Do you refer to yourself as an 'audiophile'?

[Rednaxela]

audio enthusiast

I like it.

 

[Rednaxela]

Didn't we do this topic last year?

Sort of.

What Is An Audiophile?

Is being an audiophile about spending gobs money on gear to impress your friends, or something else? Here's my take on what makes an audiophile. Agree or disagree?

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ryanosaur]

Sort of.

What Is An Audiophile?

Is being an audiophile about spending gobs money on gear to impress your friends, or something else? Here's my take on what makes an audiophile. Agree or disagree?

www.audiosciencereview.com

Ah, that must be it... IIRC, he did the same post over on AH, too. Let's see...

33 seconds pass...

What Is An Audiophile?

Is being an audiophile about spending gobs money on gear to impress your friends, or something else? Here's my take on what makes an audiophile. Agree or disagree?

forums.audioholics.com

 

[Timcognito]

Used to, I like audio enthusiast or hobbyist better but music collector is good to. The whole audiophile thing puts off new people with a holier than thou vibe, IMO.

 

[guy48065]

I'm an audiophile & tech nerd. Not particularly bothered by the narrow-minded "meters uber alles" cult that deny that measurements--and the improvement of same--seek to validate what our ears discern. Not the other way around.

 

[Joe Smith]

Music lover and equipment geek is my preferred stance.

 

[GXAlan]

The term 'audiophile' to me is almost derogatory and signals being one of the cult,

I think making those assumptions about labels is actually why people call ASR the cult of SINAD.

Applying labels and then using the label to sort groups into “us” versus “them” isn’t that productive.

I love music and a good sound system but I've never referred to myself as an audiophile, it's self deficating in my mind.

How do others feel regarding this?

If you love music and love a good sound system, you’re probably an audiophile. If you have more than the Apple USB-C dongle, know what SINAD, PEQ, and THD+N means, and the difference between speakers with a 4 or 8 ohm impedance, you’re an audiophile.

You can be an audiophile who favors objective evaluation over subjective evaluation, but you’re an audiophile. Instead of treating it like a derogatory term, realize that your prejudice and bias is what makes the word derogatory.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Yes I do. Not ashamed of it. I was one when I thought some goofy things, and I'm one now when according to different people I still think goofy things.

 

[Timcognito]

I think making those assumptions about labels is actually why people call ASR the cult of SINAD.

Applying labels and then using the label to sort groups into “us” versus “them” isn’t that productive.



If you love music and love a good sound system, you’re probably an audiophile. If you have more than the Apple USB-C dongle, know what SINAD, PEQ, and THD+N means, and the difference between speakers with a 4 or 8 ohm impedance, you’re an audiophile.

You can be an audiophile who favors objective evaluation over subjective evaluation, but you’re an audiophile. Instead of treating it like a derogatory term, realize that your prejudice and bias is what makes the word derogatory.

You may be the Jeff Foxworthy of ASR.

 

[Multicore]

No. I am the Pragmatic Antiaudiophile.

I said what this means already in other posts but lemmy see if I can do it again more briefly.

1. The practice of aesthetic appreciation of playback equipment in itself is at best uninteresting to me and at worst repellent and absurd.
2. I have found audiophiles generally no more informative on musical aesthetics than other people and often surprisingly incurious about music.
3. I think audiophile practice often represents the unhealthy objectification of music in the extreme since it typically takes the finished recording as the reference, whereas I believe the recording might well be acoustically, artistically, even musically wrong and when so this is more important.
4. What thrills and excites me us music and sound and not fidelity or other metrics of high performance. Good music survives.
5. Music as other arts is a social practice. Stereophonic listening, with its headphones or single static listener in the correct position (the Maxell man in his Le Corbusier club chair, lonely but blown away by the quality of his system), strikes me as a kinda perverse approach to seeking pleasure.

So, if I am no audiophile, why are there Ascend Acoustics Sierra Tower speakers in the living room and Genelec on my work desk? Because I am doubly cursed. First, I grew up in the 70s and 80s when having a collection of recordings and a decent stereo was a common middle-class aspiration that I fell into like a lot of adolescent males. Second, owing to my ongoing involvement in music/sound as a musician, composer, improviser, sound artist, and music radio host, I've experienced what high performance systems can afford and I sometimes notice when they are deficient. Having clearly deficient equipment is really annoying.

 

[Axo1989]

For a moment I thought my browser was throwing up the wrong post timestamps (like when they sometimes say "tomorrow" or in this case "a while back") but it looks like this is a fresh thread.

The etymology of audiophile (ie liking sound) is straightforward and applicable, but the cultural connotation of gear fetishist is less positive. Audiophile isn't a term I come across outside forums like these (or hi-fi publications or other journalism about same). So, generally, no.

 

[Multicore]

An audiophile is a person who is interested in high fidelity reproduction of sound. Period!

I should imagine there are professionals very interested high fidelity reproduction of sound, e.g. people who provide or rely on sound reproduction, that deny being audiophiles because the word usually refers to a consumer hobby.

 

[Multicore]

Didn't we do this topic last year?

We do the Oscars every year too.

 

[Timcognito]

When the 16mm film started shuttering in the auditorium in middle school your name was shouted by almost everyone. " Amir, fix the projector"

 

[vicenzo_del_paris]

This discussion will lead nowhere unless we stick to the definition/meaning of this term instead of each for us providing its own definition/understanding/adaptation of it

From a pure semantic standpoint, I agree with @MattHooper . Most of us here are indeed audiophiles wherever you like it or not !

 

[ryanosaur]

We do the Oscars every year too.

doesn't mean we should...
*shrugs

 

[Axo1989]

This discussion will lead nowhere unless we stick to the definition/meaning of this term instead of each for us providing its own definition/understanding/adaptation of it

From a pure semantic standpoint, I agree with @MattHooper . Most of us here are indeed audiophiles wherever you like it or not !

If the question was "are you an audiophile?" that would be the case. But if we are asking "do you refer to yourself as an audiophile?" then the connotations of the term to each person will likely determine the answer.

 

[DLS79]

But if we are asking "do you refer to yourself as an audiophile?" then the connotations of the term to each person will likely determine the answer.

Just understanding others connotations can be enlightening on its own.

 

[Timcognito]

This discussion will lead nowhere unless we stick to the definition/meaning of this term instead of each for us providing its own definition/understanding/adaptation of it

From a pure semantic standpoint, I agree with @MattHooper . Most of us here are indeed audiophiles wherever you like it or not !

Yes I agree, but the issue of how you think of yourself or others define you is also interesting, gourmet or foodie, racist or supremacist, naturalist or environmentalist, cultured or cool, to name few modern ones. There are subtleties and euphemisms that one defines or escape a wanted or unwanted label.

 

[Axo1989]

Just understanding others connotations can be enlightening on its own.

Yes, that also.