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Lay Off the Newbies!

I always try to keep my posts constructive, but there is something that regularly goes on here that I think is detrimental to our hobby - A newbie has a simple question and a bunch of neurotic geezers (of which I include myself) jump on the guy with a million rules and rituals he must follow to achieve his goal, which ends up discouraging the guy right out of hobby. There was one analog thread on static where I recommended Gruv Glide and you geezers started in with so much BS- humidifiers, move to another climate, expensive gimmicks, etc, that GG would kill him and his records.  The end result? By the end of the thread, he sold his analog rig because he couldn't deal with the stress.  In a recent digital thread, you guys are recommending a newbie buy 20 year old transports.  All this does is just make newbies so stressed out that you'll drive them to MP3s.  Newbies need simple answers, commensurate with their experience level.  Buy a Rega table, screw in a Rega cartridge and play records.  They have plenty of time to turn into us.  Somehow we survived, listening to our Sansui receivers and JBL L-100s in bedrooms thick with pot smoke and spilled Boone's Farm.  And we made it.  Sometimes I'm amazed as well.  Let the young have fun while they can. Be well.  
chayro
petg60
1,486 posts
 
This is a great place for newbies and seasoned audiophiles, all you have to do is read with an open mind. 
mahler123
3,109 posts
 
What is wrong with a newbie starting their “research “ here?  What are the alternatives?  Equipment magazines tend to be aimed at the true believers, not at entry level curious.  If the newbie wants vinyl then after reading Stereophile they might think they need to spend $200K after reading Fremer.  Magazines also tend to reflect the biases of their advertisers.  The best thing is for a newbie to throw mud at a wall in a site like this, get a variety of opinions, see what opinions make sense to them, and go from there.  With the loss of stores, the chances of a demo of anything are slim and so the opinions of others are now increasingly important 
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,909 posts
 
@amg Audiogon search engine is good, but the hard part is knowing how to a search phrase that is accurate enough and also doesn't return too many results. My ability to utilize the search engine only increased as I knew what to search for. That problem, in a nutshell, is my rationale for an FAQ category.
bluorion
442 posts
 
I have a younger friend in his teens that has just starting to get into audio---he has a hand-me down stereo from the early 90s. To him, it's the world. He's starting to buy vinyl now and has started asking me about updating his stereo. I find it so much fun helping him and being with him on his new journey. I doubt he would be asking me to help him out if I was critical of his system or judgmental. I respect most people in this forum, but there will always be bad apples. 
sgreg1
612 posts
 
Boone’s Farm was what we use to get the girls drunk and horny. Preferred hash over pot but yes room was smoking. I think back and get depressed on how much of my life I missed out on this hobby. Don’t get me wrong I love music and have been enjoying since I was 5. I look back are realize that I spent most of my life hearing music and not listening. Sitting out of the sweet spot thinking that this is the bomb, one speaker crammed in a corner the other hanging from the ceiling. With my current set up I will play the same album from yesteryear and it does not even sound like the same band. Back to subject is yes we don’t need to discourage the “newbies” I think half of the sarcasm is done in just to play with the seasoned posters (poking the bears). This a lot of the time is directed at those we play with and the “newbie” is just Collateral damage. Another point is they need to go through the same struggles we did to truly enjoy the journey and get to where we are today in the hobby, we had no threads to post questions even thought we had the same dumb questions. Now get off my lawn!!!
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