equipment evolving toward a mean, sounding more alike than different?
Take speakers out and this has been true for about 20 years but humans, being what we are, continue to make mountains out of molehills.
How Audiphiles are Different
So, I can’t spell Audiophile. Doh.
Again, moving this to a new thread to avoid polluting the OP that got me thinking about this.
A couple of events have intersected for me which made me realize just how very different audiophiles can be. Not just in their tastes but the very way in which the ear/brain mechanism is wired for them. This then profoundly affects their priorities in equipment and rooms. There is no one right way to be but those who argue purity of reproduction is the only reason to be an audiphile, well, I have news for you...
At a show many years ago the rooms varied a great deal in the amount of acoustic treatments. Some very expensive gear was in some really poor sounding rooms. From a couple of these rooms I overheard several participants talk about how great the demos were. I was a little surprised. I couldn’t hear anything. All I could hear was the ocean spray of the room.
After this somewhere I read about how exhausting meeting room and class rooms can be. Our brain is always listening through the room acoustics for words. This takes effort. In a reflective room we literally burn more calories just listening than we do in a dampened room. It makes it harder to study or listen, and we get tired more quickly. I’ve also thought about how musicians listen and how many of them don’t hear the recording or the room, they hear the musician's technique. Their brain’s entire symbol system and language is wired to feel technique and expression.
I have hypothesized these things:
And as a result:
All of this is just about ear / brain mechanisms. It’s also possible some of us have physical receptors or a combination of different ears/different brains which cause us to hear differently. I remember chatting with a rare lady who was an audiophile and she pointed out that for years she couldn’t listen to DAC’s. They gave her headaches. This was about the same time that DAC’s started getting good at Redbook playback.
What are your thoughts?
Well, certainly tube equipment seems to be moving in the direction of the mean IME. The tube equipment I owned in early 2000's was of the golden glow variety, extreme colorations. More recently various push pulls and SET's more alike than different, all going more toward a more neutral signature, far less significant colorations than I expected. |
MikeLavigne, your knowledge, commitment, efforts, passion is what I appreciate, You can have a budget without knowledge, passions and commitment to this hobby is useless.It takes times to learn this hobby , money alone can’t do it, Like Steve Job said on his death bed with all his money and succes he can make people do what he wants, but his money and success he can’t make anyone die for Him. |
@erik_squires - My intended point was only that we all experience sound differently, so it should be expected that audiophiles would all appreciate different systems/sounds and poor acoustics might be more critical for some than others. |
Mike. Thanks for your post. You come across as very much the essence of an audiophile. What is important is dedication and open mindedness… then approaching getting the best sound by whatever method (frequently massive effort with a small budget when young and with greater budget as is available later in life). The objective maximum sound quality and enjoyment of music. I am listening to an Afro Celt album… one that I enjoyed so much when I was working in Japan… on a state of the art portable system with headphones in the mid 1990’s. It completely wraps me up in the memory and emotional context of the time. Everything about the sound I am hearing is so mesmerizing… my system is so many times better than thirty years ago… what does this have to do with your question? Nothing. Just really enjoying listening to,my system. |