I once read a study that concluded people who frequent topic specific internet chat sites tend to take more radical positions and make more extremist statements than they would in normal social interaction. Political conservatives become even biggest A-holes, Aryan supremacist become whiter and wine enthusiasts become even whinier. You get the drift. As audiophiles/music lovers we tend to magnify sonic minutiae and elevate its importance. One product inevitably blows away another. Take the recent thread on PMC vs. ATC speakers. It's hard to tell the products apart, yet two people argued at length over the huge differences between the speaker brands. Any sane outsider reading would of course assume the people are fairly wacko. Their intensity alone would alert normal people to that fact. But so what! It's people being insanely passionate about something that makes the world interesting.
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.
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- 121 posts total
- 121 posts total