Rockwell: audiophile term "just like a pedophile"

OK, lots of good comments above from members, a certain amount of introspection is a good thing. And for the life of me, I cannot imagine spending hours and hours listening for differences in good power cords. But after drilling a little deeper into his site, I found the following statement:

As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof.

which is not only churlish and pathetic but totally, totally wrong. Making a copy for personal, non-commercial use is pretty much what the fair use concept is all about. According to the US Copyright Office:
[quote] Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.
1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

So if you are printing pages from his website for your own education/research or the education of others then that's fair use. Since the content is available for free on the web to anyone who wants to view it, making a copy so that you can see the content w/o having to boot up your computer and load the page is also fair use. Remember, I'm not a lawyer but I play one on TV ;-)

Anyway, in my personal, non-legal, opinion, the guy is a a$$hole. He publishes reviews of audio equipment and then rags on audiophiles. He says that you had to design and build your own to get good sound before the 1970s. He apparently never heard (or heard of) the great Saul Marantz-produced Models 7 and 8 pre-amps and amps of the 50s and 60s, the Dynaco ST-70 (1959) or the McIntosh amps of the 50s and 60s. He's got the longest "About" page I've ever seen. Correction, narcissistic a$$hole. Rant over. Spock out.

Mr,Rockwell makes assumptions based on his thoughts and beliefs as to an audiophile. Dr. Freud reborn ?
He also states that amps make no difference. Mr.Hirsch reborn ?
He also asks for donations.Mr.Barnum reborn ?
Mr Rockwells remarks are not new, It has often been stated ,here and in other forums that Audiophiles (what ever that word means) dont enjoy music. Can it be the opposite.Possibly that they enjoy music so much that they are willing to spend $$$ on components that will make music burst forth with all the emotion that it was intended bring.

What do pedophilia and audio have in common? Absolutely nothing! Pedophilia is a crime and should be. Audio is not related to pedophilia in any possible way except in Ken Rockwell's ridiculously stupid choice for an analogy.

My mother-in-law is a very musical person that couldn't care less about anything electronic. When I first setup my current speakers she was lost in a CD that I picked out for her even though the volume was well above anything she would normally listen to. She didn't care if it could have sounded better or not, she was just sucked into the music. Period. If this doesn't happen often to you (it doesn't to me) then it isn't all about the music. For some it is both, but that is a subset within audiophiles.

Viridian, my title is not out of context at all. I tried to make sure that I am not saying anything he isnt saying. That is why I said "audiophile term". This is accurate: he doesnt say audiophiles are like pedophiles, he is saying the term audiophile is based on the same notion of an unhealthy fascination. He is incorrect there, in an absolute say: "phile" derives from the greek filos which means friend. So I believe I have done my best to represent what he says.

Secondly, as a father of two little girls, I do take offense to a hypocrite who spends his days trying to discern fine differences in lenses but doesnt accept one can do that for audio. There is absolutely zero difference between his fascination with the performance of photo equipment and the interest that audiophiles take in the accurate reproduction of sound.

Thirdly, I am fed up with the self righteous notion that appreciating reproduction equipment is a lowly passtime, one that should be shunned. Audiophiles should hide their interest and pretend it is all in the goal of seeking better music. Bull. I very much enjoy music. I listen to it live, in my home, on the headphones etc. At the same time I also very much enjoy the engineering aspect of equipment. My main occupation is in finance and having something completely different like electrical engineering as a hobby is fun and stimulates regions of the brain that would otherwise remain idle.

I dont find anything wrong with that. I certainly sympathize with rockwell's (lowercase please) opinion of extreme behavior but he cant paint all audiophiles under that color. Having a drink doesnt make one an alcoholic.

In any event, I certainly agree with the member who said we shouldnt take any of this too seriously, especially not rockwell who clearly has some deep issues of his own.