Isn't that akin to making "an a$$ out of you and me"??
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?
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What this thread needs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CpCB4YmAA4 |
Like pcrhk mentioned earlier, these forums are a means for us all to have the freedom of just calling things as we see them or hear them, like an umpire calling balls and strikes. We're just generally doing it in essay form. rather than true-false or positive-negative, and doing it with regards to a/v equipment, room acoustic treatments and source content and with price/ performance ratios baked in. An umpire improves his performance through knowledge and experience, an accurate knowledge of the strike zone and the experience of seeing many pitches, closely examining each pitch's qualities and worthiness, before rendering his decision based on the merits. Hmmm, grasshoppers, perhaps the essence of being an audiophile or videophile is very much like being an umpire? Of course, we're not all reliably objective umpires since we each have varying levels of knowledge of the audio and video strike zones as well as personal and subjective factors that influence our judgment decisions. Factors such as general audio/video performance characteristic preferences as well as preferences for specific component technology types and even brands tend to skew judgments from objective and toward subjective, much like a bribe tends to skew an umpire's judgments to be less objective. Experience is important for gaining a good understanding of the performance capabilities of currently available technology, equipment and source content. It also allows one to compare and contrast the performance levels of available a/v equipment, room acoustic treatments and source content based on their own merits. I continue to believe mahlman's premise on this thread is misguided, unnecessarily exclusionary, irrelevant and possesses absolutely zero intrinsic value. However, I also believe a thread premise, about what qualities an effective and competent audiophile or videophile should ideally possess, would constitute a reasonable, inclusive, relevant and valuable endeavor. Unfortunately, I consider myself as an a/v, HT and music enthusiast and lack the motivation, interest and time to do so. Just calling them like I see, hear or double-naught figure them. Tim |
Mahlman was making fun of Sokogear's elitist post w.r.t. whether you needed to have a turntable or R-R to be considered an audiophile, then went on to equate it to the difference between Porsche SUV drivers and Porsche sports car drivers (Porschefiles). Surprisingly or not surprisingly that was lost on many. |
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