Audiophiles are those who solve non-problems with too much money

[tuga]

Is this a fair statement?

An audiophile is someone who is interested and/or appreciates sound quality.
Not all audiophiles are made equal.

 

[Scrappy]

Insisting on doing something in the analog domain when it can be handled easily and cheaply in the digital domain with software is like solving a non-problem. Speakers (or other transducers) have to be physical and analog.

Tube Active Crossover

www.pmillett.com

Still wanna build these.. ha!

 

[cybernaut667]

Some of us are misanthropes.

 

[Scrappy]

Guys, I have to confess. I flaunt my wealth all the time. Now that I am retired, I flaunt it around the poorer working class individuals. I mean I do it on purpose just to show them how much money I have. For example, when I go to Wendys, I will order a cheeseburger and I upgrade it with the more expensive "extra cheese" option. This lets the other lowlifes in the line know that I have money AND I'm not afraid to spend it. Like upgrading from a regular chili to a large chili. Everyone in the line behind me knows, that guy is going all out. I do this kind of stuff all the time. Like going to McDonalds and getting two breakfast biscuits instead of one. I know others are wishing they could too.

The downside of flaunting my wealth is that my doctors are trying to get me banned from eating for six months. They (numerous docs) all agree that a six month fast would be the best thing for my health. So, flaunting your wealth can be hazardous to your health!

F#cking lol

 

[Scrappy]

I was an audiophile when I was young. When I was 15, my folks generously bought me a Sony rig: basic stereo receiver, three-way tower speakers 8”, 3”, 1”. Listening to 128 mp3’s, ha! Got a multidisk pioneer cd deck and a turntable next, with a bad collection of scratched-up LP’s and 45’s. CD collection was OK. Lotta 45’s from my mom’s collection from her youth. Still have em. I remember showing my brother the new Hosa cables I bought; gold plated! He was dubious, what does it matter? Well it looked good even tho on the back, ha. All cheap stuff, but I enjoyed the process.

Ended up donating the speakers to my fraternity back in the day. Still have the receiver, tho I cooked a channel (input I think) trying to bridge it ha! It drives a big carpeted Yamaha PA speaker in my shop now. Tone controls are useful. Disc player and turntable are sitting in boxes. Still use the RCA cables for my large collection of powered monitors.

Now that I know plenty of math about audio system implementation, progress ticks along to make a good room, and buy good speakers for it. “Keep work at work..” so nice tidy drive system and cabling will happen, at some point... ha!

I wouldn’t say I’m an audiophile anymore, but nor a studio engineer (despite that college learnin). Just want a good-sounding, well-put together rig that does reference as well as fun movies/ occasional video gaming.

Edit: money-wise, I ain’t loaded! Spend what I can/ want. Not gonna be flexing with big-dollar devices. But I’ll like how it sounds. Pardon the rant...

 

[Sal1950]

The bottom component's easy, though. It's a Mac C-8 mono preamp, with a bevy of phono preamp EQ curves built in!
The plexiglass's refractive index is distorting one of the four lower knobs on the C-8 to the point of invisibility!

Great call, I missed that one.
That's a vinyl-head's dream there. Lots of EQ options for everything from 78's, 45's and mono LP's.

I agree on the Scott LK-48. How kool was the kit market back then, I loved it
My 1963 Allied catalog lists it at $124.95. Then an extra $13.95 for the brown metal case, or $24.50 for a wood case in either mahogany or oiled walnut finish.

 

[mhardy6647]

That is impressive detective work. I was trying to figure it out when I saw the post. I was so off base I’m embarrassed to even say what I thought it was.

Well... some of us... 1) have too much trivial knowledge of... certain things... and... 2) have a little too much 'unstructured' time in our days.

 

[mhardy6647]

Great call, I missed that one.
That's a vinyl-head's dream there. Lots of EQ options for everything from 78's, 45's and mono LP's.

I agree on the Scott LK-48. How kool was the kit market back then, I loved it
My 1963 Allied catalog lists it at $124.95. Then an extra $13.95 for the brown metal case, or $24.50 for a wood case in either mahogany or oiled walnut finish.

I have a brown-faced LK-72 (the PP 7591A big brother of the LK-48) down in the basement. It has... issues in one channel.
I've taken a few stabs at troubleshooting it. I know that if I inject signal at the phase splitter, the output is fine, so it's somwhere upstream of that.
As my late father said when I was picking his brain about it (quite a few years ago now), though:

Since it was built as a kit, you really have no idea whether it ever worked right.

Or words to that effect. Possibly rather pithier words.

At any rate, I've had it for perhaps 20 years - and I've yet to work up the gumption to trace the 'bad channel' out from end to end.

PS The Mac C-8 was/is a nice piece.

 

[Spkrdctr]

Well... some of us... 1) have too much trivial knowledge of... certain things... and... 2) have a little too much 'unstructured' time in our days.

OMG! You just described me......How did you know?

 

[kongwee]

I sure people doing Magico M9 setup are more for enjoyment.

 

[mglobe]

Great call, I missed that one.
That's a vinyl-head's dream there. Lots of EQ options for everything from 78's, 45's and mono LP's.

I agree on the Scott LK-48. How kool was the kit market back then, I loved it
My 1963 Allied catalog lists it at $124.95. Then an extra $13.95 for the brown metal case, or $24.50 for a wood case in either mahogany or oiled walnut finish.

I helped my father build a Scott kit. Don't remember the vintage, but I know that it was towards the end of the line of kits. Later I built a Hafler 220, which I still own.

 

[AnalogSteph]

And you'll never go wrong with Altec (IMO)!

These buildings in the background are not just any dilapidated old buildings, apparently.

Jerome H. Remick - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I wonder where exactly that is, when the photo was taken (other than up to 1975) and whether there is anything still left today (I sort of doubt it, the one in the middle clearly is missing its roof so seems about ready to be torn down back then).

 

[617]

To me it's worse than just that. Expensive watches, jewelry, even a trophy wife: none of these are flying under a false flag. They are what they obviously are, and no more. Audiophilia is a big con man game, and the people getting conned are its most vocal disciples.

You make a good point, and to add on to it - my problem with expensive non - performant stuff isn't that it's expensive and non-performant, it's that it simply isn't beautiful enough to justify the whole acquisition. Putting aside resale value, musical enjoyment (a walkman will give you the music) the gear just isn't that beautiful with very few exceptions.

 

[fpitas]

You make a good point, and to add on to it - my problem with expensive non - performant stuff isn't that it's expensive and non-performant, it's that it simply isn't beautiful enough to justify the whole acquisition. Putting aside resale value, musical enjoyment (a walkman will give you the music) the gear just isn't that beautiful with very few exceptions.

I agree. But I think the target audience is impressed, especially if the wonkiness is billed as making it exclusive.

 

[Sal1950]

I wonder where exactly that is, when the photo was taken (other than up to 1975) and whether there is anything still left today

I'd wager good money that's Detroit MI

 

[afinepoint]

The proud wearer may think he has some status symbol or display of good taste and 90% of the public wouldn't be impressed if you told them what it was......."

They are not interested in the opinion of the 90%. They travel in the upper 1%. That crowd does care.

 

[fpitas]

They are not interested in the opinion of the 90%. They travel in the upper 1%. That crowd does care.

Yes, status seeking didn't suddenly happen because of audiophilia.

 

[TonyJZX]

An audiophile is someone who is interested and/or appreciates sound quality.
Not all audiophiles are made equal.

i keep thinking of this meme

when OP compares to watches it not the same thing... i usually wear a watch a day but its only two watches... an auto chrono and an auto gmt

obviously watches tell the time but their additional functions serve no purpose... i dont time anything and i dont need to know outside of my own time zone

but the love of auto watches has been with me since a teenager so this will never change

with audio equipment its a funny one... in that obviously here we care about how something charts but there's something about... good construction, well thought out operation, pleasing design

even the proprieter says as much... an amp with a big set of VU meters is a good thing

but its no point if the underlying performance is not there

to me there's some products that hit the 'mark' and its not about numbers... i like stuff like the Yamaha AS1200, McIntosh MC5000/7000 series

i'm much less fussy about dacs and i wish could be more fussy about speakers

 

[afinepoint]

i keep thinking of this meme

when OP compares to watches it not the same thing... i usually wear a watch a day but its only two watches... an auto chrono and an auto gmt

obviously watches tell the time but their additional functions serve no purpose... i dont time anything and i dont need to know outside of my own time zone

but the love of auto watches has been with me since a teenager so this will never change

with audio equipment its a funny one... in that obviously here we care about how something charts but there's something about... good construction, well thought out operation, pleasing design

even the proprieter says as much... an amp with a big set of VU meters is a good thing

but its no point if the underlying performance is not there

to me there's some products that hit the 'mark' and its not about numbers... i like stuff like the Yamaha AS1200, McIntosh MC5000/7000 series

i'm much less fussy about dacs and i wish could be more fussy about speakers

Your ears. Your money. Not for anyone else to say how you should spend it unless you ask.

 

[fpitas]

I think we've proven over and over it's not the ears that determine spending, so much as various imaginary factors. But I agree that it's your money. If it makes you happy tossing it off a bridge, enjoy.