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Is being an audiophile 'just a hobby' or is it more than that?


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I see hifi commentators regularly refer to being into audio as a 'hobby'. But today it struck me that the 'h' word doesn't quite capture the fundamental nature of being an audiophile.

 

For me, being an audiophile is as much a hobby as being a vegetarian or a Buddhist. In other words, it isn't. It's far more than that.

 

Discuss.

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I can't actually explain why I like mucking about with kit and trying to upgrade and tinker all the time.

I like collecting one type of a singular series run of Sansuis merely so that I can one day have them all in one room and I can look at them, I'm not overly interested in how well they drive speakers or cans ect: I just like to look.

 

Music is of course the bottom line isn't it but gee whiz I enjoy the bells+whistles of the kit...the multitudinous gear...Phwoar!

 

 

Certainly I'm a potential gear ****, no doubt about it.

 

(Listening to a piano piece from the soundtrack of that great French movie Intouchables as I down a Coopers in a darked room with just a couple of red led lights and the blue+orange glow of tubes in a cdp and the comfortable chair I'm in and the fact that the Handbrake in the next room can't hear me and she's happy and I'm happy. This is what this 'hobby' is to me and it's ongoing thank goodness :) )

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Not sure that being an audiophile has 'a fundamental nature' -,its a lot of different things to different people. music certainly might at times provide a kind of transcendent experience, but I'm not sure how analysing jitter, playing with turntables, or fiddling with cables amounts to anything more elevated than a hobby - like trainspotting or model aircraft building.

Edited by buddyev
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With respect Mr D, of course it's a hobby. I would have thought that was obvious.

I know that people here will chime in with probably earnestly held beliefs that they are music lovers and while I don't doubt this for one moment, I also remain unconvinced that there isn't a hobbyist element to what we ( mostly ) all do.

If this wasn't true, we would never talk about, seek, or have a concept of synergy for one thing. We seek incremental improvements in our ( collective ) systems by experimentation with Dacs ,cables, isolation feet,rigid racks, power conditioners and all manner of things that non hobbyists don't even have an awareness of, let alone,pursuing, discussing and buying said items.

 

I have read many times on DAR in reviews where friends are mentioned who love music but cannot or will not commit to this regime, for their own (valid ) reasons.

Music in itself can be and is, enjoyed by the masses in the form we call lo fi or no fi and yet many, including friends of mine still enjoy and celebrate music played with or by very modest systems by our standards.

 

I'm not actually sure why being both a music lover and an audiophile is automatically exclusive, but I recognise that an obsession with a never ending parade of equipment changes can eventually circumvent the pursuit of musical enjoyment. I find myself at that point right now.  I am very happy with what equipment I have and I  question whether further pursuit  would supplant gear as more of a focus than music.

 

My 02

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Some of us make it a religion - bu really it is just a hobby - sure music is a vital part of life - but someone who paints or sculptures as a hobby would argue that creative pastime fulfills a deeper human need - I think hobby is a fine description for general use but we can of course expand upon the elements that enrich our lives.

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I love this hobby that, like any pastime can swing from being a casual interest to a full-blown obsession. No other hardware holds the same fascination for me as does Hi Fi..no other result is more satisfying than hearing the music you love (or will shortly love) on great equipment.

 

Call it what you will, but, please, enough with the "Audiophool" tag...it's insulting and stupid.

 

Cheers

 

m

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We have to specifically remove enjoyment of music from the issue of being an audiophile. Sorry guys, sorry JD, but you are confused if you think that enjoyment of music is the area of interest that makes an audiophile.

 

Audiophiles are the tiny, tiny subset, of the vast population of men and women who greatly enjoy music, the tiny subset who try to get better and better sound quality out of the equipment they use to enjoy recorded music.

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Can you even define what an audiophile is?

Can you say "That is it"?

My equipment doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the box that houses the box that has a piece of paper in it describing the type of gear you guys have.

Written in crayon on a piece of toilet paper.

But I have always listened to music.

I've always tweaked whatever piece of equipment I've had.

At the moment I've got a house full of mismatched components which I've picked up here and there, garage sales, dump shop, second hand shops etc.

All in all it's all running through a DJ mixer.

The listening room has 2 amps, 8 speakers plus computer speakers,

The mixer feeds the surround sound in the lounge room and the patio/ shed stereo which has a further 4 speakers.

When it's all on it's loud.

Very loud.

There's no distortion and the ranges are all covered across the board.

The beauty of it is that at any time I can play music from vinyl or through the computer throughout the whole house or in any one room at a time.

Am I an audiophile?

I don't know.

I love music, my system fills my needs and does what I want it to do on a shoestring budget.

I cringe at most of my friends' setups.

Some crappy little dock or a surround system with all the speakers side by side facing the same way.

I've always been the one who had a "great" system out of the people I associate with.

Again - compared to stuff I see on this site - nothing.

Does the $$$ spent on a system = audiophilia?

Does having something which performs to YOUR standards and makes you happy mean you have achieved audiophile nirvana?

I dunno, but no matter how good your gear is, there's always something better....

:)

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Definitely a hobby.

 

No more important in filling in my time, than being at golf, archery, bromeliads and wine collecting.

 

In fact, I go for days without actually switching the hifi on which is a long time considering that I am retired and could play it all day long if I wanted.  I use it to 'escape' to another world when required.  I'm not even sure that I like music all that much either.  If it's not on the hifi then I don't listen to music at all.

 

No audiophile here, even though visitors and family might disagree.  I guess that I am a 1 percentile data point at the extreme of the Normal distribution of whatever an audiophile is.

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I see hifi commentators regularly refer to being into audio as a 'hobby'. But today it struck me that the 'h' word doesn't quite capture the fundamental nature of being an audiophile.

 

For me, being an audiophile is as much a hobby as being a vegetarian or a Buddhist. In other words, it isn't. It's far more than that.

 

Discuss.

Well being a vegetarian is more of a tragedy.

Whereas being an audiophile is a compulsive disorder with random episodes of self delusion.

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We have to specifically remove enjoyment of music from the issue of being an audiophile. Sorry guys, sorry JD, but you are confused if you think that enjoyment of music is the area of interest that makes an audiophile.

 

Audiophiles are the tiny, tiny subset, of the vast population of men and women who greatly enjoy music, the tiny subset who try to get better and better sound quality out of the equipment they use to enjoy recorded music.

Wonder what that makes me.  I absolutely love music - I own 1000's of albums spanning many, many genres, there's always music playing in my car and retiring to my listening room is my means of unwinding.  Sometimes a few whisky's accompany the listening and sometimes not, but when I'm there I'm engrossed in the music and it's the only reason I'm in the room.  Other than DACs my kit has undergone no changes since I bought my preamp and active speakers, my rig is fully balanced so there're no fancy cables in the mix (Belden 1800F from DAC to preamp to speakers).  I've spent time, DIY effort and not inconsiderable money on acoustic treatments that have yielded fantastic improvements.  I'm not done in that dept yet, but I only tackle additional treatment / experimentation when the bug bites. I don't subscribe to and hardly ever page through hi-fi rags.  Whilst I enjoy listening to other kit I've no desire or inclination to change any of the kit I currently own.  When bargains come up I get excited and ready to take out the cash until I realise I've nowhere left to put more kit.  It took me a year to make the decision to bite the bullet/come to terms with dropping the cash on my ATC kit even though I could comfortably afford it.  Since then I've never looked back.   I  guess my approach has been to buy kit that I felt would more than satisfy my needs and leave it at that.  No idea whether this means I'm an audiophile or not, but I'm damn sure I love music.

Edited by audiomuze
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@@Dirty_vinylpusher is a perfect example of an "audio enthusiast" in my view.

 

I've never really bought into the "audiophile" term, as I've never seen it defined well enough for me to accept or perfectly understand it.

You'll notice our masthead, "australian hi-fi community", yet the industry tends to perceive us as a forum full of audiophiles. Again, because I don't think they know what an audiophile is.

If I had to be pushed for an answer. I'd look towards the pro-audio arena more. The members and enthusiasts within those circles generally have more of an audio engineering background (either by interest or qualification) and in my exposure to them are more "text-book" enthusiasts. They thrive on measurements and specifications. They're generally extremely critical of components, playback and music, and to generalise, can't enjoy the music if the playback is not perfect. I'm not convinced they enjoy the music anyway, it might be more about the technical reproduction and even the processes involved prior to playback (recording, mastering etc).

 

I've been to enough StereoNET get-togethers to spot a hi-fi enthusiast a mile away. He's the one tapping his foot to the beat, even when the gear is not being nice and doing everything it should. They love music. They love playing back music.

 

I've strayed from the original question. The simple answer in my opinion is for some it is a hobby, for others it is a passion.

Fishing has been a hobby most of my life. Tournament fishing in more recent years. Friends of mine live and breathe it. I love it, but you know what on a fishing holiday after four days in a row on the boat, I'll quite happily have a few days off. They won't. Every waking hour is spent fishing. They are passionate. I'm just a hobbyist.

 

Hi-Fi has always been a passion for me, and for me it's grown into a business and career as well. That can be good and bad. You can lose your passion and fall out of love with your hobby when it becomes a business. I hope I don't suffer that, as music gives me great enjoyment and an escape.

I'm not an audiophile - I don't really know what one is. I'm a hi-fi and music enthusiast.

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definitely an enthusiast here, love music first...and always have...and via various means...

 

do love the techy side, and interests me playing wiht some of the gear sometimes...but it is for the love of music primarily...otherwise wouldnt be remotely interested :)

 

I dont see myself in the audiophile category...my interests are too broad in anycase..as it also spreads to av :)

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Judging by my own experience, and observing a small (very small) number of like minded friends I can say this: it all started with the music. In my case I think that it was an AWA Cappuccino stereogram that my mum bought my dad for Xmas in, I would guess, 1968. It looked like a very low slung coffee table and had a BSR(?) turntable which pulled out so that you could put the records onto the spindle. It also had a radio (am, of course). To top it off, the shop delivered it early on Xmas morning.

 

My first rush of music came from this machine, and I loved it. Deep Purple, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Santana, King Crimson, The Guess Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Doors: all via this marvellous piece of audio construction.

 

A few more years later I was introduced to real hifi. That blew me away and set me on the path of penury. At times I have been obsessed to the point of social ineptitude, obsessing over tweaky things,obsessing over the Linn LP12 (both years before actually owning one, and after finally getting it home) and judging people on the basis of what they have at home to listen through. I have also had a few years of being a snobbish and pompous fool obsessing over who I listen to and judging people on the basis of whom they listen too, too.

 

Those years are a long way past now, thankfully. I have a system that had you been able to demonstrate it to me in the early years I'd have cried tears of joy and anguish over. Joy, because it sounds so good, and anguish because I would have to have waited for decades to pass before I could have it.

 

Once again music is the driver for me. The system could be better but, really, I would need to spend huge sums of money to make everything in it better and I'm at the time of life where mapping out an upgrade plan of incremental improvements is no longer practical or desirable. So, it's back to where I started from and I'm loving it. The feeling of wonder and regret you have when you start listening to artists from way back when and you ask yourself, "how did I miss this?" needs to be discovered by everyone. As are, I'm happy to say, those times when you follow an instinct and find someone who is producing music of such wondrous quality that you just have to spread the word (Thomas Blug, most recently).

 

So? Is it a hobby or not? At those times where you are trying to figure out if your system sounds better when a butterfly in Brazil downs a schooner and you know that if you could only get rid of the sound of its flapping wings you'd be able to know from which brewery it was delivered: it's a hobby.

 

When the wash of music picks you up, dusts you down, wipes a moistened towelette across your brow and whispers gently into your ear that perhaps now would be a good time to relax: it's just life, the way you like it.

Edited by JukKluk2
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Wonder what that makes me.  I absolutely love music - .... I've spent time, DIY effort and not inconsiderable money on acoustic treatments that have yielded fantastic improvements....No idea whether this means I'm an audiophile or not, but I'm damn sure I love music.

 

100% audiophile, that makes you! :) 

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I reckon you go through phases, well I did.

Firstly it is all about the music until you discover that there are better ways to play your music on gear that makes it sound so much better. That's when near obsession can take over and the music become secondary.

After a few years of gradually putting together and improving my system, I am back to the music being the primary source of enjoyment. I no longer bother reading hi-fi magazines - I have at least six months of Audiophile magazine downloads that I haven't read. Sure I am interested in improving my system further if the right opportunities present themselves but I no longer chase and search for those opportunities at every opportunity. I am too busy enjoying the music.

 

What was the question. JD?

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We have to specifically remove enjoyment of music from the issue of being an audiophile. Sorry guys, sorry JD, but you are confused if you think that enjoyment of music is the area of interest that makes an audiophile.

 

Audiophiles are the tiny, tiny subset, of the vast population of men and women who greatly enjoy music, the tiny subset who try to get better and better sound quality out of the equipment they use to enjoy recorded music.

 

Couldn't agree more - perfectly put.  

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