Audiophilia and its discontents

[jim1274]

Might be little long for the Harper's letter's column, but who knows, maybe they're run it. Good luck.

(I would have mentioned Hydrogenaudio.org too, the grandaddy of online 'objectivist' audio, and going further back, to the print era, the mainstream magazines Stereo Review, Audio, and the niche but memorable Audio Critic and Sensible Sound, but that's me)

This forum reminds me a lot of “The Sensible Sound” magazine from back in the day, my guide in the pre-internet days. Every piece of audio gear purchased in the 80’s was from discovery in their pages. I had every single issue ever issued, and had them until a couple years ago. Pieces of gear that immediately come to mind:

Energy Reference 22 speakers (still have 2 pairs to this day, both in use)
Superphon Revelation Preamp and power amp (had until a couple years ago)
3D Acoustics 3D610B 3 piece speaker (given to a relative who used them until a few years ago)
Systemdek Turntable (long gone..)
Hafler DH500 amp and preamp
Had a couple other amps that forgot—a Belles maybe?

This was the only forum post that I found mentioning the magazine, so had to reply. Probably not known because half the forum members were not born yet when it was published…feeling really old now…

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

It wasn't my cup of tea, either. But I'm an engineer who listens to test tones and dummy loads.

Don’t forget graphs. I literally just saw a post on another forum accusing Ethan Winer of just listening to graphs.

 

[bachatero]

Don’t forget graphs. I literally just saw a post on another forum accusing Ethan Winer of just listening to graphs.

This is actually a good strategy to save money: read the graphs and just imagine what it's supposed to sound like

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

"Seems like a win for the author. Tons of audiophiles (myself included) have made very happy purchases via a similar route."

But I wonder how much happier he would have been buy buying good speaker instead of audiophile BS.

Also wonder if he would have picked those if he blind tested them against some good speakers.

One of the unfortunate aspects of audio is that two of the three things that matter most in a home audio system, the speakers and the room are the most difficult to audition under ideal conditions, blind, time synchronized quick switching and level optimized. As far as I can tell rooms are impossible. Fortunately the third aspect, DSPs are generally really easy.

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

I was watching one of Guttenberg & Reichert's chat sessions and they started talking about realism, and they said their high end systems never sounded exactly like the real thing. Steve said that if he was walking down the street and heard the sound of a piano or guitar from a window he would know instantly if it was real or a recording, whatever speakers were involved. If he was blindfold in a room he could tell from one note if it was piano or a speaker, whatever $100 000 high end system is playing. So isn't this quest for realism a chimera?

I don’t think so. We just didn’t have the technology to do it in the past.

 

[DomPaj]

From The Economist dated Jan1 2024