Definitely lonely to be an audiophile


Today Ricardo Arjona is broadcasting a virtual concert, I know most of you English natives don't care, but let's imagine is someone you like from "these" times, English speaking artist.

The neighbors have a crappy TV streaming the concert, really bad quality, my wife is upstairs watching on TV, really bad as well.

I do like his songs so I'm in my living room listening to his previous Hires records, on my super system, and I can hear next door the TV broadcasting and I'm wondering what the heck, am I crazy, I rather be alone enjoying the sound from previous Hires recordings, than socially sharing that "noise", it does makes me lonely though, I like social interactions, it is who I am, but definitely being an audiophile makes you an outcast. Just another dilemma, acceptance is bliss
Good night everybody

luisma31

Showing 4 responses by luisma31

@charles1dad
"Nice thread!
Many interesting responses and perspectives.
+1 ghdprentice and tomic601 in particular.
I can attend a jazz club and sit through 2 or 3 sets or listen at home for hours"

Thanks Charles and thanks for posting, ah the jazz club, big band performances, any of these venues ... looking forward to get back to that.

@perkri
Mostly, its my cat and myself

Man what is it with animals and music, my dog is the only one that doesn't like it? I think I am coming to the conclusion I'm the one she doesn't like

@aewarren
I was going to reply to the OP but since I'm an audiophile, I think I'll keep my thoughts to myself.

Got it ;-)

@lp2cd
Read this story on WaPo and consider...

I don't read WaPo usually but not bad of an article. Especially these quotes below, to which I can relate sometimes but it is definitely not who I am.

The truth, says Sólo, is that introverts can be very engaging, but it’s draining. “If I’m going to go to a social event where I actually want to be, I’m loud, I’m making jokes, I’m telling stories. But it really does feel like you have a battery running down pretty quickly.”

Introverts missed seeing their close friends but savored the ability to go for hours or even days without speaking to another person.


@keegiam
Hopefully you will find a few friends that get into it.

Have some close but really the pandemic has placed a wide range halt to anything social, here in South Florida (party town) cases were out of control and some people decided to just sever all social interactions, for example I called my friends and they were "I would love to go to your house but I don't think my wife is onboard as she is concerned of getting sick" or "Yeah sure but if I get sick I will pass it to my kids and that wouldn't be fair"
I mean I can't argue with that logic and I totally understand, I don't consider myself a reckless person either, to be honest my wife also was freaking out of social interactions in general.

@jjss49
"nowadays, i have a much slower work pace, more time with golf (group/social/sometimes alone), cars/track driving/instruction (mostly social), socializing with friends (over meals, concerts, etc etc) -- all of this balanced by solo time (sometimes with s.o.) immersed in music and hifi matters -- not to mention minimizing watching the cable news b-s"

Thanks for posting, from your comments you have a truly balanced act, live concerts? so far I have only heard of virtual ones.

@asvjerry
A subject that hasn't broke into friction and fuss.....;)

To be honest I just posted without structuring the writing too much and just what I had in mind at the moment so it wasn't a well thought post but I knew most of us here could relate.

Sit, staring at the wall, and listening to the ghosts playing in front of it...

Nice line

@audiodwebe
Audiophiles setting up their listening room so others can enjoy the music

Not what I said.

@wolf_garcia
Stating that audio geeks are on the autistic spectrum is insulting to those who know people with autism unless the statement is broadening the "spectrum"

The statement was made like you said broadening the "spectrum" not literally, you are correct it could be insulting to some, not my intent to make it such, my apologies if it was insulting to you or others

@chris_w_uk
In fact she has two amps and speakers of her own

Impressive, I'm just curious how many do you have?

Hi Erik, you have very good posts and I respect your stance on many topics, but IMO although right the emotion is conveyed by the musicians if you don't have the Hz that emotion gets diluted and it is less impactful. Now if we are considering reasonable lost of Hz like listening to harbeths or revels or soundlabs vs Polk bookshelves yes you can still enjoy the Polk bookshelves and like you said the minimal lost in hz won't matter.
But if you are comparing the above with a Vizio 32 inch TV sound yeah I rather listen to my system




Thank you all for your postings

@ghdprentice
Audiophilia tends to be a solo activity. Personally, I value my alone time more than anything


I agree and I value my alone time too, it is mostly a solo activity. My wife she is a pianist, she loves music, she loves to sing, but she got to the point she tells me "are we listening to music AGAIN?, I'm going upstairs to watch some TV" yeah I guess I'm intense with that, or sometimes she doesn't like the program of whatever I'm listening to.

@oldhvymec
I have something to talk about.. Usually with the dog though

Does the dog has a fluent dialog? Kidding aside I know what you mean, I talk to my dog too, she doesn't talk back but he eyes and body language says everything.

@tomic601
OP I do hope you find people to share music with, but also enjoy the deep connection only solitude and introspection can bring


I agree, thank you for the kind words, as a matter of fact last night my post was due to the fact I enjoyed listening alone, it is just that "sometimes" you think about it and you realized you are alone most of the time, not that is bad, but social interactions are important.

OP.....what a wonderful thread you may have launched...I am streaming an artist I have never heard..in a language i can at best stumble thru at a first grade level...beautifulll.....
Ricardo Arjona featuring Gaby Moreno...


Ha, I'm glad you like him, his songs are basically about life, women mostly, but always realistic things that you can relate to, the one with Gaby Moreno "Fuiste tu" is one of my favorites, it is just a song about lost love, when I met my wife we just to sing the song in duo, she taught me how to breathe through singing, how to go lower or higher registers, (don't know the term in english "impostar la voz") is like "setting your voice to mimic whichever singer registers you are doing", I'm not a very good singer though LOL. Granted you can't compare a popular music / ballads singer to something like Rimsky Korsakov, or John Coltrane, or even bands from the past like Glenn Miller's or even Rock and Roll bands like Zepp and others, still you can enjoy it. Fun fact, I learned the English language through rock, I had a notebook and manually copied the lyrics from albums into my notebook (I did not owned the albums) or had my English teacher to translate and write the lyrics for me, she made it an entire class exercise, it was fun. First lyrics I wrote were Journey's Frontiers and Escape, then Styx's Crystal Ball... fun times.

@toro3
Bringing it back down to earth. I’m sure it’s a universal principle that adding a dog to the equation will help future listening sessions veer away from feeling lonely - it obviously has with me


You know what I have been afraid the sound of my system could damage my dog hearing, maybe a silly thought, she does not like thundering or fireworks so I figure if I'm listening to high levels she could not stand the sound.

I would argue that outcast and solitude within a framework of audiophilia are the same reflection


good one, I think the word "social outcast" was a little extreme, but I tend to separate myself from people when listening, if I would have a friend over possibly he would not like the music I chose, 2 days ago I listened to Pictures at an Exhibition, I always struggled with the first part of the album, I imagine many others will do the same, so another reason why most of the time we listened alone or in solitude.

@oldhvymec
My mighty K-9 companion is always just an arms length away. Heaven will be full of dogs...All my old buddies will be there, or it just won't be HEAVEN.. Plane and simple..


Apparently I'm overthinking it, but my dog doesn't stick for the audio sessions.


@afisher
"the vast majority of us audiophiles are on the autistic spectrum. Many of us are capable of limited social interaction and excellent at being flatscreen warriors when the situation calls for it"

I was thinking the exact same thing, in my specific case I am very social (on the outside), on the inside I might be borderline autistic, hard to explain and contradictory I know.

@audioman58
"Maybe you should setup I surround sound setup for your tv
then you can educate the tin 👂 how much better their audio can be."

Noted, that is actually not a bad idea, have the neighbors come over and test them for their inner audiophile.

@keegiam
"I don't mean to pontificate, but if you're feeling lonely and that obsession with music playback is part of the cause, look inward and ask yourself if you're happy with it. Some are. If you're not, you might want to seek more balance."

Thanks for the advice, I think I am happy with it, it is not exactly I am feeling lonely (I know I posted it does make me lonely but not exactly what I meant to say last night), I am feeling fine but good quality music it is something that meant to be shared. It is more of a question to myself if I am ok just listening alone or instead I should "try" to be more social and forget about the obsession, so your comment is right, something to ask myself. I posted because I thought that most of you would relate to the feeling.

@hobo1452
"If you are pursuing audio nirvana with the goal of pleasing others, you are not an audiophile, you are a wanna be orchestra conductor"

LOL, not my case, I enjoy my system without needing to share or please anyone else. thanks for posting