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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
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
The OP is of course open to ridicule, but only for the "I propose we define" part. The larger point he is trying to make is perfectly valid.

This comes up all the time here. Practically every day. Whole bunch of guys say something all authoritative as if they actually know something, when more often than not its just them repeating something they heard or read somewhere. But everyone says it so it must be true. Baloney!  

So I disagree, no one has to buy speaker design software and run it and build speakers to be an audiophile. That is just nuts. Especially since its hardly as if doing this is guaranteed to teach you anything other than how to run software, glue, and screw. But at least having done it you almost certainly will have a whole lot more appreciation for the tremendous amount of creativity, engineering, and effort that goes into it.

Mostly though what audiophiles should do is simply learn to listen a whole lot better. Its simply not necessary to solder anything. Oh sure even something as simple as swapping out a single cap or diode is gonna elevate your understanding and appreciation like you can’t believe. But you could also simply get your system nicely warmed up and stable, listen real close to a favorite recording, remove and briskly wriggle up a power cord, and listen again. Boom.

You may not go on from there to build your own. But believe me, but once you have seen there is no going back. You were an audiophile before. And now? A better one.

three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
There are only a handful of brilliant, successful, and incredibly successful guitarists who consider themselves "gearheads" and do any real hands-on work with their instruments.  Does that mean they don't derive incredible joy from playing a guitar nor understand how to coax the best sound from their instrument?  God forbid they are musical geniuses and never took a lesson or understand music theory.  
missioncoonery
1,190 posts
 
Your post is pure bs...crawl back under your rock with the rest of the divisive make America great clowns
mlsstl
1,378 posts
 
Looks like a classic internet troll post to me. Drives up, dumps off a load of fertilizer, drives off and disappears from the discussion, then watches from afar as people stomp around in the stink. ;-)
mikelavigne
2,143 posts
 
if i consider the 10 best listeners i know, which i view as meaning they seem to be able to listen, know music, and determine what is happening and be able to process what they hear for others to understand, 3 of those 10 are also technically savvy and can build things (2 are in the hifi business.....build and sell hifi). but 7 are as clueless technically as myself.

so technical chops or even desire has no relevance to being an audiophile in my experience.

there are different sphere's of this hobby, which can overlap. one such sphere is DIY both speakers and amplifiers, another is collecting media and gear, another is room tweaking. another is owning multiple turntables or cartridges. most of those sphere's also include serious focused listening to music.
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