Pancreas
Addicted to Fun and Learning
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interesting post I found on Reddit
One question that I see come up a lot is: why aren't there more audiophiles? Why so many normies? I've thought a lot about this.
I think the answer is: For most people: music is enough and hearing music is easy. Really good sound is rare and untapped audiophile converts aren't hearing it. Why? Because you need ALL of the following:
This means that the chance that anyone who is listening to "music" is hearing really good sound is 1 in 16,000 -- and remember, that's assuming a 100% probability that they're listing to a good recording of music that they like at a reasonable volume.
Where is a normie going to get good sound?
They're not, because they don't now it's a thing. But assuming they do...
Not at a show: the rooms, the music, the distractions, not to mention the intimidating prices, etc.
Maybe at a friend's house? ... If they have such a friend, who happens to have everything dialed in correctly. Possible, but not likely. FWIW: I'm a bit of a fanatic and even my setups aren't life-changing.
At a retailer? Possibly. At least in the Eastern US the economics are such that any retailer with a properly implemented room must sell very expensive equipment, which is a high bar for a non-audiophile to accept. Places with less expensive real estate and labor costs might offer some retail options.
So, there you go. Not pretty. For dragon-chasers only.
One question that I see come up a lot is: why aren't there more audiophiles? Why so many normies? I've thought a lot about this.
I think the answer is: For most people: music is enough and hearing music is easy. Really good sound is rare and untapped audiophile converts aren't hearing it. Why? Because you need ALL of the following:
- Properly engineered and built equipment. (side note: this does not necessarily mean expensive)
- Proper speaker positioning in #3.
- A good room: with good dimensions, well managed dispersion and absorption - not too much or too little. (or at least some room correction to overcome real world shortcomings, properly implemented)
- A good recording ...
- ... of a type of music that the listener enjoys.
- Played not too quietly and not too loudly.
- A good listener state of mind.
- Equipment: 99% of the world uses a single bluetooth speaker or mediocre headphones. They hear music. Done. So, we're at 1% already.
- Real world conditions often prevent optimal speaker positioning -- if a user even gives it any consideration to begin with. So, let's be generous and say 25% get this right.
- A good room. One might be lucky here, with bookshelves at the right locations, enough but not too many soft things, a high ceiling maybe, but more than likely not. You probably don't have an impossibly cool partner who is fine with acoustic panels and bass traps in the living room. Let's be generous and say 10% get this right.
- Good recordings. This is easy. But you have to know that such a thing exists and care enough to seek them out. I'll allow 100% because these are known.
- And a listener needs to like the music in the good recordings. Let's be super generous and assume that the listener thought this through. Let's give this one 100% also.
- Played not too quietly or too loudly. I'll be generous again and say 100% because ears and volume knobs are readily available.
- State of mind: I'll go with 25%. A person first must care, have an open mind, there can't be too many distractions, etc.
This means that the chance that anyone who is listening to "music" is hearing really good sound is 1 in 16,000 -- and remember, that's assuming a 100% probability that they're listing to a good recording of music that they like at a reasonable volume.
Where is a normie going to get good sound?
They're not, because they don't now it's a thing. But assuming they do...
Not at a show: the rooms, the music, the distractions, not to mention the intimidating prices, etc.
Maybe at a friend's house? ... If they have such a friend, who happens to have everything dialed in correctly. Possible, but not likely. FWIW: I'm a bit of a fanatic and even my setups aren't life-changing.
At a retailer? Possibly. At least in the Eastern US the economics are such that any retailer with a properly implemented room must sell very expensive equipment, which is a high bar for a non-audiophile to accept. Places with less expensive real estate and labor costs might offer some retail options.
So, there you go. Not pretty. For dragon-chasers only.
) but I'm sure the folks on Audiogon and other audiophool forums would look down on it and say it was a terrible setup that sounds awful and is insufficiently resolving.
