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What's an audiophile?


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Sure seems like we have a lot of gear heads on the forum.  It's hard to listen to music or the HT without paying attention to how the gear is performing.  When I am listening with other people in a more relaxing or festival environment, then I am more focused on just the music.  Heck, I don't know what I am.

Edited by derrickdj1
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I don't like being called  an audiophile, mostly because of negative connotations associated with the moniker. The average Joe thinks an audiophile spends a fortune on wire, magic rocks and other worthless tweaks. I refer to myself as a high performance audio enthusiast, which is a more accurate description of my interests in the hobby.

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If you have 5,000 posts on the Klipsch Forums, you just might be an audiophile.  :P

 

 

 

During our after busy season party I had met a couple that named their sons Logan, Martin and Krell, then found out they named their daughters Maggie, Linn and Avalon; I suddenly realized that “they just might be audiophiles.” :huh:

 

 

 

 

 

I've seen multiple people name their kids, cats, and dogs after gun manufacturers and whatnot.  A cat named "Tactical", boy named "Barrett", Colt is always a favorite, etc.  Krell is surprising though.  I don't even know what those girls names are from.  

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  I don't even know what those girls names are from.  

 

 

 

http://www.magnepan.com/ , http://www.linn.co.uk/ http://www.avalondesign.com/index-main.html 

 

 

 

 

Avalon Design works too, nice and expensive; however, I was actually thinking Avalon Acoustics.

 

Magnepan Mini Maggie

 

Linn Sondek LP12 turntable

 

Avalon Acoustics Sentinel

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I think you have to be a speaker builder, x-over craftsman and have a hand in building or understanding tube and SS amps.  Anything less and you are just a fanboy reading specs and chasing what everyone else thinks is at the top of the pile. That doesn't mean you cant love and enjoy music, it just might mean that you might have swapped drivers, networks, horns and cables so much that you cant remember what your factory speaker sounded like or if you're actually in a better place with all these mods or you're tired of rolling equipment and just want to settle in with what you have. 

   I am not a true audiophile even though the people on the outside would see me as one.  My woodskills are crap, 3 years trying to understand and compute a swamped network, nada. Yep, and I just bought my latest amp on its reputation.  Hand me the pom poms.

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How to do this without being too long winded?

 

OK I used to be an audiophile. Two things have changed. The first is my hearing which is not what it was (50% hearing loss in my left ear over 10K, less in the right). Second is that I was at a friends house a few years back listening to my own copy of the Rach 3 (Ashkenazy / Previn / LSO, London recording) and as the second movement ended I queried whether he thought the amp was clipping at points. I realized I was no longer listening to the music but listening to the system. My favorite piece of music of all time had become a test piece.

 

That was a shock. The cure was to move away from audiophilia for a while and to deliberately listen to lesser systems. At first it hurt but after a while I could focus on the music and after a longer while my brain filled in the missing parts, or improved the parts that weren't rendered so well.

 

Now I can listen to any system with scant regard to what it is (ok within limits) and hear the music as my brain tells me it should be.

 

I still appreciate a good system that presents the music well, but its no longer such a biggie as it was. I'm listening to music again, not systems. Its quite a relief.

Very, very sorry to hear about the hearing loss, and your approach seems to be consistent with many in the hobby.  Me, I've been in this game for a decade know, with relatively little ducats to throw at it, but excellent guidance by fellow hobbyists along the way. 

 

Me I go in and out. sometimes I'm listening to the system, and sometimes I'm listening to the music. Doesn't take me long at all to switch gears, .  I'm not ashamed to be an audiophile. I have no reluctance to tell someone that's what I am. Indeed, I take pride in it. To me it just means someone who is searching a particular stratum of one of life's many joys. And truth be told aren't we all searching for something in one fashion or another. ("yeah my cars keys" is not an allowable response)

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  • 2 years later...
  • Moderators
On 7/22/2015 at 4:51 PM, wvu80 said:

If you have 5,000 posts on the Klipsch Forums, you just might be an audiophile.  :P

Not me I just use the forum to try to learn how to type and spell, it's not going so well. :mellow:

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I hope not to offend but I consider audiophile to be an insult of the worst kind. Audiophile could be someone who buys into the marketing of things like stereophile and TAS. These people believe megabuck power cords and speaker cables make a considerable difference in sound. Their listening habbits are limited to audiophile approve recordings.

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
On ‎7‎/‎22‎/‎2015 at 5:44 PM, Fjd said:

Many have said it before and I will say it again, what a great forum as I continue to learn new things everyday.  B)

 

And here I always thought that an audiophile was a person who enjoys sex acts involving the ear. :o

Hence the idiom: Stick it in your ear! 

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I have never understood the negative connotation when it comes to be known as an audiophile.   Sure some spend $10,000 on cables, if they can hear a difference, good for them!

To me an audiophile is anyone interested in accurate reproduction of music. And they would not care about this UNLESS they were also into music.  Of course most people into music are not interested in accurate sound reproduction. And judging by most of the activity I see on this board we are ALL audiophiles at some level.   The minute one asks about the differences between a Forte I and Forte II sounds, or what brand caps should I buy, or what is the best placement for my so and so speakers, you may be an audiophile.     That the general public automatically thinks of a guy who obsesses over whether he has the right trestles to hold his speaker wire off the floor, or if his shirt is made of the right material as not to interfere with the sound waves arriving to his body, that is their problem. I am PROUD to care enough about sound reproduction to be called an audiophile.  What strangers think of me is not any of my concern. 

 

I have noticed the sound quality differences in other people's record players, hi-fis etc ever since I was about 8 years old. And that was a LONG time ago. 

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1 hour ago, kink56 said:

I have never understood the negative connotation when it comes to be known as an audiophile.   Sure some spend $10,000 on cables, if they can hear a difference, good for them!

To me an audiophile is anyone interested in accurate reproduction of music. And they would not care about this UNLESS they were also into music.  Of course most people into music are not interested in accurate sound reproduction. And judging by most of the activity I see on this board we are ALL audiophiles at some level.   The minute one asks about the differences between a Forte I and Forte II sounds, or what brand caps should I buy, or what is the best placement for my so and so speakers, you may be an audiophile.     That the general public automatically thinks of a guy who obsesses over whether he has the right trestles to hold his speaker wire off the floor, or if his shirt is made of the right material as not to interfere with the sound waves arriving to his body, that is their problem. I am PROUD to care enough about sound reproduction to be called an audiophile.  What strangers think of me is not any of my concern. 

 

I have noticed the sound quality differences in other people's record players, hi-fis etc ever since I was about 8 years old. And that was a LONG time ago. 

Good post!

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