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Audiophiles on Audiogon.
During my time here, I have found some of you to be too opinionated - like your life depends upon what you think about audio gear. Holding on to one’s beliefs a bit too tightly is bad for the soul.
I was reading some content on the Ken Rockwell website, and then found an article entitled: "What is an audiophile?"
in the article, Ken says: Audiophiles are non-technical, non-musical kooks who imagine the darnedestly stupid things about audio equipment. Audiophiles are fun to watch; they’re just as confused at how audio equipment or music really works as primitive men like cargo cults are about airplanes.
Given my time on this forum and a few others, I have found his statements to be true. I mean, if you have an amplifier that costs say, $10,000, and you buy cables for $20,000, is that really going to improve the sound? (make the stereo image more accurate)
Or on the otherside, if you buy an amplifier for $1000 and then go buy the top of the line audioquest cables costing tens of thousands of dollars, then would the sound improve accordingly? After reading some of their literature, I cannot be sure they have an understanding of how electricrity works, much less the intricate details involving high-end audio systems.
And then we have power conditioning to consider. I have done extensive research online and it turns out that if your gear is really "high-end" it should already have a device inside that filters the incoming AC. Therefore, do you really need a power conditioner?
I learned about PS Audio products being spec-ed much higher than their measured performance. This is also true of the audio "power plants" that cost thousands of dollars. No really, tons of money to "regenerate" power with little to no sonic benefits.
Would love to hear what you guys think about these findings.
Oh, and high-end DACs?
This thing will outperform all your fancy gear.
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You will not like the rest of the article Mahgister though perhaps there is some truth. He did get off the rails a bit and made a comparison that I found rather offensive and I will not repeat here as it showed rather poor judgment on his part.
@jackhifiguy , it is good form to provide a link to material you reference:
https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/audiophile.htm
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Rockwell depict an image in white and black... He must sells to add views on his site... He must be provocative and stay a bit provocative...
i was an audiophile myself till few months ago... Why? Because i dreamed to own a system with a minimal sound quality .. But with no MONEY... I choose a basic relatively good one and investigated slowly how to implement an optimal working for this system... I will not repeat here what i did... The main part was simple experiments in acoustic among other simple experiments ... Suffice to say that i am very happy now ...The audiophile normal stage is behind me and music here forever with a minamal satisfying quality superior in my room to my 8 headphones..... Then there exist an audiophile stage in any musical life, the question is how to pass this necessary stage and integrate his lessons with success... Audiophilia correspond to a STAGE in life and is not only a STATE of being it is not only an obsessive hobby, it can and must be a learning experience...... Some buy and plug because they have the money to do it and they upgrade... Some buy and plug and forget it because they dont have the time, the room or the patience to do what must be done to exit the obsession for good sound and pass through it with REAL acoustic learning... All people want a good sound... Then characterizing all audiophiles to be only of one species : deluded one is only that a provocation...it is not a quality attached to some consumers zombies only, it is a normal stage of variable time lenght in the life of someone listening music... Some provocation are creative , i take what you speak about this way... Other provocations are only negative stirring of the pot with closed mind indiscriminate attack to sell something here or in another forums ... I prefered listening basic experiments in acoustic instead of focusing on the GEAR brand name and design , this was an opening of the eyes... The best design are too costly for me anyway but it is easy to afford nowadays relatively good one at relatively low price... Minimal mechanical control of vibrations and some control to decrease the noise floor of the house, acoustic treatment and control, all that is enough to reach a MINIMAL treshold of satisfaction... This treshold exist and is easy to be evaluated by many acoustical criteria... It is a relative treshold but it exist and this is all and the only message i can communicate in this site... If someone ignorant and not crafty like me can do it anyone can... 😁😊 But it takes times and basic elementary studies for acoustic experiments...we must dare to experiment for sure...It takes time, i could do it because i am retired...And the other bad news it take me a dedicated room... But it is possible to do some thing in a living room for sure... Then all "audiophiles" are not gear fetichist....Some pass the stage and the test... Listening must be LEARNED , nevermind if you are an audiophile, an acoustician or a musician or an engineer... Being audiophile is not a hobby FOR LIFE , it was one limited in time for me, it is indeed a normal stage in the life of any musical lover...Using this label to insult people is only most of the times a way to demonstrate our own acoustic ignorance...This is my experience...
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At the end of the day I fall back on Hans Beekhuyzen's closing remark on all his YouTube reviews, "And whatever you do, enjoy the music". If you have a small circle of audiophiles (by which I mean folks who love music, love to actively listen, enjoy finding equipment that suits their room, budget, and preferences) with whom you can share tunes, ideas, and have a love for the hobby (or whatever you call it), then ignore the areas that are way beyond your budget, interest, or in my case, ears. I've learned a lot from friends and a few YouTube folks that aren't shilling and want to help. Some drive Fords, Chevys, Toyotas, Mercedes, Lincolns, Audis, and Bentleys. So find whatever you can afford and enjoy! And yes, there are many "interesting" folks in these forums. Don't let them bring you down! |
Price has nothing to do with performance, sound quality, build quality, design, etc. I have mentioned this before, we have a listening room in Northern New Jersey. Please feel free to bring your $720 DAC over to see if you can hear a difference, or anything else you feel you would like to see if you can hear any differences. Happy Listening. |
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