Audio science reviewers are not audiophiles?

[Pancreas]

found this comment on Drop lol

Audiophile 101: What is an Audiophile? | Drop

Image credit @Evshrug [image] In my time browsing various headphone and audio forums, I’ve observed again and again a somewhat amusing contradiction. If you...

drop.com

The "Science Review"-philes, are NOT audiophiles. They are the Julian Hirsch Memorial Society... never really listen to music, they just sit there with their scopes, frequency analyzers, calibrated microphones, function generators and measure, measure, measure... after all, to them, we KNOW everything that makes an audio system perfect. Pfft.Then you got the deep pocket "audio philes". You know, the ones that sink money into the Mk. IV Reference Signature versions with cryogenic treatments.... after all, someone needs to buy those Tice Clocks, Mpingo disks, etc... These are the folks that will buy audio jewelry with $40K of bling and $5K of actual work in the electronics and their Bill of Materials (BOM). Someone has to keep those businesses running.. and that equipment looks good... sound? Well, these audiophiles only listen to 30 recordings and have short attention spans.Then you got the vast swatch of real audiophiles.. you know, the kind that want to listen to music and hopefully in a "high fidelity" mode. Sure, we can enjoy The Eagles playing on the PA of a Kyoto store... but sometimes it's nicer when you can hear how the guitar was picked, when the drum kit sounds realistic and the performance is dynamic... the strings should be on the left, basses on the right and the woodwinds a bit off center, behind, to the right.Some of us know how to handle the Science Review crowd... heck, some of us know how to build components, review schematics, etc.. and we know that measurements only scratch the surface since the real science of psychoacoustics is far from complete ( why does negative 2nd order harmonic distortion sound so realistic? )... and we also know that $40K of bling and a Reference Signature does nothing to the sound.So, we listen. We are audiophiles... and we do NOT have a coffee table in the living room.... That impacts the sound staging of the system... I mean that. And we have thousands of LPs, hi-rez files... hopefully no CDs..

 

[earik]

Ok, so to summarize:

1) Measuring -> not an audiophile
2) Spending $$$, but especially if you spend $40k -> not an audiophile
3) Music with strings on the right, not the left -> not an audiophile
4) Coffee table in the living room -> not an audiophile
5) CDs -> not an audiophile

Who knew? I guess I'm not an audiophile.

 

[sam_adams]

found this comment on Drop

And that's where you should have left it.

 

[Keith_W]

I would wager that the "science type" audiophiles have better listening skills than the usual subjectivists. After all, we are the ones who know that we can improve our listening skills with training, and we actively do exercises to improve our ability to discern. For example, the cocktail party effect means that you won't be able to pick one voice from a mass of people speaking, unless you focus on that voice. And you can't focus on that voice unless you know what that sounds like. Your brain fills in the rest of what that person is saying from sentence structure and grammar. I suspect this is the same mechanism that lets us hear MP3 distortion at low levels - first you have to hear what high level MP3 distortion sounds like, then you will be able to pick low level distortion. Listening has to be actively trained - if it's not trained, it's not perceived.

 

[solderdude]

The actual article isn't half bad and not condemning either.

The response (comment) from Tony_e just shows tremendously biased and deliberately misinforming hatred towards ASR . Even though he does not name ASR we know what/who he means.
There are people like that because they don't understand the value of measurements and feels not taken serious by 'those deaf and never listening measurement guys'.

He then mixes audiophools with audiophiles in a justification for his personal life choices in his audio system/decisions without a clear border of where audiophile becomes audiophool to him.

Its just a comment written in hate. They can be found anywhere on any subject.

 

[Doodski]

The actual article isn't half bad and not condemning either.

The response (comment) from Tony_e just shows tremendously biased and deliberately misinforming hatred towards ASR . Even though he does not name ASR we know what/who he means.
There are people like that because they don't understand the value of measurements and feels not taken serious by 'those deaf and never listening measurement guys'.

He then mixes audiophools with audiophiles in a justification for his personal life choices in his audio system/decisions without a clear border of where audiophile becomes audiophool to him.

Its just a comment written in hate. They can be found anywhere on any subject.

I fully agree. I sensed it as a rant.

 

[JiiPee]

A message to Tony_e:

Dear Sir,
As a secretary of The Official Audiophile Society acceptance board, I am hereby informing You, that Your application to our group has been turned down. The reason for denial of membership: Violation of the membership rule #34a "An audiophile shall not use his living room as a primary music listening space. Instead he shall have a dedicated music listening room."

Yours sincerely,
JiiPee

 

[holdingpants01]

is that a bad thing?

 

[PjV]

I'm happy to confirm I'm not an audiophile. I'm a musicophile.

 

[Koeitje]

And that's where you should have left it.

Should have just dropped it.


Anyway, I'm not an audiophile, because that term has only vaguely to do with the quality of the sound reproduction. I like to enjoy my favorite music played back at high fidelity, so I'd rather just say I enjoy high fidelity audio.

 

[Jim Taylor]

Just "measure, measure, measure", eh?

I wonder how these types would explain the thread we have, "What are we listening to right now?", that is 1,120 pages long with 22, 389 posts. That's ignoring the threads regarding classical music, female voice, jazz, electronic and piano recordings.

These kinds of people remind me of Flat Earthers trying to defend their views.

Jim

 

[Petrushka]

Measurements gave us decent quality sound that is, in inflation adjusted money, about one-fifth the price of 1968 gear.

No matter how you slice it, even mediocre stuff sounds better than the old home consoles, and it sounds better because of measurement wars.

 

[AdamG]

found this comment on Drop lol

Audiophile 101: What is an Audiophile? | Drop

Image credit @Evshrug [image] In my time browsing various headphone and audio forums, I’ve observed again and again a somewhat amusing contradiction. If you...

drop.com

Just means we are reaching an ever increasing number of new users/fans. We are permeating the Audio space and they are trying to define what we stand for. People with brains and “knowledge curiosity” will be drawn to discover for themselves what we do here.

 

[egellings]

Enjoy whatever tickles your nun-handles (pinnae). I am an audio crazie, not an audiophile. It's like the difference between drunkards and alcoholics. Us drunks don't go to no meetin's.

 

[jhaider]

found this comment on Drop lol

Audiophile 101: What is an Audiophile? | Drop

Image credit @Evshrug [image] In my time browsing various headphone and audio forums, I’ve observed again and again a somewhat amusing contradiction. If you...

drop.com

What’s “negative 2nd order harmonic distortion” - removing harmonics? And how does that improve things?

Very, ahem, odd.

 

[A.wayne]

Measurephile vs Audiophile , two sides of the same coin ..

cant we all just get along ..

 

[Multicore]

found this comment on Drop lol

Audiophile 101: What is an Audiophile? | Drop

Image credit @Evshrug [image] In my time browsing various headphone and audio forums, I’ve observed again and again a somewhat amusing contradiction. If you...

drop.com

I thought it was very funny. A pretty good rant that got me giggling in several places. The "function generators" was great.

 

[Killingbeans]

cant we all just get along ..

Joke aside. Yeah, we're all just a bunch of people trying to enjoy the same hobby.

Personally I'd just wish it was less focused on hocus-pocus and more on healthy scepticism.

 

[KSTR]

What’s “negative 2nd order harmonic distortion” - removing harmonics? And how does that improve things?

Negative means the waveform compresses on the positive side and expands on the negative, which sure can sound different (especially in the bass) than the other way round. If someone perceives this as better sounding than normal 2nd or no distortion, then the situation has improved. Same with 3rd order, which may compress the tops on both polarities (like when starting to soft-clip) or may expand it.

 

[Anton S]

Mom always said that opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one, and everybody thinks his or hers doesn't stink.