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The term "High End" needs to die. Long live Hi-Fidelity!

I think if we are going to keep this hobby accessible, and meaning anything we need to get rid of the expression "high end." In particular, lets get rid of the idea that money equals performance.


Lets get rid of the idea that there's an entry point to loving good sound.
erik_squires
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,833 posts
 
 Isolated boxes individually screaming. 
So it's Hollywood Squares, and Max Headroom, mixed in with the Brady Bunch opener, and that shampoo commercial where someone tells someone, who tells someone, and so on, all done through the mind of Stephen King on a bad day.

I like it.

All the best,
Nonoise

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,788 posts
 

Another term JGH used (as did I believe Dick Olsher, his protégé) was Perfectionist Audio. That term suggests the goal (the perfect reproduction of musical recordings, unachievable of course), regardless of the price it takes to get there.

HP and his TAS staff focused on and mostly reviewed only components that were considered to be advancing the State-Of-The-Art. ARC were actually not THAT expensive in the early and mid-70’s; it was Mark Levinson who, it seems to me, instigated the upward spiral in pricing, and the image of Audiophiles as the kind of people who want to own only the best of anything, including, of course, hi-fi gear.

I was at Sound Systems in Palo Alto in 1971, there to hear the entry-level speakers by the new speaker company Infinity, the Model 1001. I at one point in the time I was there that day heard another customer ask the owner of SS what car he owned. The owner’s chest puffed up, and he loudly proclaimed a Mercedes Benz 280 something (I think it was). He looked around the room, to make sure everyone was duly impressed. Sickening.

When hi-fi shops started calling themselves Audio Salons, I had had enough.

erik_squires OP
16,049 posts
 
Hi @teo_audio :

You bring up a number of general issues related to rhetoric and persuasion. Let me reply obliquely.


Yes, I'm a bit of a troll, but often I do so with purpose, and I think it's valuable. My purpose is, often, to make our choices explicit. To help us break free of the constraints of language and culture and make each direction a personal one done with open eyes.


I really can't convince anyone to use "high end" or "high fidelity." But I can expose all of us to the idea that these are different, and to be free of the peer pressure involved in our buying and listening habits.  Being your own iconoclast can be liberating as well as save you a lot of money in the pursuit of musical enjoyment.


Best,

E

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noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
teo_audio,

     Good post with some good points!

     The internet and forums has changed the way we interact with one another. Humans are by instinct social animals and we've been striving to interact and communicate with one another since Felix grunted at Oscar concerning the tidiness of the cave.
     It's now evolved to Erik asking other members of a niche internet virtual tribe based on common interest whether the use of the common grunt of "high end" is restricting the future size of our virtual tribe.  Relatively meaningless in the scope of human concerns?  Absolutely.  Will result in numerous responding posts advocating variants of agreement and disagreement within a limited range?  Typically, yes.  Much ado about nothing?  You bet. 
    While I do consider your "isolated boxes screaming" as an apt  description of some of this new human interaction on the internet, I  consider those interactions entertaining but more a waste of time than anything harmful.  However, I do have concern for some other niche internet virtual tribe internet sites based on politics that are accurately described  as 'echo chambers', with homogeneous viewpoints reinforced by repetition, a lack of opposing viewpoints and devoid of any constraints such as facts, reason and truthfulness.  I consider these human interactions also a waste of time but with the distinguishing characteristic of having more harmful consequences.
     I actually consider the terms 'audiophile' and 'high-end' as exclusionary, elitist and a bit snobby.  I prefer calling myself an audio/video enthusiast but admit I'm guilty of being a bit persnickety and using the terms high-end, hi-end, high quality and high performance while knowing that high fidelity is a perfectly good substitute, high faithfulness describes our shared goal fairly well. I agree that being less exclusionary, elitist, snobby, snooty and persnickety  is a good way to roll and encourage more meaningful human interaction.

Tim                                                
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