Am I right for this forum?

So...am I an "audiophile," or not? Do I belong here, or not?

I know what you mean.  On this site, forget anything you read about gear.  Stick with the music.  The best thing about this forum is the age of the participants.

Considering the current state of the art, $3000 is spot on.  The state of the art can be found at the Yamaha, Marantz, Denon, Polk, etc.... level.  All else is hype and eye candy.

Do you belong here?  Yes.  But, think of it as being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a raft with no water.

Cheers

What has changed is how people now interact after the advent of social media. It’s not limited to any one group or hobby. Our culture is now more about presenting a certain image online than actual discussion and substance. Don’t take it personally. Culture, morals, humility have all but faded away. It’s all about showing people what you have that they likely can’t afford now. 

What makes one an "audiophile" seems to have got stuck on how much one spends on audio equipment. I’ll grant, that’s certainly not irrelevant. But, as several have said (notably, mahgister, who sounds this theme regularly on this forum), the cost of one’s equipment is not the main criterion. Concern for sound quality is, however one strives to achieve that goal.

But my post was meant to raise issues with even that quest, which is why I wondered aloud, as it were, whether or not I belong on this forum. Yes, I care about and delight in sound quality! To that extent, obviously, I’m an audiophile. But my deeper concern is that such attention is really misplaced. Enjoying certain recordings, despite their being musically insipid, just because they are well recorded...well, now that strikes me as misguided (and I am guilty of it). Very few of the musicians I know care much at all about sound quality.

So I’m kind of conflicted. That’s where the Stewart Smalley comment strikes home. Get over it! Stop whining! Enjoy the music, or enjoy the sound quality of your system, or both—who cares! I get that.

The fact is that, although I have loved audio equipment most of my life, I haven’t been in a position to afford really good stuff until relatively recently. And, furthermore, the kind of conversations that dominate our audio club meetings, and this forum, I’m not really able to contribute much to. I just don’t know enough about the equipment that’s available, much less about the electrical engineering principles that goes into it. For me, it really is all about the music.

To say "it’s all about the music" is, of course, a commonplace among audiophiles. But this isn’t really a forum about music. The only threads about "the music" I’ve found interesting are those that suggest especially good-sounding recordings, not those that discuss matters of interpretation (in "classical" music) or those that share enthusiasms for this or that genre or artist.

Megabyte's comment is one of the things that worries me here...

One key of being an audiophile is the objective. At least in my definition it is to recreate the real musical experience in all respects and in proportion. So, it is not to just create a spectacular sound system. Many people create very flashy sounding systems with great detail and bass but that completely loose the music. They over emphasize some aspects and miss others. This is really common, I have heard many. In the pursuit of one or more aspects the music gets left behind, they turn into a real sound spectacular. This is the equivalent of salt, sugar, and fat in food... like Lays barbecue potato chips... very tasty but lacking in nutrition and satisfaction as food.

Typically as these get better they loose the rhythm / pace and mid-range bloom. Which allows for incredible detail and kick drum that hits you in the chest, or imaging is holographic, but the music no longer has the emotional draw.

If you get bored listening to your system after 45 minutes or you tend to music surf if streaming ask yourself if you lost the music along the way.

I have had season tickets to the symphony for over ten years. This and other concerts helped me compare my system to the real thing. Over time mine conveyed a balanced and is a real close representation. So this experience really helped me keep things in proportion.

Sadly, on another note. We got a new conductor whom wanted to make his mark on the symphony. He had a multimillion dollar DSP system installed in the orchestra hall. Suddenly the violins sounded steely on the top, the drums sounded as if they came from behind me ( my seats were in the 7th row center). The triangle became a very noticeable instrument... like it had a solo. The music was very severely compromised...so it goes. My system now sounds better than the live orchestra.

I know for a fact that acoustics knowledge matter more than gear price tags...

When you have a good balanced system you forgot the sound. Suddenly any musical album reveal his unique acoustic trade-off interesting choices and the music is well served so much you cannot stop listening the music not the sound.

How is it possible with a relatively low cost system as mine ? With acoustics basic applied among other factors...

I was accused to bash high end gear because of my claim😊 ... Complete misunderstanding who reveal the ignorance abyss put by marketing publicity in audio forums and magazine and in people head... I discovered it late in my life and recently and progressively all along my acoustics journey ... ( acoustics concepts are not room acoustic panels by the way )

No acoustics concepts and experiment will put a 100 bucks speaker on the same podium as 10,000 bucks one... Common sense and common place fact ... But acoustics will make possible an improvement in the limits of these different designs in an astounding way ... I am flabbergasted by acoustics not by the gear...