Audiophiles: Dead or Dying?

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

The way I remember it is not all that different to today. I think music has been the soundtrack to many people's lives. This is also true for audiophiles but the distinction for me is that music could/can also be served as main course and not just the accompaniment. There is dedicated time spent listening to music whether alone or with like-minded friends. A great deal of time can be spent searching for new artists and excitedly sharing finds.There is/was a hobby interest in the gear and a passion for sound quality and music way beyond a sonic wallpaper or lubricating social events.

[tapatrick]

8 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

 

I would say if the commercially produced music is garbage quality I wouldn't listen to it on any system other than a car radio and only if I loved the music e.g. Rolling Stones. There are a number of tracks, using the Rolling Stones as an example, that I like to listen to on a high-end system. They are far from perfect but there is enough sound quality there that really good equipment can release. For me, the better the playback system the more it gets out of the road and if there is something great on the recording it will shine through in spades

Yes hopefully it's about the music first . I sometimes listen to some terrible (in terms of recording quality) punk music because I love the energy. Plus I was part of that era and went to the gigs when i was a student. Mayhem but thrilling! Music is much more that recording quality but when both go together the satisfaction is multiplied.

[tapatrick]

On 8/28/2020 at 6:08 AM, ricko01 said:

Audiophiles: Dead or Dying?

Social media killed the audiophile.

Agreed!  all those pops and clicks I'm hearing are boomers brains imploding under the pressure of technology and social media

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

10 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

Only with Revision 1.0 😁 Maslov Revised

 

 

Is that the GUTB clause?

[Albrecht]

13 hours ago, lucretius said:

 

Oh no, not Maslov!  The audiophile world certainly does not need any more pseudoscience.

Agreed, - the amount of pseudo-science generated by the anti-audiophile "preachers" on this site is INSANE...

[Albrecht]

15 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

Out of interest do you have figures on stereophile average system hi-fi price point? Earlier in the thread I posted what Audiophile Style members spend. At that time, two years ago, it was still Computer Audiophile so I suspect that the results were skewed downwards and not upwards. Nonetheless, the results show that 50% of members spend upwards of $20,000.

You have to go by retail cost. in the late 2000s, - average system was 20K. Might not be such a great figure, as both really expensive, and really cheap system skew the results.

 

Certainly prices have gone up as more manufacturers go out of business, and reduce their trickle down too. Costs go up when the parts that encompass the components become unavailable. Exceptions of course, - as items like FPGA chips in digital are "cheaper" in comparison to NOS 1962 tubes.

[kumakuma]

7 minutes ago, Albrecht said:

Agreed, - the amount of pseudo-science generated by the anti-audiophile "preachers" on this site is INSANE...

 

I agree.

 

Pseudo-science should only be used by those selling high-end equipment to audiophiles.

[Albrecht]

1 minute ago, kumakuma said:

 

I agree.

 

Pseudo-science should only be used by those selling high-end equipment to audiophiles.

Naw....

 

That market is already cornered by the measurers

[kumakuma]

6 minutes ago, Albrecht said:

Naw....

 

That market is already cornered by the measurers

 

Really? The marketing materials of high-end audio manufacturers seems to be a measurement-free zone, in my experience...

[Albrecht]

2 minutes ago, kumakuma said:

 

Really? The marketing materials of high-end audio manufacturers seems to be a measurement-free zone, in my experience...

Whatever... Marketing is not scientific investigation/evaluation. What kind of measurements are in Lexus marketing hyperbole...? The marketing and "selling" by the "skeptics" who "straw-man" the equipment are the REAL problem. 

 

[kumakuma]

1 hour ago, Albrecht said:

The marketing and "selling" by the "skeptics" who "straw-man" the equipment are the REAL problem. 

 

Maybe for you. My self-esteem isn't as fragile as yours appears to be. 👺

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, kumakuma said:

 

Maybe for you. My self-esteem isn't as fragile as yours appears to be. 👺

 

 Perhaps it's higher than it has a right to be though ?  😋

[Albrecht]

2 hours ago, kumakuma said:

 

Maybe for you. My self-esteem isn't as fragile as yours appears to be. 👺

 

Not about me, but I see that isn't stopping you ....

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

5 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Is that the GUTB clause?

 

Hopefully people will find humor at many levels and maybe different reasons 🤷‍♂️

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

4 hours ago, Albrecht said:

You have to go by retail cost. in the late 2000s, - average system was 20K. Might not be such a great figure, as both really expensive, and really cheap system skew the results.

 

Certainly prices have gone up as more manufacturers go out of business, and reduce their trickle down too. Costs go up when the parts that encompass the components become unavailable. Exceptions of course, - as items like FPGA chips in digital are "cheaper" in comparison to NOS 1962 tubes.

 

The figures I quoted for CA (prior to AS) were retail figures and I suspect would be skewed downwards

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

4 hours ago, Albrecht said:

Agreed, - the amount of pseudo-science generated by the anti-audiophile "preachers" on this site is INSANE...

 

 

4 hours ago, kumakuma said:

Pseudo-science should only be used by those selling high-end equipment to audiophiles.

 

The way I see it, pseudoscience and rationalisations abound on both sides of the fence. It would appear both these things increase in proportion to agenda being pushed or as a way to justify decisions. This site is a self-proclaimed audiophile site so it makes little sense to me when people start using the term audiophile in the pejorative.One of the reasons I like this site is that it fosters tolerance and acceptance of different approaches.

[tapatrick]

4 minutes ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

The way I see it, pseudoscience and rationalisations abound on both sides of the fence. It would appear both these things increase in proportion to agenda being pushed or as a way to justify decisions. This site is a self-proclaimed audiophile site so it makes little sense to me when people start using the term audiophile in the pejorative.One of the reasons I like this site is that it fosters tolerance and acceptance of different approaches.

I enjoy reading your posts as they are always refreshing. Real intelligence unites (or tries to) as there are enough smarts around being used in the service of division.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

2 minutes ago, tapatrick said:

I enjoy reading your posts as they are always refreshing. Real intelligence unites (or tries to) as there are enough smarts around being used in the service of division.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I have however been guilty of divisive comments. We all get a bit passionate sometimes and it's never nice when someone wants to poo on your belief system. The thing is we choose to be here, it's not like so many other things we have no control over.

Why choose to be in a battleground. If someone chooses a Rasberry Pi over a Taiko extreme, or vice versa, who the hell should thumb their noses at the other?

[tapatrick]

17 minutes ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

Thanks for the kind words. I have however been guilty of divisive comments. We all get a bit passionate sometimes and it's never nice when someone wants to poo on your belief system. The thing is we choose to be here, it's not like so many other things we have no control over.

Why choose to be in a battleground. If someone chooses a Rasberry Pi over a Taiko extreme, or vice versa, who the hell should thumb their noses at the other?

Exactly - It is indeed a mystery to me why certain battles go on and get repeated endlessly in some of the threads here. Without each other there would be no discussion. Death of the audiophile? is it not in the abstraction of the other through desperation to further ones own agenda? 

[lucretius]

8 hours ago, Albrecht said:

Agreed, - the amount of pseudo-science generated by the anti-audiophile "preachers" on this site is INSANE...

Don't let all that energy go to waste. 😀

[John Dyson]

8 hours ago, tapatrick said:

Exactly - It is indeed a mystery to me why certain battles go on and get repeated endlessly in some of the threads here. Without each other there would be no discussion. Death of the audiophile? is it not in the abstraction of the other through desperation to further ones own agenda? 

I do believe that being an audiophile alone has little to do with wanting to talk about some of the audiophile subjects.  However, being an audiophile and interest in talking about it does enable some of the competency to discuss certain things.   The big problem is the good old syndrome that says that people sometimes don't understand the limits of their knowledge -- that is when there are sometimes arguments that are impossible to resolve.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

8 minutes ago, John Dyson said:

I do believe that being an audiophile alone has little to do with wanting to talk about some of the audiophile subjects.  However, being an audiophile and interest in talking about it does enable some of the competency to discuss certain things.   The big problem is the good old syndrome that says that people sometimes don't understand the limits of their knowledge -- that is when there are sometimes arguments that are impossible to resolve.

 

The problem with that syndrome is that it always applies to somebody else😁

[tapatrick]

33 minutes ago, John Dyson said:

I do believe that being an audiophile alone has little to do with wanting to talk about some of the audiophile subjects.  However, being an audiophile and interest in talking about it does enable some of the competency to discuss certain things.   The big problem is the good old syndrome that says that people sometimes don't understand the limits of their knowledge -- that is when there are sometimes arguments that are impossible to resolve.

 

22 minutes ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

The problem with that syndrome is that it always applies to somebody else😁

...in that case they would be audioheels

 

[Confused]

I guess this is all about numbers.  In my very earliest memories, many middle class families would aim to have some kind of music replay system in the home, this might be separates, a music centre, or before that the beloved Radiogram.

 

Today, this might be an Amazon Echo, some kind of mini / midi system or whatever.  In my experience, there were some big department stores of my childhood that sold hifi separates, that today sell sound bars, smart speakers, Bluetooth speakers and similar.

 

It is hard to judge how much this is a move away from audiophilia as such, many of the people buying hifi separates in the 1970's were not audiophiles, just middle class home owners who felt that they needed a respectable audio system for the home, and bought separates because it was commonly considered these were superior to a music centre or similar.

 

But maybe all this could interpreted as a move away from true audiophile systems towards more basic mass produced audio systems?

 

If so, maybe during my living memory there is perhaps a move away from audiophilia, but at the same time the world population has more than doubled.  So if the drift away from audiophilia is say 40%, the absolute total number of audiophiles is presumably actually increasing.

 

Just some idle thoughts from myself.  I think that the people with a better understanding of the facts would be audio manufacturers and the dealers. 

 

Has anyone got any actual facts?  There must be some hard data out there?

[John Dyson]

5 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

The problem with that syndrome is that it always applies to somebody else😁

Interesting fact is that there is some implication in the syndrome that those who really know what they are talking about sometimes UNDERESTIMATE their knowledge.   Geesh, I cannot remember the name of that syndrome...   I guess I don't know :-).

 

John