What is wrong with audiophiles?

@8th-note: " I would propose a simple rule for posters on this forum. If you have not auditioned a particular class of gear (i.e. power cables, cable elevators) or a particular piece of gear (amp, speakers, whatever) then you shouldn’t have an opinion on how they sound, whether or not they make a difference, or if they are worth the money."                                                                                                                                             Good luck, getting a cadre of OCD gum-flappers to observe any such, "simple rule"(ESPECIALLY, given the logic).

Ordinary people should be so blown away by your system I doubt they would say it sounded any different because you took off a cable elevator. Have them close their eyes next time instead of you talking it up first.

As a matter of fact what happens is they come in and "Oooh! Ahhh!" and sit down and I turn off the lights and they listen in the dark. Well there is a lava lamp. And LEDs. But basically dark.

So this is another great comment to ask once again What is wrong with audiophiles??? Because in this case its been made perfectly clear these things did in fact happen. Not just once either but repeatedly, so often I’ve lost count, and over a period of many years. So who in their right mind would have the arrogance to say, "I doubt they would..." Only someone who either cannot read, or who is calling me a liar.

What is wrong with audiophiles is generic. Now I have to ask, What is wrong with YOU, delkal?

Casual listeners used to iPods and AVRs don’t even know what to listen for. 95 % of the "ordinary people" have no idea what a soundstage or imaging is.

Right. So now the question is, "Do YOU?"

Soundstage and imaging are words. Words that audiophiles banter about because like every other specialized language the one word "soundstage" is a whole lot more efficient than "the believable illusion of sounds coming from all across the front of the room, with the sound of each instrument and singer appearing to come from its own unique location in the room, in width and depth, as if it really was there in real life."

A phenomenon that was there all along. So audiophiles know a few specialized words. Keep in mind however that specialized lingo is there to facilitate communication between the adept. Superior vocabulary does not make you superior.

For the record, nobody ever, not one person in 30 years of doing this, has ever needed to be told to listen for imaging, soundstaging, or any of that. What they all do, every single one of them, is prove beyond a shadow of a doubt they are in fact hearing it. They do this a million ways. They point. They get up and look around. They take pictures (a recent irritating habit, I am about ready to ban cell phones from my listening room). They get up and move around while the music is playing coming closer and closer moving side to side trying to figure out the boundaries of this illusion. One even got up and looked under the blanket covering the TV, so convinced he was there was a speaker hiding behind it.

So let there be no doubt, no doubt whatsoever that ordinary people and casual listeners hear imaging and soundstaging. They do. The arrogance of someone, to assume otherwise.

What is wrong with audiophiles!!!!!

auxinput has an answer! Well one of them anyway, for sure:

I think a lot of what has happened here with "audiophiles" is "perception bias". They get locked onto a perception of what something "should be" instead of the actuality of "what is". This means that whatever idea or product or brand has been suggested or documented somewhere (i.e. professional reviews, engineering measurements, etc.) becomes an influence to almost an obsession where the "audiophile" is no longer listening but responding to an idea. A lot of this is human nature and is difficult to change. The downside here is that some people get so obsessed that it becomes a religious crusade in which everyone else needs to be converted to their ideas. This is an unfortunate bi-product of what has happened on this forum.

Definitely a great big grain of truth here.

I get pushback all the time from audiophiles for saying to disregard all the reasons, just go and listen, because the reasons are almost always all BS. Normal people, never. Normal people all seem to know there are things we simply do not understand. Normal people are, er, perfectly normal in this. Not audiophiles. Audiophiles seem to want to believe the BS. Or maybe its not just that they want to drink the Kool-Aid. Maybe its also they like to feel superior, and pseudo-tech talk does that for them.

For sure I have been at audio club demos where guys who had just heard the round cones sound totally better than the pointy spike cones would nevertheless stand there pontificating on how necessary the pointy spikes are to "grounding" or "isolation" whatever. Yada yada. Like you didn’t just hear it. Then when another one says well maybe what you’re hearing isn’t more detail its hyped attack and treble they look at him like he’s from Mars. Which makes no sense if you’re a listener, but total sense if you’re an audiophile locked onto a perception of what "should be".

Good one!

I think some of us are missing the point of Miller's post.Non- audiophiles can easily hear changes made in our systems in a blind test.I don't "subject" my guests to the testing ,it's happened a few times by accident.In a recent instance I swapped in some new tubes in my pre while everyone was otherwise occupied outdoors.Later on my SIL requested another listen to the CD that we'd enjoyed earlier and all present immediately noticed the change.My SIL asked if it was a different 'live' recording.
That's not the placebo effect.

“I would propose a simple rule for posters on this forum. If you have not auditioned a particular class of gear (i.e. power cables, cable elevators) or a particular piece of gear (amp, speakers, whatever) then you shouldn't have an opinion on how they sound, whether or not they make a difference, or if they are worth the money.”

The OP has done quite the opposite, majority of his posts stems from his biased opinion instead of actual experience with the product or accessory under discussion. I question him other day on advocating a $500 power cord for a component costing just as much, to which he had no first hand experience...don’t think I got an answer back 😉
Some really good posts here by @tomcy6, @auxinput and @amg56. 

The OP has done quite the opposite, majority of his posts stems from his biased opinion instead of actual experience with the product or accessory under discussion.

TOTAL FAIL! 

So total in fact it has nothing to do with audiophiles at all. If there's one thing for sure we can say about the OP its that the responses of people vs audiophiles actually happened. Its reported fact, not opinion. So this one is pure reading comprehension fail. 

But even worse, "majority of his posts" another total fail, as no one here comes even close to me in saying over and over again to go and listen and figure it out for yourself. Its almost like whatever you write, this guy reads the opposite.

Please try and stick to the topic: What is wrong with audiophiles?