Audiophiles on Audiogon.


During my time here, I have found some of you to be too opinionated - like your life depends upon what you think about audio gear. Holding on to one’s beliefs a bit too tightly is bad for the soul.

I was reading some content on the Ken Rockwell website, and then found an article entitled: "What is an audiophile?"

in the article, Ken says: Audiophiles are non-technical, non-musical kooks who imagine the darnedestly stupid things about audio equipment. Audiophiles are fun to watch; they’re just as confused at how audio equipment or music really works as primitive men like cargo cults are about airplanes.

 

Given my time on this forum and a few others, I have found his statements to be true. I mean, if you have an amplifier that costs say, $10,000, and you buy cables for $20,000, is that really going to improve the sound? (make the stereo image more accurate)

Or on the otherside, if you buy an amplifier for $1000 and then go buy the top of the line audioquest cables costing tens of thousands of dollars, then would the sound improve accordingly? After reading some of their literature, I cannot be sure they have an understanding of how electricrity works, much less the intricate details involving high-end audio systems.

And then we have power conditioning to consider. I have done extensive research online and it turns out that if your gear is really "high-end" it should already have a device inside that filters the incoming AC. Therefore, do you really need a power conditioner?

I learned about PS Audio products being spec-ed much higher than their measured performance. This is also true of the audio "power plants" that cost thousands of dollars. No really, tons of money to "regenerate" power with little to no sonic benefits.

Would love to hear what you guys think about these findings.

 

Oh, and high-end DACs?

This thing will outperform all your fancy gear.

jackhifiguy

I have another hobby in addition to audio, and am a member of another forum on which I participate in discourse regarding that hobby. One thing I appreciate about that forum is that new members who start trollish threads or engage in disruptive, toxic behavior are summarily banned.

I don’t actually consider myself to be an audiophile. I do however, consider the op to be an indecorous churl.

Good day, gents.

From what I see hear ,is this Rockwell person to be totally Ignorant of the Sonic bliss that music brinks to many 1,000s of Audiophiles world wide, with Audiophiles many times it takes some trial and error to get the acoustics and system synergies right to Taylor to their exact personal audio taste ,that is half the quest ,to get as close to the live musical event as possible.

to imply someone is going to spend 3x more for  their cables then equipment is just plain mindless. Most Audiophiles delegate a specific  amount  say 25% on speakers ,20% on cables the rest on a front end ,and electronics, depending too on budget.   These that scoff at Audiophiles need to get a life ,

It is like those who think car collectors is a waste of time when saying it’s  nothing more then just transportation to get from point A to B.  Just ignore these mindless rants!! 

This is his intro @audioman58 , you may be off bass with your sonic bliss comment.

I'm a music lover and former musician, broadcast and recording engineer. I was earning money in audio engineering and selling my own original music recordings long before I made money in photography. I thank God I'm not an audiophile; those weirdos hate music and only love playing with their stereo equipment.

My grandma was Henry Steinway's personal secretary from 1942-1973, and my parents are accomplished musical performers who met in a chorus. I've been designing my own recording equipment since the third grade, and been training and performing music since the fourth grade.