Do "audio enthusiasts" like many of us here at ASR consider audio to be a hobby?

[Berwhale]

I certainly do - audio has been a significant "hobby" for me since assembling my first HiFi system around a used 20w Bell vacuum tube amplifier as a high school student in Chicago in 1958.

It's this willingness to investigate and learn more about our own nature that make ASR such a pleasurable place to visit.

 

[solderdude]

a hobby at first (electronics side), profession later on (electronics side), then hobby again (electronics side) and fascination (perception side).

 

[Sal1950]

Music and listening to it is a passion.
Playing with gear, reading about it, building our knowledge, buying and selling, all those things are the "hobby" end of it.
I've been deeply involved in both aspects since my pre-teen years.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

yeah, it's a hobby. I consider listening to music a hobby in itself. Same goes for reading. Anything that a person does that goes beyond just basic passive involvement is a hobby afaic. Just sitting in front of the TV channel surfing? Nope. But as soon as you are seeking out specific content - pro sports, horror movies, whatever - then yup. Just having the radio on playing music? Not really. Specifically listening to old-time radio dramas? Hobby. Now a person can be more or less passionate about it of course, but I think that's a separate discussion...

 

[tomtoo]

Yes a hobby for me. But imagine whats all includet? Musik thats emotional. Than analog elektronics, later digital elektronics. Turntabels, and speakers. Precise mechanics. Room behavior, waves and acoustics. Great hobby, a lot of science but still full of emotions. What do you want more?

 

[LTig]

Music and listening to it is a passion.
Playing with gear, reading about it, building our knowledge, buying and selling, all those things are the "hobby" end of it.
I've been deeply involved in both aspects since my pre-teen years.

+1 for me.

EDIT: Since we are a scientific forum we need metrics to define to which degree someone belongs to which group. Here are two for the start:

• the relative amount of money invested in audio equipment vs. recordings and concerts
• the mean time between component exchange vs. the mean time between concert visits

For myself those numbers may be more or less the same so I consider myself as being involved in both.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I love music but did not discovered hifi existed for playing it until I left home and needed to buy something to play records on.
As an engineer the technology interests me but I hate messing about with equipment, preferring to just listen.
I came to the conclusion that properly engineered electronics differed in their styling, functions and price more than sound quality about 25 years ago when I was searching for "speakers for the rest of my life" to avoid the irritation of evaluating any more. My only change to the electronics side since then has been for function not SQ.
I like the idea of correctly matching the speaker diaphragm to the air so fancied some horns. and bought Tune Audio Animas more recently, alternating with my "speakers for life" which I bought about 25 years ago. The waterfall plot shows relatively slow decay compared to inefficient speakers but I can't say I find it obvious.
Overall I suppose the audio aspect is a hobby. Listening to musid is just what I do and always have done.

 

[sergeauckland]

Further to my earlier post above, and to Frank's post above, I suppose my interest in HiFi as a hobby seriously declined some 30+ years ago when it became clear that electronics were then as perfect as they need to be, so listening to equipment as a means of evaluation became pointless.

Loudspeakers were about the only thing left to play with, but even those, with the advent of DSP crossovers and equalisers, could be made sufficiently 'flat' as to make box-swapping somewhat less satisfying than before when passive 'speakers were all rather different, and none were really 'right'. I've never subscribed to the idea that HiFi should be chosen on the basis of what one likes, although when all equipment was in some way 'wrong' then personal preference was as good a way of choosing as any.

Now with electronics being as good as they need to be, and loudspeakers getting close, as least good ones are, the 'hobby' element for me has largely gone away.

I see that as a Very Good Thing as I can spend my time enjoying music rather than playing with equipment.


S

 

[rgpit]

I don't think of music as a hobby, it's just something in which I participate, that is part of my life.

Is watching TV a hobby?

Going to check the mailbox?

I think there is a difference between the "listening to music" aspect and the collecting of music and set up of playback equipment. For me, the latter two can be considered a hobby.

 

[Snarfie]

Music/audio i a necessary vitamin for me to cope with the daily madness on tv or internet/social media. It keeps me sane.

 

[xr100]

Now with electronics being as good as they need to be, and loudspeakers getting close, as least good ones are, the 'hobby' element for me has largely gone away.

Hmm, accepting that assertion (loudspeakers, that is; electronics are "sorted")... How about room treatment?

 

[xr100]

This is like asking how many people like “cooking” things in the kitchen but don’t like eating food.

Back in the day when I read the hi-fi press (in printed form) cover-to-cover, there was a letter from a reader who said that he went to someone's house to collect a used Naim system. Apparently, the soon-to-be-former owner of said expensive system had a collection of something like 10 CD's, to "listen to the equipment."

 

[MattHooper]

Yup, hobby.

I'm brought to it via a love of music like many here. But I have a fascination with the gear aspect and have certainly spent enough time on that side of things to warrant calling it a "hobby." (Though I admit to being a bit equivocal about that term. I'd feel more comfortable using it if I actually was involvedin DIY stuff rather than purchasing. But then, I'm quite involved in the putting together, setting up and optimizing of my system, including room acoustics etc).

One of the more annoying tropes in the audiophile world is the "It's all about the MUSIC" "I'm only in it for the music." It's a sort of purity test or social signalling in the audiophile world. It's seen as the purest devotion and "those other audiophiles who listen to their gear and care about all that stuff" aren't about the "real goal." "Audiophiles who are really into the gear have lost their way." And yet it's typically audiophiles who spend crazy money on gear who say this. I was at an audiophile's house who had probably around $200,000 worth of gear, multiple amps, hose thick cables held up on cable risers, the whole shebang. When he told me "I'm only in this for the music" I was thinking "Yeah, right, who are you fooling thinking that other than possibly yourself?"

But that is NOT to denigrate anyone's interest in the gear/technology side of audio. As I said, I happily admit an ongoing fascination with it, and clearly many here are also gear-geeks, enjoy building, measuring things etc. If an audiophile has a $200,000 system and only 10 CDs he ever listens to I'm not going to judge that as if I'm in some more rarified position to do so. Whatever floats your boat.

It's only irritating insofar as audiophiles won't own up to their actual motivations, especially in terms of portraying (or imagining) their motivation as more dignified than the other guy.

 

[xr100]

A hobby. Both listening to and creating. But here's an odd thing I've discovered. When listening to my hi-fi I want low distortion. That's the key. It sounds better that way. When playing my electric guitar, I want a lot of distortion. In fact, turn up the overdrive and effects, and it sounds better. Go figure.

Presumably, with high levels of "overdrive" you play "power" chords (5ths), i.e. missing the major/minor third. Nothing to figure; overdrive sounds awful outside of a few intervals, let alone fully mixed music.

Nothing wrong with FX. Long before electronic music, concert halls were not built only for the comfort of patrons and to provide cover from the elements but because they added an acoustic effect, namely... reverb.

The generation/modification of sound can be achieved either acoustically or electronically (inc. DSP)--there is really no reason to believe that there is something "pure" about an all-acoustic approach--or even to think that it must be the optimum approach. At least, there are plenty of awful sounding concert halls and no shortage of poor quality acoustic instruments...

 

[thefsb]

I don't think of music as a hobby, it's just something in which I participate, that is part of my life.

Is watching TV a hobby?

Going to check the mailbox?

7879 posts to ASR. Yes, that's a hobby.

 

[Purité Audio]

Hobby for me too, although initially I had high hopes of a business!
It has been interesting trying to cut through the oceans of BS that has been propagated for the last forty odd years.
Amir and ASR has already made a huge difference, younger clients understand the science and are able to disregard the BS.
More difficult for the customers of a certain age , indoctrination is extremely powerful.
Brexit/conservative,Cummings.
Keith

 

[sergeauckland]

Hmm, accepting that assertion (loudspeakers, that is; electronics are "sorted")... How about room treatment?

What about room treatment? I use my system in a normally furnished room, suitable for everyday family living,with the attendant 'normal' domestic acoustics. The way I see it, if a room works for normal conversation, with real sound sources, then it'll work for music played on nominally anechoically flat loudspeakers with well behaved off-axis behaviour. In those cases, no extra room treatment seems necessary.

S

 

[xr100]

What about room treatment? I use my system in a normally furnished room, suitable for everyday family living,with the attendant 'normal' domestic acoustics. The way I see it, if a room works for normal conversation, with real sound sources, then it'll work for music played on nominally anechoically flat loudspeakers with well behaved off-axis behaviour. In those cases, no extra room treatment seems necessary.

It was kinda a joke, actually--the idea that there was nothing else to "tweak" at this point. I have no idea what your room looks or sounds like--it's up to you what you want to do, or not do, with it.

 

[sergeauckland]

It was kinda a joke, actually--the idea that there was nothing else to "tweak" at this point. I have no idea what your room looks or sounds like--it's up to you what you want to do, or not do, with it.

Yes, it's hard to do subtle on a forum, so apologies for missing the joke. However, I do question the need for room treatment. If treatment is necessary, then either the room is very sparsely furnished and uncomfortable, or otherwise unsuitable, or the 'speakers are poor, especially their off-axis performance that causes the total energy to have a weird frequency response. Seeing some of the adverts in magazines for loudspeakers, with lots of glass and chrome, shiny wooden floors and not a carpet in sight, does make me wonder how those 'speakers would every sound good.....never mind they never show any cables connecting them........

S

 

[StevenEleven]

Presumably, with high levels of "overdrive" you play "power" chords (5ths), i.e. missing the major/minor third. Nothing to figure; overdrive sounds awful outside of a few intervals, let alone fully mixed music.

Nothing wrong with FX. Long before electronic music, concert halls were not built only for the comfort of patrons and to provide cover from the elements but because they added an acoustic effect, namely... reverb.

The generation/modification of sound can be achieved either acoustically or electronically (inc. DSP)--there is really no reason to believe that there is something "pure" about an all-acoustic approach--or even to think that it must be the optimum approach. At least, there are plenty of awful sounding concert halls and no shortage of poor quality acoustic instruments...

As Hendrix showed us a dominant 7 sharp 9 chord can sound pretty awesome in overdrive (Purple Haze, Crosstown Traffic). Perhaps you just need to get the instrument in the hands of the right person and they‘ll find a way.