I always have to question whether nostalgia is looking through rose tinted gasses. There are times when I gaze back longingly to the days when I had far more person to person contact with audiophiles, no internet. There have always been smug know it all types, you just didn't encounter them as often as you do on this platform they call the internet where one can say whatever at top of mind with a few keystrokes.
Perhaps this may be informative, I work in family business and we developed a business relationship with a furniture maker. Well it turns out this guy formerly worked for many years at one of the top audio shops in the area, this would have been 80's into 90's. My my, this guy had a visceral hatred of audiophiles, years of dealing with smug know it alls had obviously taken its toll! Whenever he related stories to me I could just picture some of the clients he had to deal with and chuckle to myself, got to have a mild temperament and/or thick skin to deal with some people, this guy sure had lost both.
