Name a few albums which helped determine your musical tastes

@danvignau : " What I really wondered was how did this audiophile group all get influenced by rock music, and not jazz."

I started with rock and as I became more enmeshed in the audiophile world started listening to classical and a little jazz, but I quickly realized I was just doing it to fit in and sound sophisticated and didn't really like most of it. It's not that I don't respect it. It just bores me. As I matured I stopped worrying about fitting in or what people thought. You've got to listen to what you like or why bother wasting time listening at all.

There's a mistaken idea that classical or jazz show a system's capabilities. But there are a few problems with that idea. The main and overarching one is, if you don't listen to classical or jazz then what do you care about what it sounds like with them? Regardless, if I want to show off my system I'd play electronic music for the low end, Metallica's Sad But True for drums, extreme metal for its ability to handle congestion, James Taylor or Doobie Brothers Steamer Lane Breakdown for strings, and a variety of rock vocalists for vocals. Classical or jazz isn't necessary to enjoy the "audiophile" quality of your system.

I imagine there must be some audiophiles arguing that one has to listen to jazz or classical to enjoy one's system.  We're talking about audiophiles, after all.  Some audiophiles argue one has to use cable risers to enjoy one's system.  Some audiophiles argue one has to stack two quarters and a nickel on top of each speaker to unlock all the inner detail in one's system.  Any sentence that starts with "Some audiophiles argue..." is most likely true.  Let's face it: this is a hobby where one encounters a lot of fatheads.

All that said, a lot of audiophiles do enjoy non-rock music on their systems, and that's okay, too.  They (we) should try not to be fatheads about it, but it's okay.  Being open to the possibility of finding music we like in any genre is usually a good thing, too.  Try it out.  See if you like it.  If you don't, cool.  If you do, cool, you've just found a whole new nook of the musical world to explore and enjoy. 

I bounced off of jazz a couple of times over the years before I found my way into it via a few specific albums/artists that really clicked for me, and from there I've found more and more of it I enjoy.  Even in my 50s, I still give a listen now and then to something from genres I have not historically enjoyed, just to see.  (Using a streaming service makes this very easy and, essentially, free.  It's not like the old days, when I had to shell out my limited funds to take a chance on something I'd heard one track from on the radio, and then if I didn't like it, figure out what the heck to do with the piece of physical media I was stuck with.)

Nobody needs to harangue anybody for not liking any particular style of music.  Nobody needs to get their nose out of joint because people *do* like a particular style of music.

An audiophile should optimize his system for the music he enjoys, and then enjoy it, and let others do likewise.

Didn't anyone like Creedence Clearwater Revival ?
CCR?

ozzy

The question wasn't what we like.  It was what helped determine our musical tastes.  I like CCR, but it didn't introduce me to any genre, style, or sub-genre I hadn't heard before.  By the time I heard CCR, I'd already heard southern rock/swamp rock I liked, so it didn't help determine my tastes.

Sgt Pepper Beatles
Freak Out Zappa
Yer Album James Gang