Are audiophiles still out of their minds?

almarg
6,489 posts
06-26-2016 12:53pm
"It appears to me that in the initial reference to "genuine audiophile" the poster was simply using the word "genuine" to mean something along the lines of "sincere." In other words, in contrast to an audiophile who is attempting to disguise an interest in promoting a product."

That’s odd. It seems pretty clear that is NOT what he means. But I think I understand why YOU would say so. I have long maintained that it might be helpful to wear name tags that identify the wearer as a troll (T) or shill (S). ;-)

geoff kait

Geoff, the relevant part of his post was:

The problem is, there is too much misinformation/aka: b**s*** posted on this forum about TL and cables with fantastic magnets inside by posters who every man and his dog on here knows are NOT [emphasis added] genuine audiophiles.

"TL" is an obvious reference to a certain brand of very expensive cables, if that isn’t clear. "Cables with fantastic magnets" is an obvious reference to another brand of very expensive cables. Each of those cables is the subject of a very long-running and lengthy thread here, and in each of those threads the most prominent advocate of those cables is an individual who at times has been claimed by certain posters in the thread to be, um, insincere. Or to use some of my words that you quoted, to be "attempting to disguise an interest in promoting a product." In other words, to NOT be a "genuine audiophile," with "genuine" meaning something along the lines of "sincere," as I said.

Consider also the screen-name chosen by the author of the post we are discussing.

I believe that my interpretation was correct. Perhaps you overlooked the word "not" that the poster placed before the words "genuine audiophiles"?

Regards,
-- Al

What is the definition of an Audiophile? I should have thought about this before as Wikipedia seems to do a nice job with the definition below:

An audiophile is a person enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction.[1]

Audiophile values may be applied at all stages of music reproduction: the initial audio recording, the production process, and the playback, which is usually in a home setting.

A key goal of audiophiles is to capture the experience of a live musical performance in a room with good acoustics, and reproduce it at home. It is widely agreed that this is very difficult and that even the best-regarded recording and playback systems rarely, if ever, achieve it.[2][3]

Almarg wrote,

""TL" is an obvious reference to a certain brand of very expensive cables, if that isn’t clear. "Cables with fantastic magnets" is an obvious reference to another brand of very expensive cables."

I’m hip. I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday.

almarg also wrote,

"Each of those cables is the subject of a very long-running and lengthy thread here, and in each of those threads the most prominent advocate of those cables is an individual who at times has been claimed by certain posters in the thread to be, um, insincere."

Your conclusion is a judgement call, I’d opine, as to whether someone is being over zealous, insincere or dishonest, or shilling for someone. But I actually don’t think one can discern the difference between enthusiasm and insincerity or even shilling on the Internet so easily any more than one can detect irony or sarcasm is certain posts.

Almarg also wrote,

"Or to use some of my words that you quoted, to be "attempting to disguise an interest in promoting a product." In other words, to NOT be a "genuine audiophile," with "genuine" meaning something along the lines of "sincere," as I said."

Actually, the more I think about it there is no prohibition against promoting a product on this audio forum. I mean other than a manufacturer promoting his own product out of the blue.

Cheers,

G. Kait, Machina Dynamica

almarg
6,490 posts
06-27-2016 8:34am
Geoff, the relevant part of his post was:
The problem is, there is too much misinformation/aka: b**s*** posted on this forum about TL and cables with fantastic magnets inside by posters who every man and his dog on here knows are NOT [emphasis added] genuine audiophiles.

One man’s misinformation or disinformation is another man’s information. It is one of the challenges of high end audio to figure out what is the truth in a minefield of misinformation and disinformation. I do not think any of us has a lock on what is bs and what is not bs on all topics, including the topic of exotic cables.

Cheers,

Geoff Kait