boats who read all the magazines, go to the shows and invest large sums of money to purchase and tweak their cars or boats to get the last bit of ultimate performance out of their prized possessions. So I don't believe the negative viewpoint towards passionate audiophiles revolves around the amount of money that they can invest in their equipment. So my question for all you GON members is what would be your explanation for people outside our hobby having such a negative or condescending attitude towards our passion, where they infrequently would not have the same attitude towards other people's hobbies and passionate but unique pursuits? It would be a pleasure to hear about your experiences and what your explanation would be for this phenomena towards our hobby.
teajay
albertporter's avatar
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albertporter
4,949 posts
 
NASCAR does embrace the technology, regardless of whether you respect that part of the sport or not. So, race people DO CRYO treat spark plugs even if you do not approve of the team, the driver or the country they represent.

This began with Eldartford post,

If car buffs thought they could increase acceleration by Cryo treating their spark plugs, they would get the same treatment.

Since NASCAR does embrace this technology, his comment was wrong just as he is wrong about it's value in high end audio.
quadophile's avatar
quadophile
418 posts
 
Very interesting thread and posts by people, certainly thought provoking.

I feel audio is a bit different from say, collecting watches, being interested in cars, boats, etc. I think the difference is that cars, boats and watches are ready made things, you buy them and they are ready to go or wear. Audio is different, its not ready made, you buy it and the actual work starts before you can actually derive full benefits. The work that has to go into audio is that you need to set it up and match everything in your room before you can get full potential from it, sorry full potential is also wrong to say on my part since nobody can really get it right, they may succeed to get it to sound good but not perfect.

This extra input required after you buy the stuff is more challenging than just selecting and buying it. There is a lot of hard work that goes into it. This is one thing ordinary people may not want to do.

I visit a watch forum, folks there buy watches and than the thing is over after they post their pics and everyone says "beautiful watch" or "awesome watch". The poor guy than starts looking for another watch and again post pics before people start praising the watch all over again. With audio it starts AFTER one buys the stuff.

I don't know if I have succeeded in getting my point across or not but I tried. :)
inpepinnovations1e75
395 posts
 
No Albert, Eldartford is not wrong about "cryo"'s value in high end audio and it is only your opinion that he is wrong.
Stating that NASCAR uses a certain tecnology does not validate that technology any more than if BOSE embraced monster wire and that was used to validate the use of of that technology. That was my point.
And how did "nationalism" get into this thread?
Salut, Bob P.
nrchy's avatar
nrchy
2,124 posts
 
Bob P. cryoing is not a matter of opinion, it can be heard, even if you can't measure it! While you're measuring the value of cryoing, can you weigh up a pound of Love, or a pint of joy for me? Or don't those things exist since they cannot be measured, only expereinced???
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Since people are still throwing my name around, I think that I should be allowed to respond.

If you go back to my original posting which (as we seem to have forgotten) was about why the general population thinks we are "wackos") I cited belief in the miraculous results of Cryo as the sort of thing that get's us that reputation. My personal beliefs aside, it was the view of the general public to which I referred. I was not starting another Cryo argument. Been there, done that.

Perhaps I should have picked another example. "LPs are better than CDs". Most non-audiophiles would agree, but I don't think I could get that one by Albert!

Can anyone suggest an audiophile attribute that we all can agree makes us "wackos" in the eyes of others?
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