Absolutely not! I see little kids being outfitted with $500 baseball bats. Photography, woodworking, automobiles, home design and decoration, women's shoes and purses, computer gaming, name the hobby, they all have their suckers.
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Quite the opposite. Sure there are those who make buying decisions based upon smoke and mirrors but there are - at least it seems to me - more than the hobby's fair share of skeptics. Most are fair. Some are merciless, others are assassins. From what I read in this and other forums it is one of the best aspects of the hobby. Thank goodness for them. |
Schubert's comment made me think. Maybe not with equipment, but as I consider some of the music purchase choices I've made, I must confess there's some real turds in this music lover's "collection". Sophmore albums that follow a dynamite premiere and got purchased unheard because I knew (gullible) it would be great. Albums by aging rockers purchased out of a (gullible) sense of loyalty. Albums purchased based upon a glowing review by a reviewer whose taste I like. (Gullible.) Solo albums by bandmembers that make you wonder how they they were in the band in the first place. Gullible. Worse, I can't resist rummaging through the bargain CD/LP bins in brick & mortar stores thinking (gullible) I will find a treasure. Gullible? Guilty! |
If a person has the time to research, thoroughly, you can avoid much of the snake oil. I haven't been involved in this hobby for too long, but it has been my experience that this seems to be the case. I spent 100's of hours on line, many of them on this site, and I'm quite happy with the sound I'm getting in my starter system. There is always room for improvement, but to me, that's what the hobby is about. |
I don't know that audiophiles are any more gullible than fans of jewelry, cars, homes, pets. etc. In a world where there exists $1.8 diamond studded dog collars, it seems silly to question the cost of $10K cables etc. http://www.incrediblethings.com/lists/14-ridiculously-expensive-pet-products/ |
If you are thinking about being gullible regarding fuses, cables, cords, etc, no. I haven't felt as if I have been deceived on any of these items--they have all worked to improve the sound. I am skeptical of the magic dots and stickers, though. For music purchases, it's not that we're so gullible as it is willing to take chances on a better issue, etc. Comparing hobbyists to just being consumers, people are much more gullible in buying weight loss products, beauty products for skin, hair growth products, get-rich seminars, healing pendants, televangelists, etc. Audio gullibility pales next to these attractions. |
I don't know about audiophiles, but car wax enthusiasts are certainly up there. There are numerous waxes selling for thousands of dollars for one jar and the better "enthusiast" waxes go for a couple hundred for a jar. I don't want to say these people are gullible, but it may make you feel better about spending a few thousand on a set of ICs, which at least will last for quite a few years. |
Ions ago I had some really professional sales training, where they differentiated "need" from "sense of need". To highlight the difference they gave an example of one being a salesman selling house painting services, in a neighborhood where one house was very neatly kept, had a paint job that was a few years old, starting to fade and get dirty, while the house next to it had badly peeling paint, noting that the latter had a real "need" for a new paint job, but the former had a much more powerful motivation or "sense of need", and would be the customer you would be best to concentrate your time and effort on closing the sale. Our hobby is definitely one of those "sense of need" scenarios. We've all got to admit that it's really a lot of fun to swap out equipment and accessories and see how that changes (hopefully improves) our musical experience. Hey, if some of the crazy things that audiophile purchase make you happy, that's all that counts! |
As to what thing seems preposterous, too preposterous to ever consider, I suspect it all depends on the thing being considered and the person doing the considering. There are a lot of things in audio that were once considered absurd or preposterous that are now commonplace or at least relatively common. Things like vibration isolation, tiny little bowl resonators, hi res downloads, WA Quantum Chips, Schumann frequency generators, CD enhancers, CD demagnetizers, cable elevators, fuses with directional arrows and scattered laser light absorbers. I admit Mpingo discs, Silver Rainbow Foil, Lessloss Blackbody, the Red X Pen and the Teleportation Tweak are probably not going mainstream any time soon. PT Barnum once opined folks would be much better off generally speaking if they believed in too much rather than too little. |
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Can you elaborate on this lack of reality, Schubert? If you are referring to our consumerism, yes, we are the world's largest consumer economy. We are constantly bombarded with ads to buy everything, and we do buy and buy. We are told we always need new cars, new clothes, new furniture, new boats, new phones, new kitchens--when we could make what we have last longer. I drive a 2000 Saturn--still a good car for the 6K I drive annually, otherwise, would need something newer--not that I don't want a nicer car, though. |
jafreeman, in the most macro terms I can think of offhand, Americans will tolerate massive corruption , poverty conditions not seen in other developed countries , elections stolen for all to see, endless wars and virtually anything else with a shrug of the shoulders as they have internalized this is always the best country in the world no matter what . This is not reality . What you describe is the madness coming from the cognitive-dissonance created from not being happy as you should be in the best of all possible worlds. Consumerism is a drug for this as the social psychologists working for marketers are well aware . Most of country music is written by them . |
Well stated, Shubert. The greatest country in the world is great only in some regions, and this is often due to massive consumer debt. Propping up the facade of affluence is a stack of credit cards, loans and cash-out re-fi's on endless mortgages. This is how the middle class willfully hands over trillions of dollars to the wealthy. We should not speak of such things here, but go ahead. Most of these threads are boring, anyway. |
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Yes, it's a disgrace that Wall Street has been able to privatize its profits, socialize its debts and rob average Americans for their bailout and then give massive bonuses to themselves. The wealthy pay so much less in federal taxes than the average wage earner, and they accuse you of class envy. This is why the US Treasury is empty--and a certain ideology wants to end big government entitlements, citing our massive debt that makes SS and Medicare unsustainable, and they blame you and me. We are too expensive, even though We The People fund both programs. A great country takes care of her elderly, but not for Ryan and his ilk, who admire Ayn Rand's "The Virtue of Selfishness". But, we must adhere to the forum's bylaws about staying away from some topics, so I will add "Re-fi for Hi-Fi!". |
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GK, For you as I understand, audiophiles don't make any gullible decisions otherwise they can't purchase your product if contrary :) In reality, not cynical at all and not skeptcial not doubting, distrusful but actually easily convinsible by foolish arguments... How they can be clever and can't be fooled after all? |
andrew9405, I see you got an A in Logic 101 and 102 ! Map, there are a lot of those studies around , Swiss one is skewed towards money. The best ones , the ones that consider EVERY aspect of human life rank the USA somewhere in the mid-20's which strikes me as about right . Of all developed countries US is best place for the rich and greedy, worse place for the poor and needy . |
Schubert, I saw a show recently on T.V. That said the happiest country is Denmark. They gave the reasons as free health care, free education, giving woman paid maturnity leave and not a big disparity in Income levels between different professions. They said the United States ranked in the mid 20's as far as happiness goes. |
"I saw a show recently on T.V. That said the happiest country is Denmark. They gave the reasons as free health care, free education, giving woman paid maturnity leave and not a big disparity in Income levels between different professions. They said the United States ranked in the mid 20’s as far as happiness goes." Boy, are you gullible. One assumes the folks in Denmark are especially happy when the temperature gets above freezing. On the other hand, free sex along with everything else free might explain the very high number of smiles. A quick search on Google (friend) gives these results for happiest countries. Rank Country 2014 Thriving in 3+ Elements 1 Panama 53.0% 2 Costa Rica 47.6% 3 Puerto Rico 45.8% 4 Switzerland 39.4% 5 Belize 38.9% 6 Chile 38.7% 7 Denmark 37.0% 8 Guatemala 36.3% 9 Austria 35.6% 10 Mexico 35.6% |