I wonder why we don't have a lot of women in this hobby

[duxservit]

Recently had a young nurse tell me, while I tried to get working some electronic medical device on the fritz, in a most serious tone as if saying something deeply profound, "I have this pet peeve about equipment. It should just WORK."

 

Guys at least want to know how it works or at least feign knowing what works best. Women just want such things to perform as they should. Like magic, and I mean real simple magic.

 

Not to be overly scientific, but I'm aware of some researchers in social behavior analytics who are conjecturing that much of the behavior of males and females today go back to the "cave days". For example, in communications among a group of people sound-based cues have stronger impact versus visual cues.

 

Males tend to be problem-solvers ("go hunt food, don't come home until you get something") versus females have stronger social bond/ties skills ("live with other females and children -- often with no males, for days).

 

To to see the difference, just watch 3rd grade soccer matches in all-girls teams vs all-boys teams :-)

[sphinxsix]

[emoji4] So I'm right ,aren't I . Lol

Not exactly.

[lucretius]

Many, if not most, of my male friends have no interest in gear either (at least, audio gear - they do go after what they care about, which is sporting equipment, boats, motorcycles, clothing, wine cellars, tools etc etc). They buy Bose Wave Radios and wireless systems like Sonos for their homes, and they listen to music as much or more on their iStuff and Androids as they do on any stationary system.

 

OK, I get the iStuff and Androids, can't comment on Sonos equipment -- never seen any, but Bose Wave radios? Say it ain't so.

[realhifi]

OK, I get the iStuff and Androids, can't comment on Sonos equipment -- never seen any, but Bose Wave radios? Say it ain't so.

 

The Bose Wave Radios deserve the derision they seem to receive frequently but you can't lump the Sonos products into the same catogory as they're in. Heck I know guys using them into multi kilo buck systems with the latest Audio Research electronics (Ref series) and are using a Sonos Connect into a high quality dac to listen to Tidal, etc and it sounds superb.

 

Quite honestly I find it funny when I see someone pooh poohing something like Sonos and then see they're system is not what I would call remotely hi end.

[rrwwss52]

Bose Wave is fine for background music, but I'll second on the Sonos products being capable devices. I have two Connects, and I had one modified for i2S over HDMI. Sounds great in my main system. They are seeing less time now with Roon and Roon capable devices being installed.

[esimms86]

I heard that this was because you had it downsampled to 16/44.1 and she noticed.

 

 

Oh, I also heard that your attempt to move her to your main system almost caused a divorce.

 

Actually it's because I bought 3rd row center orchestra tickets for us to see Roseanne Cash live(playing the whole album in its entirety, no less) and the next day she wanted to hear the album through the Sonos.

 

It sounds WAY better through the NOS1a but to fully appreciate it she would have to be willing to sit in one room and give it her full attention for 45 minutes. Here's a basic truth: Most women (and men too, for that matter) don't want to be forced to sit in the sweet spot and solely listen to music for extended periods of time.

 

Trying to get my wife to navigate XX High End would more than likely lead to divorce ?

[esimms86]

OK, I should be serious in a most serious thread.

 

My wife makes the DAC's for esimms86's main system. Only in the evenings she listens to them as well, and during day time she's with her nose in analyzers.

 

Recently (about a year ago) she decided to become audiophilic and is since then telling me what is wrong with MY music.

No, it can't get worse.

 

Is she complaining about the recording/audio quality of the music being played or is she complaining about your taste in music? Are you enjoying listening ecstasy one moment and the next moment being asked(or told) to please play something else?

[PeterSt]

It sounds WAY better through the NOS1a but to fully appreciate it she would have to be willing to sit in one room and give it her full attention for 45 minutes. Here's a basic truth: Most women (and men too, for that matter) don't want to be forced to sit in the sweet spot and solely listen to music for extended periods of time.

 

This is why we have the music just in the living room, which is also the kitchen and especially the bar.

The upside of that is that it now is always casual listening and therefore all so much better to get annoyed (your attention will be drawn to annoyances while actually poring a drink etc.). This is a positive because you *must* improve or otherwise the speakers go out.

The downside is that music is always to be at some realistic levels, which is way loud. And the upside of that is that it better be good (we sustain 90dBSPL levels for 3-4 hours per evening).

 

This all doesn't prevail that the music (type) itself is difficult to share between two different persons (three actually if we include our son) and it is me behind that wheel (and I do take into account I am not alone in the room).

 

The best part of it all is that you obtain some new device, both standing behind the purchase, and when it doesn't sound right it is now *she* saying : Okay, this needs some burn in (very contrary to WTF).

Just imagine.

 

One thing I regard quite crucial in this :

Her being drawn in to the hobby only started when the reproduction started to be really really good. Say a grade better than what you are used to (you know I have a few things more on the shelf). It seems that women need reality and not fake. You could also ask how women read books and with that ask for a super honest answer. Be prepared for a strange discussion ...

[PeterSt]

Is she complaining about the recording/audio quality of the music being played or is she complaining about your taste in music? Are you enjoying listening ecstasy one moment and the next moment being asked(or told) to please play something else?

 

A similar response to my previous;

 

Of course there are some women about in this forum, so they could respond too. But this is my perception, and you almost said it yourself :

 

There is no woman that I can imagine who likes any Deep Purple etc. However, when you both are at this show and Deep Purple plays live, after that you can play all the albums of them, and the music is "good".

I personally don't see the difference and can only be distracted from shows which disappoint, but with women this seems to work differently.

 

Here too, realism is in order;

Somehow a woman needs a mapping of what is real and compares to that, *or* is able suddenly to make the translation. We men don't need that. We have an imagination (or maybe none at all) and it can live on its own.

 

Anyway down to the answer :

It is the type of music. And now the strange thing again : It quite frequently happens that I say, OK, your turn then. From that (to me) strange selections occur, and what I notice is that because these selections are random to the quality of the music, they are thus usually not the best at all, up to painful. But the woman suddenly does not notice and likes hurting ears better than fine cymbals etc.

I know, this is completely contrary to that other case : her being an audiophile now with really the qualities we dedicate to ourselves (ahum). At least the right vocabulary is used at the right time with the right phenomena.

 

Are you enjoying listening ecstasy one moment and the next moment being asked(or told) to please play something else?

 

No, this does not happen. And with the knowledge of your profession in mind : ecstasy can not be killed once there and it happens easily by just good quality of reproduction and the right "beat" for the moment to get it started. This goes deeper though, because I usually play tracks in ad-hoc fashion and I can easily feel what's to be next to remain in the mood. Often this is about era's too, just because that may have depicted a mood in the first place. For example, you can bet that when I played in-a-gadda-da-vida in full, that Get Ready comes after that. And when some time is left and no better ideas emerge, it will be Autobahn next up. This is just one idea for an evening and hundreds of these little rows exist. Cisco Kid (War) could easily be followed by Sympathy for the Devil (Stones). And you know what ? these rows of music are all just not of her time (with 6 years of age difference). It does not matter. And worse, it even does not matter for our son who precisely learnt by listening right through his game's music playing headphones how those ages went. Really. If you play a row of progressive rock, it is teaching how that era was. BUT, especially with progressive rock you need all the sensitivity of the best playback means or otherwise you hear nothing (in it).

 

I'll rigorously stop because otherwise I keep on talking forever.

Peter

[Don Hills]

... There is no woman that I can imagine who likes any Deep Purple etc. ...

 

Hmmmn. I woke up to my wife playing Deep Purple's "Burn" album this morning. Loud. A bit of a change from her usual fare. (Egyptian, Turkish, Indian.)

 

Edit: I confess to liking some of what she usually plays. For example, Anoushka Shankar (Norah Jones' half sister.)

[hornytoad]

Hmmmn. I woke up to my wife playing Deep Purple's "Burn" album this morning. Loud. A bit of a change from her usual fare. (Egyptian, Turkish, Indian.)

 

Edit: I confess to liking some of what she usually plays. For example, Anoushka Shankar (Norah Jones' half sister.)

 

My wife hates Deep Purple unless it's out at a pool party with plenty of Margaritas .

[Jud]

Not to be overly scientific, but I'm aware of some researchers in social behavior analytics who are conjecturing that much of the behavior of males and females today go back to the "cave days". For example, in communications among a group of people sound-based cues have stronger impact versus visual cues.

 

 

That sort of conjecture has tended to fall out of fashion these days, since it is indeed conjecture and not supported by scientific evidence as yet.

[Jud]

For example, you can bet that when I played in-a-gadda-da-vida in full, that Get Ready comes after that.

Peter

 

Sacrilege!

 

(One-hit wonders - though yes, I own that record too - versus the wonder of Eddie Kendricks' voice fronting the Temptations on a song written by one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Smokey Robinson.)

[maximum kahuna]

Deleted

[bluesman]

That sort of conjecture has tended to fall out of fashion these days, since it is indeed conjecture and not supported by scientific evidence as yet.

My wife says that no evidence can be gathered until we come out of the caves.

[anji12305]

Recently had a young nurse tell me, while I tried to get working some electronic medical device on the fritz, in a most serious tone as if saying something deeply profound, "I have this pet peeve about equipment. It should just WORK."

 

Guys at least want to know how it works or at least feign knowing what works best. Women just want such things to perform as they should. Like magic, and I mean real simple magic.

 

Now this isn't terribly profound either. Women just want to buy some stuff to listen to music, and if they spend a goodly amount it should very simply allow that at high quality. Nothing in this hobby is put together that way. Maybe it is because of the DIY history of home audio which was the only way to have it way back in the early 1950's. The industry has us put stuff together, figure out what works, and what works best. And for some reason us guys are okay with that or even like it. Women would just want to buy it and say there I have a good music listening thing going. Maybe Devialet or some similar thing would come close to just buy it, it works simply and works good.

 

Now I am not assuming this is really true for each and every woman, but generally so I think. Nor is it denigrating to them. If anything we guys are stupid to put up with this fragmented mess. It should have ceased to be necessary long before now. I fear the fragmentation is only increasing and not to our benefit.

 

As for the photo in the OP, I like attractive women in ads. And our hobby is mostly men. I too paused a second or two on that photo however. Something about it just didn't sit right. Were I a principal in that company I would have nixed that photo for my company.

I come from a background servicing medical equipment.

I would tell anyone working for me that they work for the nursing staff. The task presented to support departments, like Biomedical, that are seen as cost centers is to be popular with the nursing staff.

 

Occasionally you will be called on to repair equipment, too.

 

Dismissal of peeves like this would result in dismissal of staff.

 

Ever wonder why so many of us hate computer repairmen?

 

Overlay brutal hours, physical exhaustion, suffering and death.

 

Then go clean up your act.

 

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[esldude]

I come from a background servicing medical equipment.

I would tell anyone working for me that they work for the nursing staff. The task presented to support departments, like Biomedical, that are seen as cost centers is to be popular with the nursing staff.

 

Occasionally you will be called on to repair equipment, too.

 

Dismissal of peeves like this would result in dismissal of staff.

 

Ever wonder why so many of us hate computer repairmen?

 

Nope, never wondered about that, sounds like a personal problem to me.

 

 

Overlay brutal hours, physical exhaustion, suffering and death.

 

Then go clean up your act.

 

 

Clean your own act up. I was not employed as a repairman. I was the relative of a patient who happened to know a bit about it, and did get it working. I didn't dismiss the nursing staff, I was helping out for free. Nor was my comment meant to be a dismissal, rather an example of how perspectives differ.

[anji12305]

Nope, never wondered about that, sounds like a personal problem to me.

 

 

Clean your own act up. I was not employed as a repairman. I was the relative of a patient who happened to know a bit about it, and did get it working. I didn't dismiss the nursing staff, I was helping out for free. Nor was my comment meant to be a dismissal, rather an example of how perspectives differ.

I see. So when a stranger wanders into the broom factory on your shift, they're welcome to 'fix thing's and have a cookie?

 

Yet, you wonder why women don't come back for more of this?

Perhaps it isn't our hobby they find repulsive.

 

 

 

 

 

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[esldude]

I see. So when a stranger wanders into the broom factory on your shift, they're welcome to 'fix thing's and have a cookie?

 

Yet, you wonder why women don't come back for more of this?

Perhaps it isn't our hobby they find repulsive.

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my HP 10 G2 Tablet using Tapatalk

 

Got nothing to do with wandering in skippy. It was one of two machines on the floor one of which was non-fucntional already. It quit working, I had some knowledge of it and thought I could get it going. There was no downside or risk to trying to get it working. It would be an hour or more before a replacement was available. I did indeed get it working swapping modules from the other machine and following a factory troubleshooting protocol. It then functioned for the 90 minutes or so until the replacement machine arrived. And I was not dismissing the nurse. She was happy I managed to get it working for her. She was telling me as I swapped out the parts about her pet peeve. Again I wasn't dismissive, just noting the difference between being unhappy about a non-functioning piece of gear vs seeing if one could get it working. I would have to imagine a woman unhappy with faulty gear might be glad someone fixed it. She certainly indicated that was the case. It made her job easier for the next couple of hours.

[anji12305]

Got nothing to do with wandering in skippy. It was one of two machines on the floor one of which was non-fucntional already. It quit working, I had some knowledge of it and thought I could get it going. There was no downside or risk to trying to get it working. It would be an hour or more before a replacement was available. I did indeed get it working swapping modules from the other machine and following a factory troubleshooting protocol. It then functioned for the 90 minutes or so until the replacement machine arrived. And I was not dismissing the nurse. She was happy I managed to get it working for her. She was telling me as I swapped out the parts about her pet peeve. Again I wasn't dismissive, just noting the difference between being unhappy about a non-functioning piece of gear vs seeing if one could get it working. I would have to imagine a woman unhappy with faulty gear might be glad someone fixed it. She certainly indicated that was the case. It made her job easier for the next couple of hours.

How was the cookie?

I mean, there were cookies - right?

 

Neat little two-step you're employing.

 

You turn a thread about 'Where de wimmenz at?' into an illustration of why women avoid our hobby with a blanket

statement about an entire gender demonstrating common sense regarding devices in a workplace.

 

Of course people expect their tools to function.

 

Only a tool would insist otherwise.

 

 

 

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[esldude]

How was the cookie?

I mean, there were cookies - right?

 

Neat little two-step you're employing.

 

You turn a thread about 'Where de wimmenz at?' into an illustration of why women avoid our hobby with a blanket

statement about an entire gender demonstrating common sense regarding devices in a workplace.

 

Of course people expect their tools to function.

 

Only a tool would insist otherwise.

 

And only someone inexperienced would believe they will always function.

 

As for the rest, I said in my 1st response in this thread it may not represent all women, but might be an insight into how they view things differently in a generalized way. So are you upset because you are female?

[anji12305]

And only someone inexperienced would believe they will always function.

 

As for the rest, I said in my 1st response in this thread it may not represent all women, but might be an insight into how they view things differently in a generalized way. So are you upset because you are female?

Classic, you presume gender based on calling you out for misogyny and wooly generalisation.

 

Do you REALLY think that women are interested in our hobby

enough to read this stuff?

 

You continue to illustrate the basic reasons why they don't.

 

 

 

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[esldude]

Classic, you presume gender based on calling you out for misogyny and wooly generalisation.

 

Do you REALLY think that women are interested in our hobby

enough to read this stuff?

 

I only know of two who participate here regularly unless you are a third. So which is considered more contemptible by you to simply say the truth or to wonder why since I don't know the answer?

 

You continue to illustrate the basic reasons why they don't.

 

As for reasons they don't, I am happy if they do, and okay if they don't. It isn't like I post to keep them away or to increase their participation. If you are a woman, and find my posting off-putting, then I am sorry, but not bothered by it enough to alter my posts. Maybe some of your apparent anger can be assuaged some way so you can have a nice day.

[gmgraves]

That sort of conjecture has tended to fall out of fashion these days, since it is indeed conjecture and not supported by scientific evidence as yet.

 

Some human behavior is instinctual and comes from our earliest days. We evolved as hunter-gatherers and as far as we know (and what anthropologists say), in early human family/tribal groups, men did the hunting which meant fashioning tools with which to kill and prepare game, while the women gathered edible plant material. This, it seems to me, would set men on an evolutionary course of fashioning tools down through the ages, which might explain why all men seem to know (in the US, anyway) where the closest Harbor Freight store is located!

[duxservit]

That sort of conjecture has tended to fall out of fashion these days, since it is indeed conjecture and not supported by scientific evidence as yet.

 

Jud, that's exactly why they're doing research: to get data that allows the experiments to be repeatable and verifiable by other scientists :-)