Adieu To The True Audiophile?, Agree or disagree? Options

[hardcandy]

I'd bet the average person under 30 hasn't purchased a serious home stereo system in the last five years.

And it's not because they don't like music. Quite the opposite, actually. The popularity of online streaming music sites, rise of music blogs, and skyrocketing digital music sales from places like iTunes, Wal-Mart.com, and Amazon.com show that young people are voracious music consumers.

But are they true audiophiles? No, at least not in the way people who came of age trying to find the perfect sound on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon were. They'd buy high-fidelity speakers and systems that play back music in a quality as close to the original performance as possible.

And why not? If you think about it, the equipment that has traditionally defined the audiophile is antithetical to the way we experience music today. Speakers are clunky and immobile, and expensive shelf systems don't play easily swappable digital files. Instead, stereo shopping nowadays often means picking up an iPod and a speaker dock. The combination is cheaper, mobile, convenient, and, for better or worse, cool.

The effect is that it's slowly killing an industry.

Adieu to the true audiophile

I agree- I have a nice system set up and listen to music as well as movies,games,etc. Most younger folks I have met in the last few years may have a home hteater system but they listen to music at less than full fidelity. Listen to a piece of music at full fidelity via a good system and compare it to the same music that has been compressed- you will be amazed at some of the tones,notes, and range you have been missing. If you have access to a high range stereo shop nearby, ask them to play a piece at full fidelity and the same piece that has been compressed. I am one of those who listened to "Dark Side Of The Moon" on a high quality system. Nothing like it.

[SICKdimension]

I hear the music in my mind, not my ears. What I mean by that is, I don't need full fidelity quality to hear the full range. I just need to hear the melody and I visualize the song and hear it at higher than full fidelity.

..that and I listen to live music every week, so that scratches any itch for high quality.

[signal-to-noise-ratio]

The last time I tried to settup an high quality system at home was around ten years ago when I was working with pro audio equipment. We had ADATS, a Crest mixing board, EV monitors the works. It was then I realized the scam that consumer audio is. By now xlr should be on all home theatre equipment rca unbalanced crap is a joke.

So I tried to put together a home pro audio rig with balanced cables everything. It was costing to much money so I abandoned it. Being a true audiophile requires a pretty limitless budget if you really want to hear things super accurate we are talking getting vacum tube amps for warmth and harmonics. Its just not worth it to me especially now that most music I listen to is compressed and from places like itunes. I've come to the realization that there are your dreams and then there is reality. Dreams I wish I could have tube systems with xlr interconnects with dedicated circuits with em noise filtered power. Reality I live in apartment I dont even use my speakers. Paper thin floors. So I use sennheiser headphones. Its sounds nice enough. Not to mention with my job Im not home alot so getting a super expensive system which I cant take with me seems pointless. This works well enough. Maybe some day Ill get something bigger.

This post has been edited by signal-to-noise-ratio: May 25 2008, 12:43 PM

[lostboyz]

I hear the music in my mind, not my ears. What I mean by that is, I don't need full fidelity quality to hear the full range. I just need to hear the melody and I visualize the song and hear it at higher than full fidelity.

..that and I listen to live music every week, so that scratches any itch for high quality.

this is basically where I am. My list of favorite bands and who I have seen live are getting closer together. Though I did just buy a decent set of sennheiser headphones and have seen a new light of sound quality.