The Absurdity of it All

@cd318"

I very much enjoyed youir post. 

You mention both "passion" and "critical faculty" and it occurs to me that perhaps the defining hallmark of this hobby is a convergence of right and left brain activities. 

Arguments over whether the hobby is more about "music appreciation" or "gear appreciation" could be seen as an expression of the discomfort that can be generated by the tension by this convergence.  

We may prefer to veer to one side or the other, rather than hang out in the "no man's land" in between the polarities. And of course this has implications regarding your broader comments regarding society and culture wars.  

But, back to my main focus, audiophilia would appear to require a willingness and an ability to rapidly shift our primary focus from one lobe of the brain to another. 

There is also the very masculine, logical drive to pin things down-- know what's what--to organize and rank our experience (and by "masculine" I don't mean "male", necessarily). 

Contrast this with a more ferminine (again, not necessarily "female") 
impulse to approach experience from a more intuitive, global perspective that tends to be more focused upon what's arising in the moment and seeks to perceive what unites rather than differentiates, aspects of experience. 

I won't make generalizations about others, but I tend to operate more in the masculine mode when it comes to evaluating gear and more in the feminine mode when listening. I do realize this is not necessarily true for everyone!

Having said that, I'd venture to guess most of us tend to generally rely more upon one mode than the other. Consider the arguments that continue to erupt regarding whether cables sound different !  

How about this: 

Which aspects of this hobby are subjective?
Which are objective?

If we cannot even reach concensus on these questions, how can we hope to communicate? We end up, in effect, speaking two mutually indecipherable languages with the result being, as you suggest something like...

And you say "Well, what does this mean?" and he screams back "you're a cow-- give me some milk or else go home!"

I meant to say "Arguments over whether the hobby is more about "music appreciation" or "gear appreciation" could be seen as an expression of the discomfort that can be generated by the tension OF this convergence".  

...earlier comment that amused....

"I can still hear a pin drop!"

Well, yeah, me too....if it's taped to a brick.

The critical component of any system is us.

And, pointing out the obvious...we wear out with not a lot of optional 'back-ups' and 'non-spec' replacements....

Audiophile, EQ Thyself. ;)

If I was where I would be,
Then I would be where I am not.
Here I am where I must be,
Where I would, I can not. 

@stuartk

"But, back to my main focus, audiophilia would appear to require a willingness and an ability to rapidly shift our primary focus from one lobe of the brain to another."


Yes, this is perhaps the most unpleasant and challenging task faced by thinking adults in the world today.

How to bypass over self awareness?

I first noticed this phenomenon as a student when I became aware of the pitfalls of pursuing a path of academia - especially an arts based path, but maybe sciences too.

How was it, some of us wondered, that some untutored musicians could write such beautiful and timeless music (eg Lionel Bart) and yet some of most highly qualified professors of music couldn’t write anything interesting?

Ditto for writers and professors of literature as well.

That’s when the dreaded realisation that creation and analysis are entirely two different things!

Suddenly the self imposed prisons of academia became visible as you realised why people like Lennon and Dylan thought so little of critics. In fact it was Dylan who wrote the lines that me and my friends sometimes liked to quote to excuse our laziness.

"Your sister sees the future
Like your momma and yourself
She never learned to read or write
There’s no books upon her shelf"

Of course in real life Dylan was extremely well read, but we kind of saw his point.

Anyway I guess you could say the same for listening for pleasure and listening to monitor. As soon as you become conscious of listening it seems to detract from the enjoyment side.

Perhaps this is why so many hearken back to the days of childhood before they learned to analyse anything? Pink Floyd seem to have virtually made a career out of this phenomena. Perhaps it’s no wonder that so many artists prefer to leave this business (adult) side of things to managers so that they continue to play in their childlike creative state.

For us audiophiles this transition between the two modes of thinking sounds fairly simple when we write it down but unfortunately this journey can be virtually impossible on occasion.

I still remember the words of what one dealer wrote some 30 years ago as I was climbing on the lowest rungs of the Hi-Fi ladder.

He casually confessed that even he with his top of the range incredibly out of reach uber expensive (Linn/Naim) system had days when it just didn’t do anything for him.

That’s quite a daunting thing to read when someone is writing that about a system that costs 30 or 40 times more than yours.

A respected Hi-Fi dealer at that!