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Am I no longer allowed to consider myself an Audiophile?

OK, I actually have some pretty decent equipment to listen to. But lately I've been inundated with reviews/opinions about the unmatched transparency of the Magico M9 loudspeakers. But at the same time I have been admiring the new Yamaha NS-5000 speakers (about $15K) which are considered quite awesome sounding in their own right. This brings me back to my 1st wonderful sounding  ADS-810-II speakers (2X 8in. woofers, and a dome-midrange and tweeter). Easy to set up, nice wood cabinets, matching stands, less than $900/pair, with remarkable separation of  instruments, great for ALL types of music, and only minor limitations. Anyway, as nice as the Magico's are, the required room and a whole lot of other things that are necessary to make them play music makes me want to complain about all the over-the-top gushing coming from various experts. It's not the cost of the M-9's that bothers me, but the "laboratory conditions" you almost have to place them in. OTOH, the Yamaha speakers got favorable reviews from the Abs,Sound in 2020, so what more do you really need if you have a living room (a couch, a coffee table, pictures on the wall.etc.) to really "listen" when the music takes over? I find the bewildering complexity involved with scientifically "almost perfect" sounding million-dollar systems to be what it is- an experimental approach rather than a pleasurable way to relax and imagine becoming a part of the performance. So I would want to go to a dealer and audition the Magico's,no question about it. But I would bring some music with me, and I'm certain it would be an enlightening experience. But I wonder if it would change my overall opinion about recorded music. 

french_fries
deep_333
2,420 posts
 

CATEGORY 1 Melophile: Will not care about the quality of sound coming out of his rig with his portable suitcase record player, may have thousands of records

CATEGORY 2 Audiophile: Will have high quality gear that can sound excellent on excellent  recordings and transform suboptimal recordings into a good experience. His playlist shall continue to be large like the melophile’s playlist, consequently.

CATEGORY 3 Gearhead: Will have 3 records on repeat the whole year because his combination of gear and high end jewelry will only sound good on 3 records. His crap won’t be able to breathe life into suboptimal recordings.

Category 3 is the worst kind...the melophile is far better than him with his portable red and white small suitcase like record player

I have known a could melophiles. One was a record store clerk that had thousands of albums which he would play on a portable red and white small suitcase like record player... 

glcanon's avatar
glcanon
5 posts
 

Oft quoted:  “Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to music. Audiophiles use music to listen to their equipment.”

audition__audio
1,773 posts
 

So there exist speakers that can breathe life into suboptimal recordings? Please explain how a speaker can improve on a recording and then also how can it do this without adding coloration? Strange to me that anyone can think that a speaker editorializing on the upstream signal is a good thing. If you said that you preferred this then fine, but to call speakers and systems that are true to the source "crap" is foolish and demands a challenge. A problem only because some of the other members may buy into this nonsense about "tuned" speakers. 

 

 

faustuss's avatar
faustuss
792 posts
 

@audition__audio 

"Strange to me that anyone can think that a speaker editorializing on the upstream signal is a good thing."

Too bad because they all do!

mylogic
835 posts
 

@glcanon  Oft quoted: “Audiophiles don’t use their equipment to listen to music, Audiophiles use music to listen to their equipment”

If true, then this manner of appreciation reminds me of the song from “Oliver”

 

Consider yourself well in

Consider yourself, part of the furniture

 

Would this suggest that with this line of thought, an Audiophile becomes emotionally part of the (audio) furniture, rather than emotionally involved with the music. In love with the attraction to their business end rather than being inspired by the beauty of a perfect musical performance?

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