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Why are audiophiles perceived as being wackos?

I have been pursuing this wonderful hobby of high end stereo equipment and music for almost 30 years. I do consider myself a passionate audiophile who loves to listen to music on a daily basis. The reason for this post is because it has been my experience that the great majority of people who do not pursue this hobby think of audiophiles as being wackos/screwballs because of the amount of time, money, and passion they put towards their systems. I find it very interesting that individuals who spend tremendous amounts of money and time pursuing esoteric tastes such as wines, watches, coins, etc, are considered connoisseurs or aficionados with a serious passion that is often respected even if it is not the other person's cup of tea. Another example would be people who love high end cars/boats who read all the magazines, go to the shows and invest large sums of money to purchase and tweak their cars or boats to get the last bit of ultimate performance out of their prized possessions. So I don't believe the negative viewpoint towards passionate audiophiles revolves around the amount of money that they can invest in their equipment. So my question for all you GON members is what would be your explanation for people outside our hobby having such a negative or condescending attitude towards our passion, where they infrequently would not have the same attitude towards other people's hobbies and passionate but unique pursuits? It would be a pleasure to hear about your experiences and what your explanation would be for this phenomena towards our hobby.
teajay
pbb
1,140 posts
 
Because they are.
ausjoe
98 posts
 
Good one Rosstaman! As i sit here wondering whether it's wacko or whacko I'm reminded of 25 years ago taking up bicycle racing. Eat, ride, sleep. Travel all night to race and then back home to lie around like a deadman. People wondering why your legs are shaven. Funny suntans, 10 bikes and tons of tires, tubes, ect. in the garage. Oh no, you guys are towards the normal end of thing. Gotta go, if I leave my rca's hooked up too long the government takes over my tuner!
pbb
1,140 posts
 
Wine is wine.
A car is a car.
A boat is a boat.
A watch is a watch.
Coins are, well you know, coins.

High fidelity is an ersatz.

Do you know of any collector working hard on the ultimate artificial vanilla extract collection?

Hi-fi is not the real thing.

We call it music among ourselves, but musicians know better.
brucegel
151 posts
 
Pursuing anything illusory is not good for you ,me, or society.Pbb knows what any awakened person knows which is...it's all a dream and something inside us wants real and can't figure out how to get it so we keep trading this for that caught in a trap.This site serves as a comisseration station for justification.The entire human race is filled with such outposts.It is in our nature but not in our best interest...like war,overpopulating or whatever you can think of.Drinking is fun too but overdone causes irreperable damage.By its very nature audiophiles are excess prone.It is built in to the paradigm for which it must thrive and feed off of us.
sns
3,003 posts
 
Cwlondon has it correct in that marketing plays a large role in creating wants/needs. Our culture is absolutely inundated with purveyors who influence and anticipate our every need. Material items that were previously uneeded or not even thought about suddenly become necessities!
I can just about guarantee you that if a huge marketing campaign equating Dale Earnhardt Jr., Nascar, and beautiful women with high end audio were undertaken the masses would begin to see high end audio as a cachet item, and perhaps a necessary possession. This type of campaign spit out at the masses in endless repetition over many months and years would result in the mass delusion of believeing high end audio as necessary as 4,000 square foot houses, $40,000 cars, $20,000 boats, Budweiser beer, pizza, Pepsi, etc., ad nauseum. If you couldn't afford it now you could certainly aspire to it. Hell, they could even set up mortgage like accounts for those that wanted $100,000 systems, 4 or 5% 30 year loans for stereo equipment. Every house on the block could be shaking from the boom, boom, boom from 30" subwoofers. The sudden realization hits me that perhaps I wouldn't like this world ;-), I think I may have to find another obession!
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