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

 

Stop making stuff up. There are always kooks. I have never met an audiophile with cables costing far more than their equipment. I cannot discount there arent any, but I've never met them so I can safely say, they are few and far between.

If youre talking about thousands of dollars of cable for a system thats tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, then the cables are a rounding error. I like good magwheels too, they dont really do anything for how I drive, I buy them anyway. 

People get so hung up about others. Focus on yourself and enjoy the music. 

Hello, jackhifiguy,

Maybe this will help?

This is part of the training materials I put together for our staff of audio consultants years ago to make sure they understood why we are here.

 

The point here is that the more you know about the music and the equipment that brings that music to your living room, the more you'll appreciate all things connected to it.  We (audiophiles) have all had our moments, whether incremental or an event with the impact of a sledgehammer where we "got it" and something touched us emotionally, intellectually, or both.  

Sorry, there are no shortcuts here.  If you want to "get" inside the head of an audiophile it will take a considerable commitment to knowing a great deal about the music itself, it's history and those who make it possible to reproduce the energy and presence of musicians (some deceased) in your living room.  Yes, there's the many (MANY) hours of equipment auditions in your home, including items that may not readily pass the "logic" test of mainstream audio technology, or the price of admission reaches into the stratosphere.  You may just discover that your knowledge base was not quite as complete as you thought it was.

If you decide to get off a couple of exits before this level, feel free to do so.  Enjoy your music (and equipment) at any level you choose.  Just give us "audiophiles" permission to go about the business of loving our music, equipment and exploring the nearly infinite number of possibilities.

An Audiophile is someone that appreciates music, how it was recorded, the type of equipment that reproduces the recording. You are allowed to purchase inexpensive and price is no object gear. An audiophile enjoys a place they can share knowledge and opinions. The real bonus is when you go to a site like Audiogon and benefit from the knowledge of other Audiophiles that contribute to the forum with past experience and a passion for what will come next. With this in mind you identify the trolls and move on.