Outsider looking in here. Sorry if it is not my place to comment on such weighty matters but this seems to be a topic that generates a lot of navel gazing among serious audiophiles. There always seems to be some level of fetishism that seems perfectly reasonable to some but unreasonable to others. And to be honest, for those of us on the outside, the fetishism of even moderate audiophiles seems rather extreme to us. But that is neither here-nor-there because at many levels the outsider is in fact uninformed.
And this is a problem, if you want to call it that, in most serious and expensive hobbies, especially those in which there is a large subject element like hearing, seeing, tasting and simple preference. I see this same thing in photography.
And there are also gear heads in most hobbies of this nature. Their joy seems to be not in the music and not in the photograph and not in the performance of a sports car on an actual race track but in the specifications and potential capabilities of the audio equipment, car or camera or lens. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. But their objective and enjoyment is going to be different from those in whom the music and the actual image and actual lap times matter the most. In photography they are often called pixel peepers. Many of them have lavish gear. Many of them often can't recognize are truly good photograph much less make one. Many a 911 owner couldn't keep up with me in an old 350Z on a race track.
Then there are the name droppers. Who has the mostest and the bestest and the latest. Those who will pay $2000 for a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 and not be able to tell that it is hardly any better if better at all than a $110 bottle of Blantons. Nothing wrong with that either as long as they don't try to persuade someone that the Pappy is $1800 better.
I dabble in a number of 'high end' hobbies. One of my joys, and maybe this is a stupid fetish too, is getting to that point where I can appreciate something that is truly good but also recognize where the increments of 'better' become of little meaning and high cost. That's subjective too of course.
And this is a problem, if you want to call it that, in most serious and expensive hobbies, especially those in which there is a large subject element like hearing, seeing, tasting and simple preference. I see this same thing in photography.
And there are also gear heads in most hobbies of this nature. Their joy seems to be not in the music and not in the photograph and not in the performance of a sports car on an actual race track but in the specifications and potential capabilities of the audio equipment, car or camera or lens. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. But their objective and enjoyment is going to be different from those in whom the music and the actual image and actual lap times matter the most. In photography they are often called pixel peepers. Many of them have lavish gear. Many of them often can't recognize are truly good photograph much less make one. Many a 911 owner couldn't keep up with me in an old 350Z on a race track.
Then there are the name droppers. Who has the mostest and the bestest and the latest. Those who will pay $2000 for a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 and not be able to tell that it is hardly any better if better at all than a $110 bottle of Blantons. Nothing wrong with that either as long as they don't try to persuade someone that the Pappy is $1800 better.
I dabble in a number of 'high end' hobbies. One of my joys, and maybe this is a stupid fetish too, is getting to that point where I can appreciate something that is truly good but also recognize where the increments of 'better' become of little meaning and high cost. That's subjective too of course.