Am I right for this forum?
I’ve been an Audiogon member for some years now; I remember (fondly) "millercarbon," for example, which will mean something to some of you. And I’ve been a lover of audio equipment since high school—so, for over 50 years (I graduated in 1973). And yet...more and more, I find myself alienated from this forum, even though I do still read it regularly.
I do have what I consider a very "high-fidelity" system. I’ve written a very long account of my "audio journey," complete with many photos, but not "published" it on this site. I’m also a member of our local audio club, which includes several very well-heeled members who have systems costing more than most homes (one of them owns equipment valued at nearly a million dollars, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg: his system is housed in a separate structure purpose-built for it that cost well over a million). I play cello and guitar; my wife plays piano, my daughter piano and violin. We play those instruments in the same room occupied by my main audio system, and so I can attest to the "fidelity" of that system’s reproduction.
And yet...my system cost me less than $3,000 in total. I don’t lust after any particular "upgrade," even though I read reviews and all the many accounts of improvements in "SQ" documented in this forum.
So...am I an "audiophile," or not? Do I belong here, or not?
I’m listening right now to a wonderful bit of Mozart. I also love Tool. And Christy Moore. And Eva Cassidy. And so many others. I agree with Nietzsche: without music, life would be a mistake. But am I an audiophile? Do I belong on this forum?
Any sympathy here? Anyone else feel alienated from the "audiophile community" despite loving the miracle of audio technology?
@immatthew “Unfortunately, sound quality usually improves as the equipment improves, and as the equipment improves it unfortunately usually costs more…” +1 |
You cannot know how good will sound your gear (nevermind his price ) BEFORE it was rightfully embedded in the three working dimensions : electrical,mechanical and acoustical... Then repeating a useless common place fact which is trivial truth as the better we pay the better the design you miss the message and the lesson of acoustics learning and other basic knowledge because you put your attention on price tags .. We buy what our budget can afford... But we cannot know the acoustics potential of a system/room BEFORE we learn how to adress it ... Any piece of gear and more so a system in a room cannot give his potential optimal without adressing the basic... The system before and after is not comparable at all... I dont care about his price...All designs act the same at their worst if nobody reduce the vibration/resonance problem , and sound the worst in bad electrical environment and RFI and worst cannot reveal their truest quality in a bad acoustic environment ... price tags dont change basic knowledge ... What is really sad but true is that most people dont know that and dont want to know because it ask for studying, experimenting and a lot of time to do it right...It is more easier to buy and plug and called it high end 😊 ... The price tags will be the proof our system is good enough... But it is not so simplistic... Sorry... Dont take it personal please we only discuss...This is my experience not just an argument ... How a low cost system can sound so good and how some very costlier system sound so bad even if they could be way better than the low cost system? It is relative to the basic knowledge of the users ... This has nothing to do with a claim as preposterous as my low cost system may rival high end... It cannot ... But it can sound very good... And the high end may not sound so good because it is not installed to work at his peak potential ... The reason is knowledge applied or not in the triple embeddings , not price ...
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@immatthewj someone commented “cue Stuart Smalley”. The OP wrote that the comment stung a bit. I responded that he should ignore them. |
