What makes Audiophile?
- Thread starter JustinICT
- Start date
grillebilly
Empty Head
Well, some sounded better than others. If you ran across one and you thought it sounded good for a transistor radio, and you liked your music to sound good, you would tape it to the handlebars of your Schwinn Stingray and be groovin'. You would be the baddest cat on the block, all the Betty's would be hovering around your ride swingin' to the Dave Clark Five. Your chump buddies would be stuck with their inferior distortion generators. You would be the audiophile
When the term is used incorrectly there is often an agenda behind it.
*If It's used to promote a piece of gear or some media It's marketing, so take it with a pinch of salt as there is an agenda at work, so do your research well.
*If It's used to discredit someone or something, there is an agenda at work, so take it with a pinch of salt and look at why they are motivated to act in this way.
*If It's used to promote a piece of gear or some media It's marketing, so take it with a pinch of salt as there is an agenda at work, so do your research well.
*If It's used to discredit someone or something, there is an agenda at work, so take it with a pinch of salt and look at why they are motivated to act in this way.
JustinICT
Active Member
Damn!
timofred
I'm just a garbage man...
To me, it's getting the closest you can to the original recording.
Fidelity, accuracy, authenticity, faithfulness.
90% isn't close enough,
that's still 10% rubbish.
I aim for 100%, but am realistically at approximately 95%.
The last 5% is going to take a lot of time, effort and expense.
Fidelity, accuracy, authenticity, faithfulness.
90% isn't close enough,
that's still 10% rubbish.
I aim for 100%, but am realistically at approximately 95%.
The last 5% is going to take a lot of time, effort and expense.
Lots of threads on this topic over the years, and lots of different ideas. When I got into the hobby in the 1970's, fellow hobbyists, retailers, magazine articles, etc., divided hifi equipment into a couple of broad categories called mid-fi and high end. Mid-fi gear was from brands like Pioneer, Kenwood, Akai, EPI, BIC, Jensen, Technics, and so on, things you could find in discount stores like Jafco. High end gear was more expensive and found only at specialist audio dealers. Brands today that I would call high end include Linn, Naim, SOTA, VPI, Roksan, Vandersteen, Magnepan, Audio Research, Ayre, etc. People I would think of as "audiophiles" are those whose love of reproduced sound leads them to high end gear and systems rather than mass-market, mid-fi stuff.
High fidelity, on the other hand, I think of as meeting certain minimum standards as set forth back in the 1960's by the Deutscher Industrie Normenausschuss (DIN). Just about all the mass-market, mid-fi component gear in the later 1970's (and possibly well before that, but I didn't start looking at this stuff til 1976) easily qualified as being "high fidelity" by DIN standards, and manufacturers often included reference to the DIN standards (or some competing body of standards) in their brochures and other promotional material to show that the customer is purchasing a quality product. Mass-market, mid-fi gear can produce extremely satisfying levels of high fidelity sound. Older consoles and many of the lower-priced "rack systems" found in appliance stores back in the day did not meet high fidelity standards (though I know many people who happily enjoyed their music on such systems).
Threads on this topic show that people define these terms in many different ways. The definitions I offered are what I grew up with, and still make the most sense to me, but words can and do change in meaning over time.
High fidelity, on the other hand, I think of as meeting certain minimum standards as set forth back in the 1960's by the Deutscher Industrie Normenausschuss (DIN). Just about all the mass-market, mid-fi component gear in the later 1970's (and possibly well before that, but I didn't start looking at this stuff til 1976) easily qualified as being "high fidelity" by DIN standards, and manufacturers often included reference to the DIN standards (or some competing body of standards) in their brochures and other promotional material to show that the customer is purchasing a quality product. Mass-market, mid-fi gear can produce extremely satisfying levels of high fidelity sound. Older consoles and many of the lower-priced "rack systems" found in appliance stores back in the day did not meet high fidelity standards (though I know many people who happily enjoyed their music on such systems).
Threads on this topic show that people define these terms in many different ways. The definitions I offered are what I grew up with, and still make the most sense to me, but words can and do change in meaning over time.
DaveVoorhis
Addicted Member
What makes Audiophile?
Well, when a mummy and daddy love each other very much...
Well, when a mummy and daddy love each other very much...
Homer4beer
Well-Known Member
Branding.......price.......being in the top 10% of sound quality.
ev13wt
Super Member
It does from the manufacturers point of view. And they sell that vie marketing to the customer.
So yes, "audiophile" equipment exists.
For me, audiophile starts with "good enough".
musichal
poet emeritus
Go to your nearest high-end dealer and listen, then decide for yourself.
darkblue94
The Devil made me do it.
What do you say we definitely don't do that?Well lets just go ahead and take this thread down the cable/interconnect rabbit hole and say if you don't have $10k interconnects you are deffinetly not an audiophile
ev13wt
Super Member
The last percent cannot be reached, unless you recreate the exact studio, air pressure, humidity and temperature.
So kick back, relax and turn it up.
No it does, at least in most home environments.
Well the term High Fidelity was started as a way to bring more quality listening at home and generally over the normal so so system that most people had at that specific time. It is and always has been a moving target because it advances though time with technology. Sometimes it moves slow and other times it moves fast.
In 1915 a Audiophile would have bought if they could the best floor standing TOTL Victrola. It had more space and built more robust and would put out a better sound quality than say a entry level table top victrola. That might have been the best at that time but it wasn't HiFi compared to a 1930s floor standing amplified radio and record player. High Fidelity just moved up a notch and again the small table top model did not out perform a larger more powerful robust unit.
Nothing has changed in the past 100+ years as far as something coming out better and having different levels within targeted price range.
As far as where you and what you put together fit in? that would be your own personal reference point. You could be coming from listening to a 1980s boom box for years, now you just bought a 1970s Magnavox stereo console and are blown away with the SQ. Now you want to talk about how great it sounds, It doesn't make it the the best, the end all, TOTL, HiFi, Audiophile or anything else you want to call it. It's just better than what your used to, and that never matches what others might be used to. Another guy could just call it unlistenable and junk, their reference point might be quite different as well as their budget and experience.
JustinICT
Active Member
going to do that.
Poinzy
Super Member
I think "audiophile" status springs from the quality of the fan display one can make on a mahogany coffee table with hi-fi sales pamphlets. As a matter of fact, I'm certain of it.
BTW, in this world of HiFi/Audiophile, you get in where you fit in. When you reach a point that your not looking for equipment and feeling the need to buy more stuff and are happy. you can get off the treadmill and listen to the music. Their will always be better equipment and owners of that equipment as well as people owning lesser than you.
When you stop looking at gear and find out you reached a point enough is enough, you can listen to the music and be a audiophile.
When you stop looking at gear and find out you reached a point enough is enough, you can listen to the music and be a audiophile.
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