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Other than music, why are you an audiophile?

I would hope that the first reason why anyone is an audiophile is that they love music. I’m going to assume we all have that in common. So the question is: Other than music, why are you an audiophile?

I’ve had an interest in audio and hifi for twenty years, but it took me a long time, and a fair amount of introspection, to come up with a good answer. My answer is personal. It may not be true of anyone else. Here it is:

Other than music, I’m interested in audio because I’m fascinated by EMERGENCE. The concept of ‘emergence’ has been around for at least a century. It has been used by philosophers and scientists to mean a whole that is “greater than the sum of its parts.” More technically, emergence is a relation between system-level characteristics and component-level characteristics. A system’s characteristics EMERGE from the characteristics of its components when…

(1) The system’s characteristics are DIFFERENT IN KIND from the characteristics of its components.

(2) The system’s characteristics are CAUSED BY the characteristics of its components.

(3) The system’s characteristics are DIFFICULT TO PREDICT from the characteristics of its components.

What does this have to do with audio? Everything. In an audio system…

(1a) The musical characteristics of an audio system are DIFFERENT IN KIND from the electrical/mechanical/acoustical characteristics of its components.

(2a) The musical characteristics of an audio system are CAUSED BY the electrical/mechanical/acoustical characteristics of its components.

(3a) The musical characteristics of an audio system are DIFFICULT TO PREDICT from the electrical/mechanical/acoustical characteristics of its components.

Hence, the musical characteristics of an audio system EMERGE from the electrical/mechanical/acoustical characteristics of its components. In other words, an audio system, taken as a whole, seems “greater than the sum of its parts.”

To me, the phenomenon of emergence differentiates audio, as a hobby, from many (but not all) other hobbies, where emergence does not happen. To me, the phenomenon of emergence is what makes hifi seem like magic, in that something beautiful and emotional emerges out of something mechanical and electrical. And that is why, other than a love a music, I am an audiophile.

Anyone else?
bryoncunningham
cbw723
89 posts
 
I have three reasons:
1) I like to tinker with stuff. When I was a kid it was bikes and toys and broken vacuum cleaners. Then it was cars. Then computers and software. Now it's audio gear. There is something satisfying about piecing together a working system, and tweaking it to make it better.

2) Every time I upgrade my system, it gives me a reason to go back through my entire music collection. Hearing something new in music I've loved for years is like discovering it all over again.

3) I like to buy stuff. Being basically a big kid, it's fun to get cool new gizmos delivered to my front door.
danlib1
819 posts
 
I hate having money lying around.
newbrook
82 posts
 
Not for the women. It is interesting to spend Sat afternoons at audio stores with guys who used to be in the Audio Video squad in high school.
newbrook
82 posts
 
And I'd just end buying a second Porsche but for this hobby.
donjr
1,335 posts
 
Sound obviously. That's the ultimate goal. Price per pound, you get a lot more with a lot less. I could care less about technological advances in audio. I don't think that audio sounds much better than it did 30 years ago. I think that people get too carried away with tweaks and upgrades. Granted you have to do them, but for cryin' out loud, where's the end of the road? It is nice however to reap the rewards of used gear. I read on the forum the other day a question someone posted, wondering why people switched from a certain $68k speaker to a certain $107k pair of speakers. I think once you've reached that point with audio and you can still point out imperfections in sound, you've gotten nowhere. That's just my personal opinion and it could change if I hit the Mega Millions tonight. If I do, I'm going to reply to that guys post.
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