Why are there no female Audiophiles?

[Digby]

Maybe we are viewing it the wrong way? Being an audiophile or, to ditch that word for a moment, someone who is involved enough in audio to join a forum, post regularly and/or go to conventions - these people are probably fewer than 1% of all people. It is already something unusual, even though probably something like 85%+ of people will say that they are passionate about music, somehow that interest doesn't translate to reproduction equipment.

There is obviously something different about being significantly interested in the equipment, rather than just enjoying music almost irrespective of equipment, which a far larger amount of people do.

I suppose a similar comparison is cars. Most have a car or use one at some point in time, but how many are interested enough to buy magazines, go to forums, and learn how they work....again, I think we are looking at a small percentage, 1-3% maybe....

Most people like music, but have a fleeting interest in the equipment used to reproduce music. Most people are interested in what the car does for them (allowing them to travel quickly and independently), not the car in and of itself. The same can be said of music - the equipment it is played on is a secondary, perhaps even more like tertiary consideration for the overwhelming majority.

 

[JayGilb]

Because men are insecure creatures and having a "large" stereo system makes up for their feelings of inadequacy in other areas of their lives.
Don't waste your time diving too deep into "audiophile" analysis, evolutionary, we are a stone's throw away our primitive ancestors.

 

[Digby]

Because men are insecure creatures and having a "large" stereo system makes up for their feelings of inadequacy in other areas of their lives.
Don't waste your time diving too deep into "audiophile" analysis, evolutionary, we are a stone's throw away our primitive ancestors.

Are we though? I don't think our primitive ancestors had anaethesia, aeroplanes or had harnessed the power of electricity. If we look at the measurements (here comes my excuse for being primitive, by way ), then we will see that we need a relatively large stereo system for accurate reproduction. Sound can only be miniaturised so far.

I don't dispute what you say, but perhaps there is something similar, albeit at a rather smaller scale, to the frustration with 'what is' within the audiophile that is distantly related to what sent us too the moon and all those other high points of human endeavour. That is, a dissatisfaction with the status quo?

 

[computer-audiophile]

Because men are insecure creatures and having a "large" stereo system makes up for their feelings of inadequacy in other areas of their lives.

It would be sad if this thesis were true. I would not attribute my enjoyment of technology and music to such deficits. Besides, I have several other hobbies.

 

[OCA]

This is not true. My audiophile channel has 0.2% female subscribers

 

[Galliardist]

My sister is by some standards a kind of audiophile. Last year at age 56 she dramatically changed career, now doubles working in a garage and as a trained remedial masseuse working from a room at home.

She has and maintains a vintage Technics system in the living room, a system put together for the massage room mainly to play ambient music for mood setting, complete with smiley equaliser for low level listening (her natural taste is hard and prog rock, and early 80s pop) and she now has a high quality system in one of her cars that she mostly put in herself to learn how to do it. She likes different devices for different listening, uses Amazon Echo for listening to "radio", for example.

Her real passion is live music and she thinks nothing of travelling hundreds of miles for the right gig with the right people, though. I can't fault her attitude. She wouldn't be seen dead in any kind of "hi fi" community - many of her friends, male and female, also seem to have good sounding stereo but none of them are audiophiles in our sense of the word. As I said earlier in another thread: buy once, buy well and get on with listening. They did that, good on 'em.

 

[Galliardist]

Because men are insecure creatures and having a "large" stereo system makes up for their feelings of inadequacy in other areas of their lives.
Don't waste your time diving too deep into "audiophile" analysis, evolutionary, we are a stone's throw away our primitive ancestors.

Nothing makes up for my feelings of inadequacy in other areas and I wouldn't even try.

 

[Digby]

Nothing makes up for my feelings of inadequacy in other areas and I wouldn't even try.

What about throwing a few shrimps on the barbie? That, if nothing else, should at least make you feel better

 

[computer-audiophile]

This is not true. My audiophile channel has 0.2% female subscribers

What does that mean. I haven't visited your channel yet either.

 

[JayGilb]

Are we though? I don't think our primitive ancestors had anaethesia, aeroplanes or had harnessed the power of electricity. If we look at the measurements (here comes my excuse for being primitive, by way ), then we will see that we need a relatively large stereo system for accurate reproduction. Sound can only be miniaturised so far.

I don't dispute what you say, but perhaps there is something similar, albeit at a rather smaller scale, to the frustration with 'what is' within the audiophile that is distantly related to what sent us too the moon and all those other high points of human endeavour. That is, a dissatisfaction with the status quo?

I'm not just commenting on audiophiles. I see this same root biological problem manifest itself in all forms throughout human history.
Sometime it leads to innovation, but it also leads to terrible deeds.

 

[Galliardist]

What about throwing a few shrimps on the barbie? That, if nothing else, should at least make you feel better

After 20 years here, I'm still too English for stuff like that - and anyway, we don't do that here. Prawns, not shrimps. It's a lie an advert.

 

[Galliardist]

This is not true. My audiophile channel has 0.2% female subscribers

View attachment 309685

Maybe it's the OCD part that excludes them, not the audiophile part.

 

[Digby]

I'm not just commenting on audiophiles. I see this same root biological problem manifest itself in all forms throughout human history.
Sometime it leads to innovation, but it also leads to terrible deeds.

Oh sure, that is a very good point. The kind of drive that makes people do tremendous things is probably the same drive, somewhat distorted (for whatever reason), that makes people do vain or even wicked things.

 

[Digby]

After 20 years here, I'm still too English for stuff like that - and anyway, we don't do that here. Prawns, not shrimps. It's a lie.

That's exactly the kind of response I'd expect from a whinging Pom, 20 years in Australia or not

 

[VintageFlanker]

Not sure if these stats are reliable, but from Similarweb :

So, "maybe", we are on the right track...

 

[JayGilb]

Maybe that is why audiophiles like to play with a lot of switches ?

 

[Galliardist]

Not sure if these stats are reliable, but from Similarweb :
View attachment 309686View attachment 309687
So, "maybe", we are on the right track...

Only if they don't read some of the posts in this thread, as you pointed out. The age distribution is somewhat different to what I'd expect as well!

 

[OCA]

Maybe it's the OCD part that excludes them, not the audiophile part.

 

[Digby]

i would like to tentatively add something else to the mix...autistic traits? I suspect the people (usually men) who are trainspotters, audiophiles, philatelists, add you own obscure hobby here - probably have higher than average levels of autism or autistic like traits.

it'd be interesting to see to what extent autism is found within engineers, for example, compared to a typical population. Probably many multiples higher, I'd imagine.

Autism is mostly (but not solely) a male phenomenon, being rather more rare in females, so perhaps this is part of the equation too?

 

[Bjorn]

I believe it mainly comes down to how we're wired or created if you will. It's not only audio, men are generally more steered towards technology and mechanics than women. You also find fewer women who are interested in hardware gear, cars or computers.

And you can say the opposite of several of women's interests.