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Should people with no turntable or reel to reel be considered audiophiles?

Just like those driving a Porsche SUV can join PCA (digital audio fans can join Audiogon) but are certainly not Porschephiles unless they also own a coupe (Panamera owners I guess gets a pass here).

Please respond with a yes or no and we'll tally a vote for the first 100 responses.

sokogear
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,816 posts
 

A more pertinent question (to me, anyway) is: are audiophiles music lovers first, or second? I don’t listen to my system, I listen to music through my system. Just a means to an end, not the end itself. That’s why I don’t call "it" a hobby. Musicians don’t call acquiring and using superior instruments a hobby. They are tools, just like a hi-fi system, a means of access to either the making of or listening to music.

An easy way to answer the above question is to compare the amount of money you have invested in each, your music library vs. your system. One reason most musicians don't have good systems is that the little disposable money they do have goes into the acquisition of more and/or better instruments. They will actually go without food if need be. No music, no life.

roberttdid
534 posts
 
Judging by the serious sound modifying love of "vinyl' I am not sure what they are into, but guessing most don't know what instruments truly sound like in a live space, and many have lost most of the frequency range anyway. If audiophile is the pursuit of accurate musical reproduction then most jabbering here are not audiophiles. Perhaps the reduced information of vinyl better suits them?
wsrrsw's avatar
wsrrsw
1,034 posts
 
sokogear writes “Vermonster - a reputable $500 TT playing a good pressing will provide deeper, warmer sound than any digital”

Piffle.

I say again (Know) both can be great or so so. A great Flak file into a DAC and into tubes or Ss and with your backs turned many would/could never tell that sound verses that found a high end vinyl rig. By high end I mean 10-30K or more verses 5K up.


sokogear OP
1,096 posts
 
Reduced information of vinyl???? Robertdid you must be kidding. Even oversampling can't deliver all the information of a continuous information flow from a cartridge that is not sampled. It is a scientific fact. You can try to get there, and maybe come close, but you can't get there.

An audiophile appreciates high quality sound and the never ending pursuit to improve it. I would say if you are not an audiophile, this forum is a waste of your time. Just about everyone's posts seem to be coming from audiophiles.

If you don't understand how vinyl is an important part of that, then just listen!
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
“Reduced information“ means different things to different people. For the electrical portion of the system Signal to Noise ratio and Dynamic Range are very good measures of “information.” Theoretically, digital should win hands down, you know, with stated SIGNAL TO NOISE ratio of at least 90dB and DYNAMIC RANGE at least 90dB. But things don’t always work out in the real world like they do theoretically.

Playback systems have inherent issues as I’ve oft pointed out that reduce the theoretical values of SNR and DR to where LP playback competes with CD playback, there are too many variables to say which is better in terms of “information” retrieval. It’s apples and watermelons usually . The industry further exacerbates this problem by overly compressing CDs and LPs. So, you can’t win. Other harder to define aspects of sound like sweetness, air, tone, transparency, etc. come into play as well, and can also be considered “information.”
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