Homo sapiens "Audiophile"

Off-Topic
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An interesting thought struck me the other day. Since I’m off today and just kicking it, figured I’d run it by you guys here and see what you think.

I think socially, audiophiles or those in the hobby, are a hungry lot. Why do I say this?

I’ve done some hobby oriented things at the enthusiast level, whether it’s photography, cars, concerts, dining. They all have a social aspect to them where you can enjoy your hobby in a very social setting not just getting together but physically bringing your hobby to a setting where you can share it, show it off, talk about it right there first hand with like minded folks.

Anyone who’s gone to a cars and coffee can attest that it’s a joy to let others “hear” your engine rev and your particular tuning on an exhaust system etc. Someone else can come very close, touching looking, photographing, hell even going out for a spin around the block.

It’s not so easy for audiophiles to do this, in a pre-covid world, yeah there are audio shows but they’re few and far between and there’s a cost (sometimes substantial) to getting to one of those shows. And you have to admit that no one would spend $1000 dollars in travel to audition a $1000 headphone amp. So the shows tend to be full of pie in the sky unubtanium hardware. Post-covid, the hobby is even more of a wasteland.

So I say we’re a hungry lot because I don’t have the ability to share my pride and joy system that I’ve worked so diligently to make my own, with others in a community. There’s no such thing as a 2 channel hi-fi and coffee Saturday morning get together, where someone can listen to your system and give you high fives on the sound or suggestions for improvement. Additionally there’s the fact that there’s just not that many from a population standpoint which makes an already difficult social part of the hobby more impossible still. Honestly, how many people wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to listen to a $20K and up system in a well set about listening room? Instead we’re left shaking our heads at YouTube clips that all sound pretty generic and laughable, yet I still click on them.

There’s meetups groups for just about anything, but there’s no such thing as a local meet up where audiophiles get together in someone’s home once a month on a club basis and listen. It would be a nice aspect of the hobby. I guess living in a large densely populated city, something like that might be an option, but it’s not for me.

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I have no one here in my circle who shares the passion with me.
Not even my wife really.

Before the internet, what you described was much bigger than today.
That’s because most people are also blinded by society.
And hardly ever awaken their own instinct and feeling for good audio equipment.

I see it again and again how everyone goes to the electronics market and buys the standard crap.
And they are still happy.
Recently I was able to recommend a Denon Av Reciver and Elac cinema to someone who promptly bought it and is very happy.
Everything he wanted in terms of function and sound is there, and he thanked me enormously, saying that was exactly what he wanted.

When I’m on the bus or train, everyone has their Inears Jbl Sony beats on their ears, which makes me smile.
They always look at me stupidly when I have my Emu Purpelheart on.
I never know why, I don’t care because at that moment I let myself be inspired by the sound.
Maybe I’m unconsciously signalling relaxation.

After two years of buying and trying and selling and endless nagging from my wife, I’m starting to realise that I know where I want to go.
The place I really want to go is to a cleanly built tube amp. Unfortunately they cost a bit of money but what I have heard so far compared to what is on the market.
Yes, a Mcintosh or Audiovalve costs a lot but I think I’ll have some peace of mind.
That’s where I’m going, because the thrill of not wanting to take my headphones off and enjoying a sip of whisky and a cigarette is great fun.

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We’re a minority of a minority. I’ve had various family and friends listen to my rig(s) over the years and while they all say “wow that sounds REALLY good”, none of them care enough to spend any amount of money on better for themselves. It is what it is :man_shrugging:

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Sooo… it’s basically like almost every niche hobby with an attached budgetgate?

Sry, this sounds a bit like “Audiophiles Anonymous” to me.
Invite friends, family, neighbours to bring their favourite music and see how it goes maybe.
Living in a somehwat smaller city & also being invested in a pretty expensive hobby?
15 years ago I couldn’t find peeps to play warhammer with me lol…
And even in big cities, you gotta take matters in ur own hands.
With social media and all that jazz… having a great “listening session” is almost akin to finding a bunch of peeps to meet up and play D&D the whole night.
I live in berlin and still have to invest quite some energy to find people to DJ with or listen to music.

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Did the hayday of home stereo/HT end mid-90s when both got overtaken by the PC/mobile phone ?

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I love warhammer, especially 40k. I will not spend the money they ask though. And the time to learn it all. Im getting into DnD and starting my first campaign soon and even that is a bunch of learning

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We should get a DnD Roll 20 group together.

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I am in the exact same boat. I wish i could share my goodies with like-minded individuals and I would love to check out some cool stuff such as Crack/Speedball, Lawton modded phones, ZMF headphones and different tube amps. However our hobby is VERY rare. There are probably not more than a couple thousand headphones geeks in all of Canada, if that.

It would be so great if you had five-six people meeting every month or two and everyone brought two cool things.

Not to mention it would save me BIG money in the long haul by testing products out first. :laughing:

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I really feel audiophiles regardless if how much we share our experiences and opinions with each other is one of the most personal and specialized hobbies. By that I mean you can take this hobby from many different angles very different from my other hobbies. You have you super budget boys to I only collect German made headphones. From I make things as analog sounding as possible to I only look at graphs and base my entire opinion on the measurable science. But at the end of the day what ends up matering is how our favorite music coming out of our gear makes us feel. And the music we like is by far one of the most personal things in the world especially if you care about music.

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Also I wanna add personality feel with the onset of the internet and the more reviewers we have looking for content to release it feels like we are getting the next best thing pitched to us every other week and the newbies I admit I contributed to this as well fall into a trap of buying gear constantly if you fall in the rabbit hole

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I’ve got a decent amount of lead 25mm D&D figures/characters stashed somewhere…There was once a full castle keep diorama too but after the 3rd or 4th home move I had to dismantle it. Other than car stereo competitions where we would drive across the country entering contests and just showing off the vehicles in general I have never been able to socialize with any of my hobbies. These forums, Reddits, Discord groups etc. are pretty awesome and the least expensive form of socializing I have managed to get out of any hobby. I know folks used to have Headphone meets pretty often and there are some high-fi shops that still have weekend meets where they encourage customers to bring records, food and drink and hang out all day, but Covid killed that for now and it’s an extremely niche thing to have access to anyway.
Meh, you try and make friends where you can and if possible share actual FaceTime together once in a while. My life doesn’t seem to get much more exciting than that…I’m thankful for the nice folks I have met always.

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This might be a good reason for having a home theater with recliners/multiple row. Skip through few tracks before putting on the movie. Im glad ive kicked the car addiction and replaced it with speakers and travel. Now its just HT, Business class was awesome :face_with_thermometer:. After the zombie apocalypse, HIfI guides airline club lounge meetup drinks on me !

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