audiophiles or retrophiles


As I read the posts on Audiogon with their gushing about the warmth of tubes, vinyl, horns, older technology, it seems there is a reversion. New bad, old good. Solid state bad, tubes good. Digital bad, analog good.

I expect a return of the wind-up gramaphone with catus stylus. No electricity to sully the sound and a natural material used to read the grooves. Must be good!

How many audiophiles are actually retrophiles?

But then again, many refer to their audio systems as a hobby, rather than as a means to the end of listening to music. As such, the care of analog tape with its fragility (head alignment, avoiding print through), matching of output tubes, cleaning vinyl and worrying about tracking forces, and so forth are activities that a hobbiest might enjoy. So much more opportunity to demonstrate expertise than merely turing on solid state electronics and putting a CD in a drawer. So much more lore. So much more mystic.

db
donbellphd
Rf, no hardrive music storage or bagpipes here thanks. Care to go double or nothing all your music is of the foot tapping variety?
Stanhifi's response is a prime example of what I was trying to address. This does not help anyone. If he would care to offer a reasoned explanation of why digital and solid state are so obviously inferior that any of us with exposure should appreciate that inferiority, that would be helpful.

Stanhifi, there are so many transduction processes in recording, beginning with when the acoustic energy hits the diaphram of a mic and is converted into electrical energy through to when electrical energy is converted to acoustic energy by a speaker, it surprises me that you would choose to dwell on whether the electrial energy is passed through solid state or vacuum, whether a waveform recorded digitally is maintained as a digital representation or pressed into vinyl and read from vinyl (two more transductions). One would surely think the transduction processes would be the weak links.

db
If Rockvertigo means that my analog system sounds better than his bits and bytes makes me a retrophile, hang a sign on me as I'll proudly be the poster girl for the AARP-Vinyl Chapter.
Judy
Nice Scottish fling there Rockvirgo, but now I'm confused. Your comment did not appear as a rhetorical question but as a statement of conviction that you may personally subscribe to. So before Judy goes out and meets her photo op. leaning on her walker (Proscenium Gold Signature)preferably and I start packing an envelope full of the silver certificates I've had buried out in the yard in a coffee can, I think it's time for some s'plain'in Lucy. Where do you stand? Are you in or are you out?
Rf, for about 20 years I was your basic audio caveperson, strictly sharp stick on potter's wheel. Then about five years after CD's caught on, finally so did I. There's no turning back now. However, with CD giving way to DVD and both becoming redundant to menu driven programming, color this two channel only hardcopy coveter one of a dying breed and definately retro.

Judynamic426, byte me :^)