Should people who can't solder, build or test their speakers be considered audiophiles?



  So, if you bought that Porsche but can only drive it and not fix it do you really understand and appreciate what it is? I say no. The guy who can get in there and make it better, faster or prettier with his own hands has a superior ability to understand the final result and can appreciate what he has from a knowledge base and not just a look at what I bought base. I mean sure you can appreciate that car when you drive it but if all you do is take it back to the dealership for maintenance and repairs you just like the shape with no real understanding of what makes it the mechanical marvel it is.
  I find that is true with the audio world too. There are those who spend a ton of money on things and then spend a lot of time seeking peer approval and assurance their purchase was the right one and that people are suitably impressed. Of course those who are most impressed are those who also do not design, build, test or experiment.

  I propose that an audiophile must have more than a superficial knowledge about what he listens to and must technically understand what he is listening to. He knows why things work and what his end goal is and often makes his own components to achieve this. He knows how to use design software to make speakers that you can't buy and analyze the room they are in and set up the amplification with digital crossovers and DSP. He can take a plain jane system and tweak it and balance it to best suit the room it is in. He can make it sound far better than the guy who constantly buys new components based on his superficial knowledge who does not understand why what he keeps buying in vain never quite gets there.

  A true audiophile can define his goal and with hands on ability achieve what a mere buyer of shiny parts never will. So out comes the Diana Krall music and the buyer says see how good my system is? The audiophile says I have taken a great voice and played it through a system where all was matched and tweaked or even purposely built and sits right down next to Diana as she sings. The buyer wants prestigious signature sound and the audiophile will work to achieve an end result that is faithful true to life audio as though you were in the room with Diana as she sings. The true audiophile wants true to life and not tonally pure according to someones artificial standard.

 So are you a buyer or an audiophile and what do you think should make a person an audiophile?
mahlman

Showing 15 responses by nonoise

He put in his thumb, and pulled out a plumb, and said:
"What a good boy am I."
 
Yes and I guess that's why you just can't stay away hmmm?
Hey, thanks for singling me out. 👍
I must be getting my point across in a cogent and meaningful way.

Try as I may to stay away, I came back to see just how much this thread has degraded and you didn't disappoint. I guess it's in your nature. You see, you keep coming back, glossing over the relevant points with the same old, same old, trying to save face. 

You speak truth to no one. Especially here.

All the best,
Nonoise


At first, your defense was that it was a joke to see who actually read it and. You said you took pleasure in triggering people and even had some sycophants chime in with their saying that they got the joke, which was on the rest of us.

Now, it's morphed into something else about observations on human behavior from all the replies. As already stated, we get it. Always did. No need to read between the lines. Takes only a minute to reread your premise, which all have pointed out, is simply wrong.

You paint with too broad a brush and generalize. It's not as black and white as you propose.

We get it. You don't.

All the best,
Nonoise
It's a commonly used pejorative used by the younger generation.
Still out or place and not proper, but what can you expect nowadays?

All the best,
Nonoise
It's really not the same watching either Top Gear or The Grand Tour anymore. The chemistry the hosts had with that particular venue was the juice that kept that show going.

To think that Jeremy Clarkson punched an asst on the set for not having hot food at the ready was petty and stupid. He's also said lots of awful things that'a come back to bite his in his arse.

The only one worth watching now is Chris Harris. He's as good as the Stig sans the helmet. His Youtube channel used to be fun to watch but nothing new for quite some time. It's a pity he has to share his time with the clowns they now have. It's just not the same anymore.

All the best,
Nonoise
Oh my gosh, you actually bit on that? HA ha ha HAHAhaha.
No, mailman, that trap was laid for you. To be triggered and then try to lamely turn it back in a futile attempt of oneupmanship has me laughing.

It sure took you long enough to gather yourself in composing a response.

All the best,
Nonoise

Hate to see you go but might I remind you the inventor of the internet, Al Gore, did not have a science degree.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/internet-of-lies/

All the best,
Nonoise

And yet, we did get it. Sarcasm based on actual feelings are still actual feelings. Big deal. It's been done to death here.

All the best,
Nonoise
The OP seems to think that only those who can afford to waste money on audio gear are the same as those who can’t build or appreciate the music. Is that another way of saying that save for the ability of being able to build some piece of gear, one cannot appreciate the results?

Or is it another way of saying I couldn’t afford to buy something nice so I went and made it and it’s better than what one can buy, since I built it?

I, for one, would never spend $60K on a pair of cables and yet cannot build a thing and yet, appreciate fine gear that makes fine music that doesn’t cost a fortune. Why is it that when subjects like this come up, it’s mostly about the extreme costs of some gear being conflated with anything that costs more than something you could buy at Radio Shack?

I come from the days when everyone worked on their own cars and only a few thought they knew it all because they got something to run for a week or two. Big deal.

All the best,
Nonoise
The audio world is full of people who can design, build, test and repair but can't listen or hear, and they should be the arbiters of truth?
As our next president would say, "What a load of malarky."

All the best,
Nonoise