Where are the female Audiophiles?

In nature males compete for females. That's the "gene" that drives us and the one that women, to their advantage, lack.

It's not just the brains that are different; Many body parts differ radically from male to female - guys - in case you haven't yet noticed! ;^)

Pzuckerman was probably closest with his "dominion" comment. Men (usually) have a great deal more testosterone, which instills a drive to either "nail it, or kill it." In so many venues, for men it's all about facing challenges, going up against adversaries, dealing with the threat of imminent death, pushing the edges and limits, and finally breaking through these challenges in victory. (Think football.) In the process, men "empty" themselves through their efforts, and thus find the freedom - emptiness, stillness - that they crave. (Here, think of the culmination of another of our favorite activities, as an example.) Given a choice after these efforts, men would sit, stay still & quiet, witnessing whatever arises (hopefully a roast beef sandwich.)

Women, with estrogen, have a completely different mode. Women (usually) are not very interested in aggression, challenges, and breaking through to emptiness and freedom. They are drawn by communion with others (dear friends), relational activities (that phone call, gathering), fullness (chocolate!, shopping), motion and flow (dancing.) Women, in general, strive to fill themselves and stay in motion, rather than empty themselves as men do. The ultimate goal of woman is to be one with the world of form.

So how does this relate to audio?

Men address the challenge of setting up the "perfect" sound system. It is a fight, a struggle. You need to figure it all out, plan your moves, do your research. And when that perfect component comes up for auction, there's happiness when bidding on - and winning! - the piece. You've beaten everybody else. Even then, the penalty for failure is high; if you get a bad component or one not synchronistic with the rest of your system, you've failed! You lose!

But when it all comes together, when men have fought and clawed to create that perfect system, you can kick back and relax into the results, being drawn to another place, even disembodied sometimes, draining into the freedom of, well, "release" into the sound. You sit, motionless, silent, witnessing, listening, free...

Until you begin to think that maybe a new power cord would improve things slightly.

Your woman, in the meantime, will make the phone calls, go shopping with friends, eat chocolate, try to get your attention (!), or, if she's still in the room, she'll likely want to dance and move to the music rather than just sitting and listening.

Everyone's different, of course, and these are just sweeping generalities, but I've found them to be true. Understanding the inherent differences makes things a lot more tolerable... it reduces confusion.

Rob

Men collect fancy machines and that's including audio equipments....

Women collect shoes and your $$$ :) !!!!!

Often it's the setting that women dislike. There is nothing feminine about audio gear, showrooms (including Audiogon) or salespeople. Furthermore, women are tactile. If they can't touch something, it's less than friendly.

The women I know make lots money. They like to spend lots of money. And they like toys as much as men do. Car companies figured this out years ago and therefore changed the amenities and textures of their products; they changed their marketing; they changed the layout and decor of their showrooms, and they changed their sales approach to women as active buyers.

I think that women DO hear better and that is part of the difference. They immediately hear how sad our systems are, no matter how much we've spent on silly cables, monstrous speakers and glowing tubes. They hear the intermodulation distortion going on when our speakers fight each other. They're amazed that we put up with such grossly flawed systems and quite kindly just stay out of the whole thing.

Oh, the other thing is they don't want to screw up the decor. They would be horribly mortified to have the coffee group over and admit that they spoiled the decor themselves. The men have made them believe that you can't have good looks AND good sound, so they don't want to even begin a search.

Dave