2. speakers
  3. 158017-123631

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
drcarrollmba
2 posts
 
I would have to ask: Can one be an audiophile without caring at all about the equipment?

I love music, first and foremost.  I love the community that it engenders, the primal power that it has to move human beings across time and space in a way that can’t be matched by other forms of art.

I have found that beautiful, artistic, meaningful music, played skillfully, sounds better on thoughtfully designed reproduction equipment.  So, To a point, I enjoy pursuing the kinds of knowledge and insight an audiophile cultivates.  
Only to a point though.  At some point, the quality of reproduction is not really the focus, there is not enough music that, if reproduced at absolute fidelity to the source, is actually worth hearing at that level of clarity.  The focus becomes the process of reproduction, and from where I stand (a guy who neither knows enough to be a truly informed shopper for $10,000 amplifiers, nor enough to work on one) are extremely dedicated to the technical aspects of being and “Audiophile”.  I wonder; though, whether they give a damn about music?
mikelavigne
2,199 posts
 
an audiophile is simply someone who cares about music sounding as good as possible. nothing more......no rules at all.

they don’t even need to own any gear, or maybe have just one test track, or only MP3 on their i-phone.

it’s the passion to care about the sound.

so no, they don’t need to care a whit about gear. or even only collecting gear and not really playing it......assuming they collect gear that is intended to sound good.

no rules. just passion related to the topic.

OTOH there are music lovers who are not audiophiles. there is considerable overlap but they are not equivalent.
mahlman OP
433 posts
 
" I would have to ask: Can one be an audiophile without caring at all about the equipment?

I love music, first and foremost. I love the community that it engenders, the primal power that it has to move human beings across time and space in a way that can’t be matched by other forms of art.

I have found that beautiful, artistic, meaningful music, played skillfully, sounds better on thoughtfully designed reproduction equipment. So, To a point, I enjoy pursuing the kinds of knowledge and insight an audiophile cultivates.
Only to a point though. At some point, the quality of reproduction is not really the focus, there is not enough music that, if reproduced at absolute fidelity to the source, is actually worth hearing at that level of clarity. The focus becomes the process of reproduction, and from where I stand (a guy who neither knows enough to be a truly informed shopper for $10,000 amplifiers, nor enough to work on one) are extremely dedicated to the technical aspects of being and “Audiophile”. I wonder; though, whether they give a damn about music? "


   I would say yes but then how do you feed the resultant desire to hear good fidelity music? It does require thoughtfully designed and assembled equipment.

   I think you can reach a point where you are satisfied with what you have and the tinkering stops and then the search never ends for well engineered recordings. For me the metric is how close can I get to a live performance where the acoustics are good or where I want to remember what it was like to be there, which often means not so perfect recordings but there is a sound I want.
   I really like the things you say and yes I believe there is a point in time where the technical aspects can over run the audio quality. Then you have achieved some sort of "tonally pure" electronic standard but have lost the life of it all. Really fine audio does not have to cost a lot but to do this you need to know more than the average guy or have some good advice.
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 

     I also consider myself primarily and foremost, an avid music lover.    As mahlman stated well, the reproduction gear is mainly just a means or conduit to reproduce music recordings with the highest fidelity possible. 
     My system goal has always been a system attaining a quality level that presents a wide, deep, holographic stereo sound stage illusion that is so palpable, tonally accurate, powerful, dynamic , detailed. realistic and natural that the musicians are perceived as being in your room or as if I've been transported to the venue and am listening to a live performance with a seat center stage and no more than about 15' back from the stage. 
     Once any overall system reaches a certain level of quality and fidelity, of course, the quality and fidelity levels of the music recordings played becomes extremely apparent, both positively and negatively,and one quickly realizes that this has become the new limiting factor on one's overall system reproduction performance quality.  As a result, the search for music shifts a bit, from music you like to music you like and it's also been been captured on the highest quality recording available. A bit of a wrinkle but well worth the effort.

Tim
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,708 posts
 
Well stated, mahlman & noble100 both....

Can we all go home now? 
I've got some soldering to do on some speakers I built...
More to discover