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What is wrong with audiophiles?

Something that has happened countless times happened again last night. Ordinary people over for a party listening to some music easily hear things audiophiles argue endlessly don't even exist. Oh, its worse even than that- they not only easily hear but are stunned and amazed at what they hear. Its absolutely clearly obvious this is not anything they ever were expecting, not anything they can explain- and also is not anything they can deny. Because its so freaking obvious! Happens every time. Then I come on here and read one after another not only saying its impossible, but actually ridiculing people for the audacity of reporting on the existence of reality.

What is wrong with audiophiles?

Okay, concrete examples. Easy demos done last night. Cable Elevators, little ceramic insulators, raise cables off the floor. There's four holding each speaker cable up off the floor. Removed them one by one while playing music. Then replaced them. Music playing the whole time. First one came out, instant the cable goes on the floor the guy in the sweet spot says, "OH! WTF!?!?!"

Yeah. Just one. One by one, sound stage just collapses. Put em back, image depth returns.

Another one? Okay.

Element CTS cables have Active Shielding, another easy demo. Unplug, plug back in. Only takes a few seconds. Tuning bullets. Same thing. These are all very easy to demo while the music is playing without interruption. This kills like I don' know how many birds with one stone. Auditory memory? Zero. Change happens real time. Double blind? What could be more double blind than you don't know? Because nobody, not me, not the listener, not one single person in the room, knows exactly when to expect to hear a change- or what change to expect, or even if there would be any change to hear at all. Heck, even I have never sat there while someone did this so even I did not know it was possible to hear just one, or that the change would happen not when the Cable Elevator was removed but when the cable went down on the floor.

We're talking real experience here people. No armchair theorizing. What real people really hear in real time playing real music in a real room.

I could go on. People who get the point will get the point. People who ridicule- ALWAYS without ever bothering to try and hear for themselves!- will continue to hate and argue.

What is wrong with audiophiles?

Something almost all audiophiles insist on, its like Dogma 101, you absolutely always must play the same "revealing" track over and over again. Well, I never do this. Used to. Realized pretty quickly though just how boring it is. Ask yourself, which is easier to concentrate on- something new and interesting? Or something repetitive and boring? You know the answer. Its silly even to argue. Every single person in my experience hears just fine without boring them to tears playing the same thing over and over again. Only audiophiles subject themselves to such counterproductive tedium.

What is wrong with audiophiles????
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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

atdavidVendors unfortunately do do this, play with levels at trade shows. I caught a vendor of conditioner products doing this recently in Toronto. He thought I was just amazed at the difference ... Nope, I was measuring the levels.

>>>>Uh, were you wearing your propeller hat? Did you demand controlled blind testing? Did you accuse them of doing do do? 🤗
atdavid
736 posts
 
I said the levels were not matched in their demo samples and walked out. Software is not susceptible to expectation bias ... 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
They didn’t level match? Ewwww! 😛
glupson
7,842 posts
 
yuvalg9,

I have to agree with you on all those hoaxes regarding "high resolution".

Nothing sounds better than a song you like played on a middle wave radio with short wave coming close second, depending on reception quality. There is something to it. It moves.

Unfortunately, with decline of radio programming and barely existent middle wave in some parts of the world, DSD will have to suffice for now.

I am serious.
prof
3,474 posts
 
glupson,

Nothing sounds better than a song you like played on a middle wave radio with short wave coming close second, depending on reception quality. There is something to it. It moves.


There is a sense in which I agree.

Though I would add listening to music on FM radio to that mix.

First, for me and many, listening to the radio happens most often while driving, and driving/listening to music seems to be a perfect mix of activities - one seems to elevate the other.


Other reasons that I like hearing a song I love on the radio are:

1. There is an element of surprise, luck.   It's not like these days where anyone can play DJ and dial up whatever song she wants.  If the radio is your medium, you have to rely on whatever the station plays and when a song comes up that you like there is that added joy of fortuitousness "I love this song!"  *turns up radio.*

2.  The shared listening aspect.  There is first of all something more "live" about a song played on the radio insofar as it's a stream "happening out there" that you are just grabbing, which is happening "out there" external to your own ability to control it.   And that this stream is being accessed at the same time by some other portion of the public.  I don't need to see everyone else in their cars (or wherever) listening; simply the nature of the medium and the knowledge that it's a shared public experience gives radio listening a bit of "life energy/social weight" that just playing a CD, or dialing up your own playlist, doesn't quite have.

Not that everyone does or should feel the same, but that's how I experience listening to the radio.   (Which is a lot less fun these days given I care less and less for popular music).
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