Slate article on Audiophiles

still-one · Feb 22, 2015

MrAcoustat said:
Agree 100% if the music is not well recorded i will not listend to it,i did not invest in a quality system to listend to garbage, there is so much well recorded music WHY listend to garbage, #1 = well recorded music #2 = good looking gear.

I disagree. I would rather listen to crappy recordings of music I like than well recorded trite aka Audiophile music. In reality very little music sounds bad on a good system.

JackD201 · Feb 22, 2015

Whatmore said:
So why is it that wine buffs or art collectors don't get subjected to the ridicule that we do?

It's probably access. Access to the source of stimuli. Very few people will all have seen the same painting up close or tried a bottle from the same vintage. Not the case when it comes to a recording. This multiplies the differences in opinions by thousands because we all have different delivery devices and places. Even if we did, say poll 300 people playing the same song on Spotify over the same model phone and the stock buds I'm fairly certain that opinions on the same track's recorded quality will display significant variances.

Unlike wine and visual art, you don't need technological intermediaries with stiff requirements. A good pair of glasses would have counted as such 100 years ago for visual art and anything save a metal cup would be ok but perhaps not ideal for wine.

treitz3 · Feb 22, 2015

still-one said:
In reality very little music sounds bad on a good system.

Wow. A boombox perhaps but on a good system? Just wow. On an outstanding system? Unfathomable and nowhere close to reality.

Tom

still-one · Feb 22, 2015

treitz3 said:
Wow. A boombox perhaps but on a good system? Just wow. On an outstanding system? Unfathomable and nowhere close to reality.

Tom

Re-read what I wrote. If most music sounds bad on your system. Get a new one.

MrAcoustat · Feb 22, 2015

still-one said:
I disagree. I would rather listen to crappy recordings of music I like than well recorded trite aka Audiophile music. In reality very little music sounds bad on a good system.

Now it's my turn to disagree garbage in = garbage out.

treitz3 · Feb 22, 2015

still-one said:
Re-read what I wrote.

I did. Multiple times. Your last statement? That's what reared my head back.

?????

Tom

still-one · Feb 22, 2015

It is the performance not how well it is recorded. An example Timi Yuro Hurt:The Best of... is recorded like crap. Tape hiss. Often poorly mic'd and still better performance than anything by too many audiophile darling, Dina Krall

Al M. · Feb 22, 2015

MrAcoustat said:
Agree 100% if the music is not well recorded i will not listend to it,i did not invest in a quality system to listend to garbage, there is so much well recorded music WHY listend to garbage, #1 = well recorded music #2 = good looking gear.

I guess that makes me more of a music lover and less of an audiophile then. I like the best possible sound that I can afford for my music, but I choose my music for what it is, not for its sound quality. That is also why I listen to just CD, not to hi-res, since almost all of the music/performances that interest me are on CD only. I also happen to have zero CDs from Reference Recordings. I do listen mostly to classical and jazz, where good or excellent recordings are in the company of inferior ones, but unlike in pop/rock there are rarely ones sounding like garbage.

Al M. · Feb 22, 2015

still-one said:
I disagree. I would rather listen to crappy recordings of music I like than well recorded trite aka Audiophile music.

Couldn't agree more.

treitz3 · Feb 22, 2015

still-one said:
In reality very little music sounds bad on a good system.

treitz3 said:
Wow. A boombox perhaps but on a good system? Just wow. On an outstanding system? Unfathomable and nowhere close to reality.

Tom

Okay, gentlemen (and ladies, if you are reading this)......please allow me to clarify a bit. I didn't mean to start a war of words and the last thing I'd like to do is start an argument. As a moderator, that defeats the purpose of me being here.

On to the clarifying.....still-one had mentioned that, "In reality very little music sounds bad on a good system". Okay, maybe I was a little rushed in my response. I can think of a plethora of music that sounds really, really bad on a reference rig. Earlier Heart albums, dogleg and underground Bob Marley albums made in a rat shack on a mountain, the infamous Adele, earlier Mic Fleetwood albums and I could go on and on and on for 3 pages just on what does NOT sound good on "good" system. All of the aforementioned and a plethora of other picks sound absolutely horrid (to me) on a reference system.

With that said, if you enjoy it? More power to you and my hat is off to you.

Perhaps my level of listening to music is at different levels of criteria as yours. There is nothing at all wrong with that. Nothing at all IMO. I still enjoy the music, even if on a cell phone (at a reasonable level). Where my issue lays with your comment is where you say in reality very little music sounds bad on a good system. Before we start a dialog that should not ever happen, let's just sat that I can agree to disagree with you on that front and leave it at that.

Tom

Al M. · Feb 22, 2015

treitz3 said:
Okay, gentlemen (and ladies, if you are reading this)......please allow me to clarify a bit. I didn't mean to start a war of words and the last thing I'd like to do is start an argument. As a moderator, that defeats the purpose of me being here.

Well, Tom, you can always start an argument as a poster, and then moderate it as a moderator in green.

JackD201 · Feb 22, 2015

I don't know a single audiophile that isn't a music lover. Music is universal after all.

treitz3 · Feb 22, 2015

Al M. said:
Well, Tom, you can always start an argument as a poster, and then moderate it as a moderator in green.

No thank you, sir. The team and I are better than that.

Just wanted to clarify my thoughts is all...

Agreed Jack.

Tom

Whatmore · Feb 22, 2015

JackD201 said:
I don't know a single audiophile that isn't a music lover. Music is universal after all.

You need to get out more

JackD201 · Feb 22, 2015

Whatmore said:
You need to get out more

Hahahaha! If all I'll find if I do are hoarders with no love for the art for which their systems are merely tools for delivery, I'll pass!

Hey that might be a funny signature line

"I use tools, I try not to be one"

Al M. · Feb 22, 2015

Whatmore said:
You need to get out more

I think so too. However hard I try, I cannot shake off the impression that a good number of audiophiles started out as music lovers and ended up as -- well, audiophiles.

Al M. · Feb 22, 2015

treitz3 said:
No thank you, sir. The team and I are better than that.

Don't worry, I hadn't expected any less

JackD201 · Feb 22, 2015

So Al, what does "audiophile" mean to you? If it means someone more concerned with sound than the music, that is certainly not what it means to me.

To me an audiophile is a person that does the best he can to bring out the best he can out of his music collection. Something you clearly qualify as being.

KeithR · Feb 22, 2015

still-one said:
I disagree. I would rather listen to crappy recordings of music I like than well recorded trite aka Audiophile music. In reality very little music sounds bad on a good system.

+1

I tire of audiophile approved music collections. If all you're listening is to Burmester discs, you need to get out to Amoeba Records or a similar store.

Kal Rubinson · Feb 22, 2015

JackD201 said:
So Al, what does "audiophile" mean to you? If it means someone more concerned with sound than the music, that is certainly not what it means to me.

I disagree. An audiophile is someone who is concerned with (and loves) good sound but it does not mean that he cannot love music (or other things) more. There is, I hope, more than one side to our lives.

To me an audiophile is a person that does the best he can to bring out the best he can out of his music collection.

Yes but it is not the only thing that determines what is in his music collection.

EDIT: I failed to see the word "not" in the original post and, of course, that changes everything. Consider this one, redundant.

Slate article on Audiophiles

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