Personally I've been listening to music since I was a kid. My first hi-fi system was a transistor radio my parents gave me when I was six. Still makes me smile when I think of listening to Brown Eyed Girl, Red Rubber Ball on that tiny system. My mom used to sit alone at night in the dark and listen to Simon & Garfunkel albums on a Magnavox console system. My childhood friends and I used to sit on the curb and sing Jackson Browne, Eagles, Linda Ronstadt. My first car had a great sound system. My best friend still reminds me I used to make her sit in the backseat and help me balance things just right! We had Led Zeppelin, Supertramp (yep, bloody well right) blasting while driving. In college I bought my first system a Bang&Olufsen quad reciever with 4 B&O speakers. From there a friend at the Rocket Ranch introduced me to very high end Magnepan speakers (taller than me). I've been a planar person ever since. And a tube person for just about as long. Yes I used to be a rocket scientist, my degree is in Electrical Engineering, chose that major because I wanted to be able to build my own system. Did I mention I'm a woman. Yep that's right there are more than zero women who love hi-fi, and no I'm not the only one.
I cannot tell you how many dozens of times over the years I've had salesmen man-splain me all that hi-fi tech stuff. I also cannot tell you how many times I smiled and walked away. Being a woman engineer I am very used to the old attitudes, women don't know anything about hi-fi, cars, sports etc ad nauseum... And yes to enjoy this hobby you do have to endure all the cracks about "chasing skirts", women don't listen to high end stereo, my wife thinks I'm crazy and on an on.
Luckily times have changed and guys in their 40's and below don't carry around all those old tropes. Makes it easier to share your passion for this 1% hobby.
Whether people listen like those of us here, or through their tiny bluetooth speaker, the important thing is they are listening. Music is common ground for almost all humanity. Not the type of music or the cost of your system. Music soothes the vast majority of souls. So let the label game rest, worry not, kick back and enjoy your passion. Passion after all comes in a wide selection of choices.
Who has the Sickness, the Phile or the Non-phile?
So often I find myself resenting the fact that there are only so many hours to listen to HiFi and I think of those that don't hold this resentment.
I used to think anyone who wasn't obsessive simply lacked exposure, but even though I have introduced many, I have discovered no takers.
At audiophile club meeting it seems to me that the attendees are mostly gear-heads and posers; they say "Ooo & Ahhhh" to anything presented and you can see 1 or 2, maybe 3 in the seats nonchalantly looking over in the direction of the ooo-ers and Ahhh-ers; those few get it. And before anyone is defensive because they know, lashes out that I'm this or that....I don't care. These are obviously my opinions and I'm looking for the opinions of others On The Question At Hand and not whether or not I am a deluded self important snob.
So, if it is not a lack of exposure, is it a lack of ability?
Surely we are all different, short, tall, smart, obtuse, near sighted, far sighted. Are the ears and or the brains of an audiophile just wired differently than others? Can non audiophiles just not hear what we hear?
Was it childhood exposure that caused this difference in wiring? My father had Altec Voice of the Theater horns and the accompanying gear. Was that it, being exposed to HIFi during brain development? My daughter gets it and boy was she pissed when I sold my VPI TT. I never got along with my father, but was he responsible for my affliction by introducing me to superior sound as an infant?
And, who are the sick ones, the philes or the non-philes?
TD
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*S* @milo0812 ...+1...on a lot of levels, and POV....;) |
Lol one thing that really comes through is that I bet that the majority of audiophiles here can't agree on what they consider good music. I'm a female jazz singer listener and other styles of music are nice to listen to once in a bluemoon (no association intended) but not really my cup of tea. For instance bal-de-vis apparently exclusively listens to classical music and hit it on the head about his listening. Classical is nice but if that was all there was to it, a $100 speaker would do for me but certainly not for bal. If you think we are rare as audiophiles, when we brake down our taste in music we are even rarer. I was in a music store once looking at the jazz section when a woman approached me asking for a recommendation on what cd to buy for her new boyfriend because he was an audiophile and loved jazz. I told her that Diana Krall was the best jazz singer and she couldn't go wrong by any of her cds. She then said that it wasn't what he liked and went on to describe his taste as fusion jazz.... I didn't have a clue what to tell her and said I was sorry. All the cds in the section were very famous editions and I was sure her new boyfriend had all of them so I didn't say anything. We can still be audiophiles and not really relate to one another. |
I perfectly understand you... But you just touched a very sensible matter... A matter very difficult to explain and debate without vexing someone... Music is not like the color taste for the room paint... our taste of colors are generally more static and will not change much... Our interpretation of colors is also revelatory in some test...
But music express the consciousness history of humanity....The word "taste" here does not implicate the same meaning content as in car choices or colors... The way we can enter in this consciousness history imply an "education" a formal one or not... Then the main difference in music for me is not between genres and styles , mainly between classical music being it Josquin Des prez or Scriabin taste, nor Jazz being it New Orleans or Hard bop or free jazz etc , no more between Japan or India or Persia or Brazilian music or turkisch one.... Pygmies chant or Yoruba drummings... All this is not industrially fabricated music, but music created in a TRADITION , cultural and musical tradition... Fabricated music display different levels of "fabrication" because there is great musician even in fabricated music...I even appreciate some for few minutes... 😊 But generally i go away from any "fabricated music" , i will not gave exemple here, because it is too complicated and debatable because there is genius musician even in "fabricated music" and there is levels of " fabrication" ...My point is not about judging people ... My point is about the necessity to educate our spontaneous tastes in something: an experience in a journey that will reflect from humanity consciousness our own consciousness for ourself in our own personal history... Music is way more than a "thirst" that must be satisfied...Or a Hunger for beautiful sounds... it is a meditation even for those who dont meditate... We can meditate in silence or with music... We can observe and feel how music change our body physiology... And our mind set...How music open the door of consciousness more smoothly than "drugs" ... We can ask ourself why pigmies choral music so much moved us and why Bruckner symphonies has so much "cinematic" content, how Jazz can relax us so much because of his freedom invitation, why is chinese music so poetical near nature and why ragas are so meaningful for the soul ? Understanding that we begin to think that all mankind is one and only ONE...There is no more tastes here and no more rejection... Save that it is difficult at some point to enjoy for a long time more than a song catched in the radio of fabricated music even with a genius singer and musician behind... I dont put folk music and poetry in "fabricated" music for sure... I apologize if i irritate someone here, but at the end there is not much taste in music , only preferences in listening time duration ... Did i love much Scriabin than pygmies choral chants or the reverse ? Not at all.... These two different world come from the human soul directly...
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