The Loneliest Hobby PART 1


As Roy Orbison penned his lyrics to Only the Lonely, he may well have had in mind those thousands of us who are audiophiles, passionately pursuing our hobby in complete isolation. We marvel at the detailed presentation as the Beatles sing about their lonely-hearts club, but for most of us in the audiophile world, there is no club. Only lonely hearts. We listen to these songs and many others in magnificent fidelity… but all by ourselves (see Eric Carmen, All by Myself). There is no one sitting next to us. We are in our listening rooms… alone.  

Even worse, many of us are “audiophiles anonymous,” not willing to admit to our addiction in public, mostly because past attempts at sharing our enthusiasm for our gear with friends has only led to embarrassment as they have walked away with puzzled looks on their faces and wondering if they should assist us in finding some professional help. And their concern pales in comparison to the worry and agony that rages silently in the hearts of our significant others. They watch helplessly as funds for college and kitchen remodels evaporate as we seek our next fix with our purchase of the latest speaker cables and power conditioners.

No one will ever understand us. But we press on, sinking ever deeper into the abyss of our internal psyches, defiantly sitting in solitude as we profoundly ponder the tonal nuances of our new XLR interconnects.

Is our hobby the least understood? Is it one of the loneliest and self-isolating of hobbies? Are concerns about our sanity valid? Is this self-isolation and self-indulgence actually unhealthy? Or is it beautifully and gloriously therapeutic? What, my fellow asylum-mates, do you think?

wester17

I have a great group of Audiophoos in my town. We get together once a month and have a good time listening to systems and music. 
 Some of us (me) are much more into the music, regardless of how good a recording it is. Of course, excellent sound is a wonderful thing. 
 Some of my audio phool buddies are much more into the technology, tweaks, etc. Of course , we all benefit from each others ideas and knowledge. 
  May I suggest you ask around, maybe an audio store, Facebook, record store to know if there are fellow audiophiles in your surrounding area? You might get lucky. 
 

wester17

Thank You for a well-written sentiment. My vote, beautiful and glorious therapy.

Enjoying the Aural experience is a Grand reward!

 

Happy Listening!

I think your observations are more a commentary on society at large than on just the audio(phile) hobby...

I have a few other long-time hobbies I still enjoy (saltwater reef aquariums; road cycling, for examples) and I have seen the same trend in those hobbies as well.

People just do not put as much value or effort into in-person socializing as they used to. My opinion is the 'blame' for that lies in the increasingly large role that online services play in our lives; coupled with a generally more self-centered attitude that people tend to have today. I think the whole Covid shutdown thing served as a final "nail in the coffin" in some cases, but I had seen this trend long before Covid.

Per my personal examples, our local Reef Aquarium Hobby Club started in 1995 and for 20-ish years we had a monthly public meeting that would draw sometimes hundreds of hobbyists (depending on that month's activity)... starting about 2016 attendance, participation, and paying memberships began to decline. By 2020 we cut back meetings to quarterly due to poor attendance and declining revenue. Our last event was in 2024... today the Club is basically defunct. Even the national Reefkeeping hobby group (MACNA) went belly-up in 2025 due to lack of interest in attending the annual 3-day conference. 5 - 10 years ago, that conference would draw 7 - 10,000+ PAID ticketholders to various Convention Centers throughout the country...

Even the cycling world has seen changes. Formal cycling groups have either dwindled down to 10% of their former participants or outright folded... I can't even get more than 3 or 4 people to commit to even informal "let's meet at X on Saturday morning and ride to Y together..." anymore - even with months of advance notice. People just don't care to socialize as much as they used to. And younger people particularly are actually losing the ability altogether; to the point that they will avoid many public activities... even things like grocery shopping or eating out (hence all the shopping and food delivery apps)...

Kind of sad, really. But definitely beyond the scope of just this one hobby.

 

OP, I agree about it being lonely. It did warm my heart when at the breakfast table at an audio show I heard the guys at the table next to me talking about reel to reels. Will we ever talk to each other at the shows?

The longer one is in this life style, the more chance there is of meeting local, like minded people. I'm a lucky one