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?

128x128snilf

The issue is...once a typical audioboo snob goes up in price, he will never look at anything cheaper lest it beat his high price junk, somehow. So, you will never get a fair comparison, feel for what you get as you go up in price on a speaker in the same room with the same electronics. 

For example, there is the question of at what point is a speaker just getting carried by the electronics? A guy will put a 15k or 5k speaker on 10k, 5k, etc cheaper electronics, a 60k speaker on 40k electronics and so on. He will never give that 15k speaker or a 5k speaker the same chance (i.e put both the 60k speaker and the 15k speaker on the same 40k electronics). And then, he'll claim that the carried 60k speaker beat the 15k speaker or 5k speaker. When you level out the playing field, "interesting" results emerge.

It you are in the KC FB group, swing by for a demo/comparison of gear at drastically different price brackets (see what you get as you go up in price or not), some good ol' fashioned myth busting and acquisition of 'disruptive' knowledge.

@snilf 

You are absolutely an audiophile in my book. I’ve only been doing this for three years. I figure at my level of knowledge  I’m a junior audiophile at best and will probably stay that way as I just want to enjoy the music and not spend many years swapping out gear. 
 

Happy listening! 

I like your opinion and experience a lot ... Thats confirmed my more limited one with the gear ...

Thanks

An audiophile is someone who cares and learns about improving the fidelity of playback, no matter what the budget is...even if it’s a 100 bucks. If his budget is small, he hopefully learns trickle down concepts, knows who the max bang 4 buck designers are (the really smart ones) etc...and gets smarter about purchases than the guys with bottomless pockets. He will also figure out room acoustics hopefully! An audiophile is also a guy who has the humility to constantly learn things and doesn’t sit on a pedestal thinking he’s got it all figured out in life.