Hi Readers
I've been posting on Stereophile now for I believe about 2 years, too lazy to look. During this time I have noticed a few trends that pause me to think about what the objective is here.
The high end audio of the past was based on a few legs.
Designers
Products
Product Reviews & Articles
Ads
Trade Shows
Audio Stores
Audio Clubs
Newsletters & Forums
and of course the end user
From where I sat, the most useful of all of these came down to the end user and their level of commitment to a sound method of listening. The reality of walking from home to home and hearing how dramatically different the same system will sound in each room, never hearing two sound the same, is perhaps the most telling part of this hobby.
Where would we be now if not for Stereophile, The Absolute Sound & all the writers who have given us a piece of their musical life? At the same time not one of these articles nore the personalities behind them can make the end users sound for them. Fact is no two environments sound the same, and no two people hear the same. We put together a system based on all the factors and theories but the bottom line comes down to us and our skills as hobbyist. How many systems have I heard over a couple hundred "G's" (price) sound like crap, I hate to say. Worse I hate to name these products cause I'm sure under the right setup, and music and even ears they would sound just right.
here's what I see though
I've seen the same revolving audio door spinning for as long as I have turned on a stereo. The same audiophile that swears one week he has found the golden calf, the next week has a part of his system listed on AudioGon. One week he's defending what he has to the death, the next week he's bashing that same product saying he has yet arrived again. He justifies his actions saying he is stepping up as if this hobby was made of a ladder to audio heaven, but we all have seen this story and know The End. We have seen this same story play out so many times, that well....to be honest.... most of these guys all of a sudden are never heard from again. Once in a while we'll see them come back saying "I have returned to the hobby" as if the hobby has been moved or maybe misplaced.
is there a ladder?
All hobbies have ladders. Most of the rungs on the ladder are called marketing and buying trends. Ladders are based on 95% visual and 5% improvement or difference. Are these new models actually better? Depends on who is selling you the goods. There are many who would pick the older violin over the newer every time. With high end audio we move so fast in our product up-grades that most of the hobbyist have decided enough is enough and have gotten off of the train. If we look at this ladder a while here's what we see. The designer and reviewer tells us this is the end all be all, we run and buy. The next month the same reviewer or "expert" says No, this is the end all be all. Some of us buy and some sit there wondering what has to be mortgaged to be able to buy. Some of us however look at this and as the repeat button is pushed we start to realize a reviewers job is to review, and rereview with something new and exciting as that revolving door suggest. Truthfully in this hobby the guilt of being old news is usually enough to push the male buying button all over again, and again and again again.
But this isn't what my thread is about, completely :)
One thing that I see happen time after time here is someone will make suggestions on purchasing something based on thin air, or quoting a reviewer, instead of being based on their own on going experiences with the product. Quoting a reviewer without being at the reviewers house is one thing, but saying "here's is what it sounds like" without ever taking the necessary steps to understand how that component was designed and what for, and here's how it sounds within my conditions and experience is crazy in the hobby of listening to music. CRAZY!
We're in the hobby of every recording sounding different, every room sounding different, every electrical current being different, every component matchup sounding different (and changing all the time), the earth spinning while traveling around the Sun, a reviewer having a couple of weeks with a unit, and maybe not listening at all to a wide range of different setups, and here we are making suggestions with someone else's money?
I read this all the time
"I recommend this, even though I haven't listened to it myself". I'm only happy these guys are not my chief. Or I'm going to listen to a guy talk about dynamic ranges who listens to a portable cassette player? Not fiction, this is the level we expect readers to take this forum serious when this is as good as it gets here.
Folks this forum should be well beyond the talk. The revolving door should have been closed 20 years or so ago and this hobby should be method based by now and not playing plug & play. Plug & play is where you start, it's the very beginning of this hobby and the maturity comes in with a completely different set of rules than the first few steps. Yet I see people come here asking for advice and being asked to change their components before even learning the basics of listening. How do you folks expect a listener to explore this hobby if only on the first step of this ladder? You keep pushing money and brands without ever teaching the basics of how sound works. Most of you yourselves have never even done the basics. Most don't even understand that they are not listening to their speakers at all, but their acoustical space.
Wakeup Stereophile Forum! People come here to learn a hobby and you turn them into revolving door consumers instead of audiophile listeners. Owning high end audio components does not make you an audiophile. And buying a new component every turn of the latest issue, makes you a buying puppet not a mature listener. A high end audiophile is someone who understands Acoustical, Mechanical and Electrical and practices at a high level in skill of use. It's not some one who says "I had" but some one who says "I've never stopped having". Being an audiophile is a practice, not a posturing campaign. You can't buy it, you must do it. And if you can't give a piece of you doing, your nothing more than a billboard for maybe, if and lack of experience.
We need to be productive and an example by doing and the practice of practical application. Last year we spent more time on seeing if someone or ones even have a stereo at all, and almost no time on actually listening to music. Any idiot can teach a guy how to be a consumer, how about teaching some of these guys how to be practicing audiophiles.
michael green
MGA/RoomTune
http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/
Hi Readers
I've been posting on Stereophile now for I believe about 2 years, too lazy to look. During this time I have noticed a few trends that pause me to think about what the objective is here.
The high end audio of the past was based on a few legs.
Designers
Products
Product Reviews & Articles
Ads
Trade Shows
Audio Stores
Audio Clubs
Newsletters & Forums
and of course the end user
From where I sat, the most useful of all of these came down to the end user and their level of commitment to a sound method of listening. The reality of walking from home to home and hearing how dramatically different the same system will sound in each room, never hearing two sound the same, is perhaps the most telling part of this hobby.
Where would we be now if not for Stereophile, The Absolute Sound & all the writers who have given us a piece of their musical life? At the same time not one of these articles nore the personalities behind them can make the end users sound for them. Fact is no two environments sound the same, and no two people hear the same. We put together a system based on all the factors and theories but the bottom line comes down to us and our skills as hobbyist. How many systems have I heard over a couple hundred "G's" (price) sound like crap, I hate to say. Worse I hate to name these products cause I'm sure under the right setup, and music and even ears they would sound just right.
here's what I see though
I've seen the same revolving audio door spinning for as long as I have turned on a stereo. The same audiophile that swears one week he has found the golden calf, the next week has a part of his system listed on AudioGon. One week he's defending what he has to the death, the next week he's bashing that same product saying he has yet arrived again. He justifies his actions saying he is stepping up as if this hobby was made of a ladder to audio heaven, but we all have seen this story and know The End. We have seen this same story play out so many times, that well....to be honest.... most of these guys all of a sudden are never heard from again. Once in a while we'll see them come back saying "I have returned to the hobby" as if the hobby has been moved or maybe misplaced.
is there a ladder?
All hobbies have ladders. Most of the rungs on the ladder are called marketing and buying trends. Ladders are based on 95% visual and 5% improvement or difference. Are these new models actually better? Depends on who is selling you the goods. There are many who would pick the older violin over the newer every time. With high end audio we move so fast in our product up-grades that most of the hobbyist have decided enough is enough and have gotten off of the train. If we look at this ladder a while here's what we see. The designer and reviewer tells us this is the end all be all, we run and buy. The next month the same reviewer or "expert" says No, this is the end all be all. Some of us buy and some sit there wondering what has to be mortgaged to be able to buy. Some of us however look at this and as the repeat button is pushed we start to realize a reviewers job is to review, and rereview with something new and exciting as that revolving door suggest. Truthfully in this hobby the guilt of being old news is usually enough to push the male buying button all over again, and again and again again.
But this isn't what my thread is about, completely :)
One thing that I see happen time after time here is someone will make suggestions on purchasing something based on thin air, or quoting a reviewer, instead of being based on their own on going experiences with the product. Quoting a reviewer without being at the reviewers house is one thing, but saying "here's is what it sounds like" without ever taking the necessary steps to understand how that component was designed and what for, and here's how it sounds within my conditions and experience is crazy in the hobby of listening to music. CRAZY!
We're in the hobby of every recording sounding different, every room sounding different, every electrical current being different, every component matchup sounding different (and changing all the time), the earth spinning while traveling around the Sun, a reviewer having a couple of weeks with a unit, and maybe not listening at all to a wide range of different setups, and here we are making suggestions with someone else's money?
I read this all the time
"I recommend this, even though I haven't listened to it myself". I'm only happy these guys are not my chief. Or I'm going to listen to a guy talk about dynamic ranges who listens to a portable cassette player? Not fiction, this is the level we expect readers to take this forum serious when this is as good as it gets here.
Folks this forum should be well beyond the talk. The revolving door should have been closed 20 years or so ago and this hobby should be method based by now and not playing plug & play. Plug & play is where you start, it's the very beginning of this hobby and the maturity comes in with a completely different set of rules than the first few steps. Yet I see people come here asking for advice and being asked to change their components before even learning the basics of listening. How do you folks expect a listener to explore this hobby if only on the first step of this ladder? You keep pushing money and brands without ever teaching the basics of how sound works. Most of you yourselves have never even done the basics. Most don't even understand that they are not listening to their speakers at all, but their acoustical space.
Wakeup Stereophile Forum! People come here to learn a hobby and you turn them into revolving door consumers instead of audiophile listeners. Owning high end audio components does not make you an audiophile. And buying a new component every turn of the latest issue, makes you a buying puppet not a mature listener. A high end audiophile is someone who understands Acoustical, Mechanical and Electrical and practices at a high level in skill of use. It's not some one who says "I had" but some one who says "I've never stopped having". Being an audiophile is a practice, not a posturing campaign. You can't buy it, you must do it. And if you can't give a piece of you doing, your nothing more than a billboard for maybe, if and lack of experience.
We need to be productive and an example by doing and the practice of practical application. Last year we spent more time on seeing if someone or ones even have a stereo at all, and almost no time on actually listening to music. Any idiot can teach a guy how to be a consumer, how about teaching some of these guys how to be practicing audiophiles.
michael green
MGA/RoomTune
http://tuneland.techno-zone.net/