Audiophile 101

Want to start a new topic category here. Not sure if this is the right name for the category, yet…

This category will address both honest questions about, and callous attempts to ridcule, our hobby. It will also help point out how audiophiles can and should stop both unconsciously or callously attempting to ridicule non-audiophiles.

For example: The Furutech DeMAG at gizmodo:

CES 2007: Furutech DeMag Demagnetizes Your Money Away

and

and Mike L’s room article over at Digg:

Now THAT’s a Music Room

So, far be it from me to try and defend Mike’s choices in setup for his room, I disagree with many of them, but there are some key points here that we need to address:

1. Rampant ignorance about the high-end and audiophiles in general

2. Open hostility towards us and our hobby

Before we start the posts that will try to explain to people why we do what we do, and how we ourselves can be better members of the music-loving community at large, it would be good to make a quick summary of what the basic issues are:

1. In this technical age we live in, people try to extrapolate from whatever knowledge they have, things they think they understand, to reach conclusions about something they don’t understand or haven’t experienced first hand. We call this ‘listening with the mind instead of the ears’.

The more we talk about the need, and provide opportunites, to hear, to Test Drive, good systems, the more people will understand what we are all about. Whether they become audiophiles or not, after they hear a decently setup system at least they will have some basis for their opinions.

2. People perceive audiophiles as being judgemental, especially about the type of equipment that lots of non-audiophiles own and are likely very proud of. This hurts their feelings and they, in turn, lash out at us and our hobby. Some of the most vindictive and hateful posts get the highest scores on the Digg thread.

We need a way to speak very plainly about the limitations of some of the equipment out there, but without unnecessarily offending the owners of this equipment who are the exact people we want to show that there is stuff a lot better out there, at about the same price – and that working together we can force the industry to make better stuff still.

3. Audiohpiles are perceived as off in their own world. It is not quite that they think us elitist, or wacko, or suckers – but that they think of it as Us and Them. Some of this has to do with the times we live in – but some of it has to do with the way the music, over the years, sometimes takes people and audiophiles in different directions.

Those audiophiles, (like me!) who like the kinds of music most people like: Pop, Rock & Roll, Rap, Techno, Alternative, Punk, can help bridge the gap here – make no mistake, almost every sngle person on the planet loves music, this shared love of music is something that has drawn the audiophile community into the mainstream in the past – and it would be good for the audiophile community to not look down on these types of music as much as it does.