Munich show report by a guy who doesn't get it

[Keith_W]

Where the richest music nerds to go play - the High End Show, from The Verge.

Take an average tech reporter. Send him to the Munich High End show. He is amazed that audiophiles spend so much money on turntables, cables, speakers, etc. He laments that his iPod touch is not taken seriously. At least one dealer recognizes him for the waste of time that he is and turns him away. At the end of the report, he turns his nose up on audiophiles and declares that progress means that records are now produced on laptops instead of recording studios, and that younger listeners are more attracted to compressed music.

 

[NorthStar]

You don't have to go to the Munich High End show to see people who don't get it. :b

 

[opus111]

Me for one While I found the writing style excessively floral it was refreshing to hear an outsider viewpoint on the industry. And best of all for me are the comments underneath, lamenting the lack of a 'middle road' between the Charybdis and Scylla of extremely dumbed-down reviews on one side and snake-oil/pixie dust on the other.

 

[Keith_W]

There is a middle road of affordable electronics with good performance - NAD, Cambridge Audio, and Arcam is what I usually recommend to people who are starting off.

 

[NorthStar]

...Rotel, Oppo, Onkyo/Integra, Denon/Marantz, ...

 

[cjfrbw]

I enjoyed the article. The author certainly makes some mordantly appropriate points. However, the article is definitely the product of not just an uncultivated ear, but an ear already attuned and despoiled by saturation with certain forms of mass culture sonic reproduction.

Many young people think that multi tasking and juggling snatches of information/ sound bites means they are "smart" rather than addicted to shallow hyper activity. Many are missing deep, flowing pools of information and significance, while handing to themselves, and they don't even sense the amputation.

The writer of this article does not want to believe that anything that is not computer generated and heard through earphones can be better, a form of contempt prior to investigation in an amped up, push button, remote control world. However, maybe he really just can't tell the difference.

I think that Michael Fremer has taken on a few of these types of younger observers and tried to educate them by steeping them in his stereo system, but I don't know if he has ever stated what his "conversion" rate is.

Of course, there are just those who will never "get" it and won't invest the time and effort it takes to "become" an audiophile.

There was some kind of MythBusters show in which they tried to fool a guy with a trained palate with variations of cheap, filtered vodka compared to an expensive, hi end type. The "amateurs" made many mistakes and couldn't tell, but the "expert" palate, who tasted as part of his livelihood, was able to easily distinguish all the variations correctly. Any sense can be attuned with attention and experience, audiophiles are just the ones who have done it to themselves because they get a lot of pleasure from sound and music.

 

[Groucho]

At the end of the report, he turns his nose up on audiophiles and declares that progress means that records are now produced on laptops instead of recording studios, and that younger listeners are more attracted to compressed music.

He doesn't. He merely makes an observation that that records are produced on laptops and that research shows that young people now prefer the sound of compressed audio. He then expresses a wish to better understand and experience what makes true audiophiles tick, fully aware that he has been brought up in a different age. To my reading of it, he may turn out to hold the opposite attitude to the one attributed to him by the OP.

What would it be like, I wondered, to be one of these graying stereophiles, who have had their entire universe flipped on its head? To see your obsession democratized and diluted — fabled recording studios replaced by laptops, behemoth vinyl hi-fis unseated by a tiny white box and earbuds?

If I was going to step into those well-worn shoes I needed to let go of my millennial notions and let another age wash over me in full force. I didn’t have time to seek out the usual transformative reefer, radical politics, and Doors LPs I usually rely on for metaphysical time travel that night in Munich, but I had to find some way to appreciate this all-but-forgotten world before my plane headed back across the pond.

I demur from one caption in the article:

Audioquest asks the age-old question, would you rather send 600 mosquito nets to a Malaria-stricken village or have one very good XLR cable?

There is no evidence that expensive cables are "good" in comparison to cheap cables, so the writer should not have implied it.

 

[MylesBAstor]

I enjoyed the article. The author certainly makes some mordantly appropriate points. However, the article is definitely the product of not just an uncultivated ear, but an ear already attuned and despoiled by saturation with certain forms of mass culture sonic reproduction.

Many young people think that multi tasking and juggling snatches of information/ sound bites means they are "smart" rather than addicted to shallow hyper activity. Many are missing deep, flowing pools of information and significance, while handing to themselves, and they don't even sense the amputation.

The writer of this article does not want to believe that anything that is not computer generated and heard through earphones can be better, a form of contempt prior to investigation in an amped up, push button, remote control world. However, maybe he really just can't tell the difference.

I think that Michael Fremer has taken on a few of these types of younger observers and tried to educate them by steeping them in his stereo system, but I don't know if he has ever stated what his "conversion" rate is.

Of course, there are just those who will never "get" it and won't invest the time and effort it takes to "become" an audiophile.

There was some kind of MythBusters show in which they tried to fool a guy with a trained palate with variations of cheap, filtered vodka compared to an expensive, hi end type. The "amateurs" made many mistakes and couldn't tell, but the "expert" palate, who tasted as part of his livelihood, was able to easily distinguish all the variations correctly. Any sense can be attuned with attention and experience, audiophiles are just the ones who have done it to themselves because they get a lot of pleasure from sound and music.

Closed minded, know-it-all, smart ass who was trying to sell copy to his editor. If you don't understand something, just **** on it.

 

[Groucho]

Closed minded, know-it-all, smart ass who was trying to sell copy to his editor. If you don't understand something, just **** on it.

Could you give examples of this from within the piece?

 

[Whatmore]

What a bunch of snobs we audiophools are !

 

[DonH50]

opus111 was talking about reviews, I believe, not components.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Could you give examples of this from within the piece?

Why? Carl said it best.

 

[opus111]

Could you give examples of this from within the piece?

+1.

@Myles : because both Groucho and I missed what you saw, so please point it out.

@DonH : well spotted

 

[Groucho]

Why? Carl said it best.

I don't think the writer is saying what is being attributed to him. Offence seems to be being caused because he questions the worth of super-expensive vanity products, like huge speakers running off 10W ("a bit muddy" - I believe him), or a ridiculously-massive amplifier being demonstrated through tiny speakers. It seems quite reasonable to question those things, to me also. Same goes for the dismissal of obvious snake oil products.

He asks a fair question in what must it be like to be an old 1970s audio enthusiast who has had his status taken away from him through the ubiquity of cheap digital technology and the world's apparent indifference to the advantages of large amplifiers and speakers over earbuds.

 

[jazdoc]

I also enjoyed the article. If you don't think it's a bit silly that a bunch of middle aged guys with discretionary income spend time arguing online about expensive cables and record clamps...Oh wait a minute, I just described myself

 

[bretdago]

I thought the article painted a fairly accurate picture of how the "audio industry" is seen through the eyes of a different generation as well as a, for lack of a better word, practical perspective. Understanding there is a level of education necessary in any product produced to its extreme iteration, I agree the pricing is just dizzying sometimes, but reflective of a different world and world economy for the most part, albeit still peppered with the occasional snake oil mark-up. I am consistently troubled when a "new comer" is dismissed. Maybe I'm crazy but historically I have gone out of my way to help get rid of the elitist attitude toward the inquisitive and casual observer. Perhaps there was a translation issue with the salesmen or maybe just another rude Hi-fi sales veteran? Our industry cannot exist in a vacuum. Outside observers are puzzled by the allure around this hobby and fundamentally I believe, for the most part, they all enjoy music. So where is the disconnect? Somehow we collectively have to demonstrate from the iPod to the no holds barred reference system a clear lineage and path that makes sense from a practical prospective. There are so many great ways to put together an audio experience at every budget level. It is really difficult to cut through the mass market hype these people have been exposed to since birth, but a little extra time with a compelling, enthusiastic explanation goes a long way. If one of every ten customers turned away by elitism was to “catch the bug” we would have an extremely safe and sales rich future. It isn’t all about price, those same folks might have a $700.00 pitching wedge or putter, or perhaps an extremely good fishing reel, maybe even a $1,500.00 vacuum cleaner… you all get the point, as we are not the only industry to have a High end spectrum, but instead of aspiring to own the latest creations by Wilson Audio or BSC (shameless plug) they walk away irritated and bewildered. In my experience the practical masses are typically interested to some degree. Invite them over, pour some Pappy Van Winkle (bourbon), play them a tune, walk them through the audio chain, pour some more bourbon, play music until they “get it”, then play some more. And if you are doing it right, they will “get it” and more importantly, talk about it…

 

[bretdago]

I don't think the writer is saying what is being attributed to him. Offence seems to be being caused because he questions the worth of super-expensive vanity products, like huge speakers running off 10W ("a bit muddy" - I believe him), or a ridiculously-massive amplifier being demonstrated through tiny speakers. It seems quite reasonable to question those things, to me also. Same goes for the dismissal of obvious snake oil products.

He asks a fair question in what must it be like to be an old 1970s audio enthusiast who has had his status taken away from him through the ubiquity of cheap digital technology and the world's apparent indifference to the advantages of large amplifiers and speakers over earbuds.

+1

 

[bretdago]

I also enjoyed the article. If you don't think it's a bit silly that a bunch of middle aged guys with discretionary income spend time arguing online about expensive cables and record clamps...Oh wait a minute, I just described myself

+1

 

[puroagave]

"Audioquest asks the age-old question, would you rather send 600 mosquito nets to a Malaria-stricken village or have one very good XLR cable?"

a funny quote from the article, as a whole it was well-written i got a good laugh from it. me thinks some of you take audio way too seriously.

 

[jazdoc]

"Audioquest asks the age-old question, would you rather send 600 mosquito nets to a Malaria-stricken village or have one very good XLR cable?"

Another age old question: "Would you rather send mosquito nets to a Malaria-stricken village or pay a petulant writer for "The Verge" to write an article about the Munich High End Show?"