Should people who can't solder, build or test their speakers be considered audiophiles?



  So, if you bought that Porsche but can only drive it and not fix it do you really understand and appreciate what it is? I say no. The guy who can get in there and make it better, faster or prettier with his own hands has a superior ability to understand the final result and can appreciate what he has from a knowledge base and not just a look at what I bought base. I mean sure you can appreciate that car when you drive it but if all you do is take it back to the dealership for maintenance and repairs you just like the shape with no real understanding of what makes it the mechanical marvel it is.
  I find that is true with the audio world too. There are those who spend a ton of money on things and then spend a lot of time seeking peer approval and assurance their purchase was the right one and that people are suitably impressed. Of course those who are most impressed are those who also do not design, build, test or experiment.

  I propose that an audiophile must have more than a superficial knowledge about what he listens to and must technically understand what he is listening to. He knows why things work and what his end goal is and often makes his own components to achieve this. He knows how to use design software to make speakers that you can't buy and analyze the room they are in and set up the amplification with digital crossovers and DSP. He can take a plain jane system and tweak it and balance it to best suit the room it is in. He can make it sound far better than the guy who constantly buys new components based on his superficial knowledge who does not understand why what he keeps buying in vain never quite gets there.

  A true audiophile can define his goal and with hands on ability achieve what a mere buyer of shiny parts never will. So out comes the Diana Krall music and the buyer says see how good my system is? The audiophile says I have taken a great voice and played it through a system where all was matched and tweaked or even purposely built and sits right down next to Diana as she sings. The buyer wants prestigious signature sound and the audiophile will work to achieve an end result that is faithful true to life audio as though you were in the room with Diana as she sings. The true audiophile wants true to life and not tonally pure according to someones artificial standard.

 So are you a buyer or an audiophile and what do you think should make a person an audiophile?
mahlman
I shill Synergistci research? When did this happen? I have bought their products, but I am not in the audio business any more than I spend lots of money in the industry for my personal listening pleasure. And if it’s not ok to talk about the products you own, and why you might or might not like them, then this whole forum is a waste of time. Mahlman, it seems you are just against things that are outside your budget range. There are products outside my budget also, but I would not turn down a chance to hear them, much less assume I would dislike them. Also seems that they’re probabaly are not many things you do like based on your additional comments about music recordings. M thinking you and kenjit should collaborate and create speakers and a proper recording studio. I would agree that B&w from the early 2000s were nothing special to me, but the 800d3s do sound very nice. I tend to buy much of my equipment on the used market and let someone else take the big depreciation hit, so I’m not paying full dollar. More value for the money that way, and I don’t have to spend hundreds of hours breaking it in. 
Just keep tapping the middle of your forehead. Something is bound to happen eventually.

geoffkait22,899 posts06-24-2020 3:39pm
>>>>Is there a Report Whiner button?