Do you agree with John Atkinson (and me)?


 

Point 1: In the recent thread entitled ’How much is too much to spend on a system?’, I contributed this comment: "The hi-fi shouldn’t be worth more than one’s music library." I said that half-jokingly, a wisecrack that I knew might be disagreed with.

Point 2: In the 1990’s I became a regular customer at the Tower Records Classical Music Annex store in Sherman Oaks, California. The store manager knew a LOT about Classical music, but also made no secret of his distain for audiophiles, whom he viewed as caring more about the sound quality of recordings than their musical quality.

Point 3: In the early days of The Absolute Sound magazine, the writers occasionally mocked audiophiles who had a serious high end system, but whose record collections merely consisted of a small number of "demo" discs. Those audiophiles collect records that make their systems sound good, rather than assemble a system that makes their records sound good.

 

I make the above points as a preamble to the following:

In the past few months I have fallen behind in my reading of the monthly issues of Stereophile that arrive in my mailbox. Yesterday I finally got around to reading the editorial in the January issue, written by John Atkinson (filling in for current editor Jim Austin, who is recuperating from surgery, I believe). The final two paragraphs of the editorial read as follows:

 

"Back in the day, I did an analysis of Stereophile reviewers’ systems. The common factor was that all the reviewers’ collections of LPs and CDs cost a lot more than their systems. The same is true of me, even in these days of streaming."

"Isn’t that the way it should be for all music-loving audiophiles?"

 

Well, is it?

 

bdp24

Purchasing and using physical media is a commitment by the user.  Streaming doesn't require that same level of emotional input.

As an analogy:  I go to a restaurant and order a steak. It looks great, smells wonderful and tastes like something from a dream.  Or maybe I go to a butcher and buy me a slab of meat.  I take it home, season it and then cook it until the smoke alarm goes off.  Once I sit down to eat, the truth is, it doesn't taste any better than the restaurant fare, but it's a more satisfying meal anyway.

You can choose from a menu or you can make a commitment.

That's just my opinion and if you're happy, I'm happy too!

Typical stereotype of audiophile is one who cares more about the equipment than music, and this proven by the value of their music collection vs equipment? Not saying this could be true in some cases, but what about the snobs I see proudly displaying their latest $1k or whatever rare box set or album, and then walls and walls of this proudly displayed behind them. Are these truly music lovers or are they simply like the collector of equipment who does likewise? Trying to generalize about this value differential simply doesn't likely apply to vast majority of audiophiles, at least audiophiles who got into this hobby/obsession to hear the music they love played with highest resolution/transparency.

I'll always do physical media as well as stream because I like having physical album cover art to look at and info to read, and all the extras, booklets, etc you get with deluxe box sets, be they digital or vinyl. Streaming is a good way for me to find music that I'd like to buy at some point. 

@bdp24-We should absolutely get together if you come to Austin, have a meal, do some listening, go out and hear a band or two. I don't travel as much as I used to, but a little advance notice would be good.

One further thought that is indirectly related to the topic:

I realized at some point that my systems (particularly the main system where I've spent the most time and effort, leaving money aside) allows my brain/ear/gut to take in the music without as much "processing" to "fill in the gaps." Musicians are often able to get the gist listening to a boom box because their brains are wired for music. For audiophiles, whether or not you have music training, I think it is a little more passive being in listening mode and requires some degree of attention. In that process, I've found that a good system doesn't require so much imagination--the performance can be appreciated without as much "work." I've never formally studied psychoacoustics, but I'm sure there is some "science" relating to this. 

@snilf You need better friends. 

Literally none of my most musical friends care at all about audio sound quality.