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Give me a better word.

Words don't have no nature. Words don't need no stinkin' nature!

reggaenaut said:
There is not a lot any individual can do about connotations. It is just the nature of words. :D
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And especially the nature of people.

Words don't ridicule people, people ridicule people.

That's the problem really. We blame it on words and maybe we should take a look at ourselves.

Words are tools and only as good as the user and the beholder. The mind can be the Devil's playground. If you are embarrassed because you think or think people associate it with some kind of elitism or the word pedophile -- that's a personal problem ... or to maybe to soften the connotation --- a personal opinion? ;)

I'll use "audiophile" until you pry the words from my cold dead lips ... or until I change my mind ... :D
 
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terra1 said:
And especially the nature of people.

Words don't ridicule people, people ridicule people.

That's the problem really. We blame it on words and maybe we should take a look at ourselves.

Words are tools and only as good as the user and the beholder. The mind can be the Devil's playground. If you are embarrassed because you think or think people associate it with some kind of elitism or the word pedophile -- that's a personal problem ... or to maybe to soften the connotation --- a personal opinion? ;)

I'll use "audiophile" until you pry the words from my cold dead lips ... or until I change my mind ... :D
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Very true. We can not, as individuals, change a word's connotations...but we CAN, as a group, refuse to reinforce those negative stereotypes by not using the words that way, ourselves. We are, after all, in control of our own actions. The official Webster's definition of the word has been posted in this thread. If you choose to perpetuate the misuse of a word, that is on you, no one else.
 
i would call myself an audiophile but that dont mean im gonna a snob about it. just cause i dont listen to my audio the same way another person does dont mean im anymore an audiophile then the next guy. its not the definition thats wrong its what meaning people give it that is.
 
Jealousy of equipment does have a real lot to do with it, I think, and it's understandable. It's something you would really like but can't afford. Totally understandable.

Very few can afford the high-end gear. Most folks (95%+) can only afford really good Mid-fi gear. (just guessing at that percentage).

This may be one of the major problems in the term 'audiophile'. Many would like to be audiophiles with great gear, but can't have 'that superior gear' for economic reasons, for whatever reason. It's just a fact of life.

I'd love to have a pair of totally restored JBL 4300 Series speakers. Will I ever have them? Probably not. Could I buy a pair...yes, but it is expensive? I have other uses for my cash on hand. Do I really need them????? No. My present speaker(s) sound fine.

I'd love to have a Bryston amp. Will I ever have one? Yes. Someday, when my 'last' quality Mid-Fi crashes. But it still works, and I hope it keeps working for many years to come, and I'm sure it will, until it crashes. :>) So far...so good! It's a nice sounding amp. I'm happy and content. It's not a great amp...but it sure 'sounds' good! Perfect really.
Later in life, I think, hopefully, most people, in a middle class, our situation, being regular folks, can afford 'great gear' if they desire it. If they really 'need it', they will find a way. It's a sacrifice economically but it can be done, if you really want it, desire it, and need it, for us regular mid-fi folks who love music.

Audiophile. Just get some great sounding gear, then forget about the gear, and just flip some LPs or play some CDs. If your stereo sounds really good and nice, it is really good and nice, that's it. There will 'always be better'...and there will always be worse. The 'trick' is just to find something that really sounds fine to you and your friends. It can be done on a regular budget. There will be a couple mistakes, especially in the 'vintage' world of gear, but the 'end product, the end result', is that you will end up with a really nice and fine sounding stereo system. That's it. If you want to be an audiophile, be one. It just has to be really nice, musically matched, sounding equipment.

Cables: I got my 23' long each speaker cables for $10 plus $25 shipping Royal Mail from Ireland. I wouldn't trade em for the world, honestly. And I'd never even consider another pair. Guess I'm saying if you dig deep, and have a bit of luck, you can find great gear for a very reasonable price. Are the cables 'audiophile'? I'd say so. :>) $10.

Jealousy is jealousy. Jealousy is a disease. It's best to just forget that. Am I jealous of people that have JBL 4300 speakers? No. Envious would be a better word, sure, a little. But all you have to do is get $4500-$5000 together and buy them, plus shipping from Japan, which is probably another couple grand. LOL.

Guess I will never have JBL 4300 series speakers or a Ferrari or Ford Pantera with the cleveland engine either. That's the way life is and goes.

High End gear audioplile...what can ya say??? You can drive yourself 'nuts' thinking about it. Let's see...if I quit smoking, $6 a day for a pack, $2190 a year, I could get those JBL 4300 speakers in 3 years including shipping! I could get that Bryston in 2.1 years. Think I'll quit smoking for 5 years and get em both!!!!!!!!!!!
Then I toooooo can be an audiophile, and a healthy one!!!!!

Or I can just enjoy the stereo I have now, which I really do enjoy!
 
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I'm with you bluesky. I've actually been putting away cigarette money for a new TT. I don't need one. What I already have is more than adequate. In another year or so I'll have an Oracle MK-V. The new arm will come later.

I won't be jealous if one of you gets one before I do.:smoke:
 
JoeESP9 said:
I'm with you bluesky. I've actually been putting away cigarette money for a new TT. I don't need one. What I already have is more than adequate. In another year or so I'll have an Oracle MK-V. The new arm will come later.

I won't be jealous if one of you gets one before I do.:smoke:
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My needs are more modest at this point: I'm saving for a transcendent sound grounded grid preamp. But the sentiment is the same. I was never really into thrifts (the ones around here always have crappy electronics sections) but I have to keep out of barter town. I so cruise through every once in awhile, you know, just in case someone koaea the mind and gives away an AR pre or something similar :D
 
actually, that is how I think of who an audiophile is. (when I talk of money, I am also inferring time)

Thinking (which gets me in trouble) about it, I think of an audiophile whose main obsession is listening to music on the best gear he can afford. While they may have secondary hobbies, mainly he saves to improve his at home listening experience.
It is irrelevant how much he spends, it is the fact that the vast majority of money he can scrape together , including things like a change jar etc, goes towards improving his listening experience.
While he does not have to be a fanatic, he is definitely closer to that end of the spectrum.
Maybe someone who makes twice as much money as he does actually has a better system, but that is just a matter of them having more expendable income. It really does not make much of a difference what income bracket the audiophile is in. If they make more money, that just means they still save etc but they can just get more expensive gear if that is what they feel improves their experience.
An audiophile could have something as simple as a system worth maybe $1k or he could have a system worth $50k - it is just basically the best system they could put together with the money they have available.

The audiophile basically devotes the vast majority of his time and resources to music.
The music lover can have just as good of a system, but they are not totally devoted to it like an audiophile. They love music and want it to sound good, but if they happen to have some spare cash available, they would just as soon spend the money on one of their other hobbies - boating, hunting, fishing etc.
The audiophile may also hunt, fish etc, but he is not going to have that high dollar fishing gear or hunting equipment. It will be adequate for the job, but he would rather spend the money saved on bettering his audio system, music etc.
I think you get the idea.
So for me, it is basically just a matter of degree. There is obviously nothing wrong with being an audiophile nor is it bad to consider oneself a music lover.
But for me, over the decades, I have just always knew an audiophile when I met one, I just never really thought about what actually made me think of them as an audiophile.
I personally believe there are more music lovers then audiophiles.
I do not think I could consider myself an audiophile as there are many times when I have the choice to listen to music or do something else, I choose another of my hobbies. An audiophile can still do other hobbies, but the main part of their time is strictly spent with their system.
I feel I am getting closer to being an audiophile every week as I do find myself choosing serious listening over my other hobbies more and more.
Anyway - that is how i think of an audiophile. I have met many over the years and while they all had really nice systems, their systems did range from something I could afford to something i could only dream about. Put them all in one room though and they would all be like long lost friends.......
So don't be ashamed to be a music lover and don't feel like it is bad to be an audiiophile. They share more things then they disagree on. It is just some people are more devoted then others.
 
JoeESP9 said:
I'm with you bluesky. I've actually been putting away cigarette money for a new TT. I don't need one. What I already have is more than adequate. In another year or so I'll have an Oracle MK-V. The new arm will come later.

I won't be jealous if one of you gets one before I do.:smoke:
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Perfect! Jealousy isn't cool and a total waste of time and life. So is envy and all that "stuff".

Also, I haven't smoked in two days so I've saved $12 so far!!! Well on my way to saving $8,000 for the JBLs and Bryston!! :>)


___

I think it's spelled Academically. Something like that anyway.
 
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trhee said:
Why can't someone buy a nice CD player and buy lots of CD's? It's just a matter of money and some people are able to afford pursuing both hobbies with full integrity as a "music lover" and as an "audiophile". A person can be both as much as they can be one or the other.

Why? As someone who is in the restaurant industry, I find there are a lot of similarities to food and audio. As such, once you've tasted "prime" beef or even Kobe beef or wagyu, it's pretty hard to enjoy "no roll" or "ungraded" beef as a steak even though you may love steak more than life itself. Same as in audio, once you've acquired a "taste" for better audio components, it's just not as enjoyable to listen to music on a "substandard" audio system.
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I'd rather buy a nice TT, a 'great' cart, and a lot of minty LPs! But a lot of CDs and a good CD player are fine too...both is better and more convient.

I love quality audio but...I'll take a regular cheeseburger made from Walmarts frozen cheeseburger patties in the plastic bag with sharp cheddar anyday!!! And home made fries. and Catsup! Pure heaven! And it fills ya up real nice. The only thing 'better' would be 2 of em cooked on the BBQ. 'Nothing' like good sliders.
 
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donberry said:
actually, that is how I think of who an audiophile is. (when I talk of money, I am also inferring time)
Thinking (which gets me in trouble) about it, I think of an audiophile whose main obsession is listening to music on the best gear he can afford. While they may have secondary hobbies, mainly he saves to improve his at home listening experience.
It is irrelevant how much he spends, it is the fact that the vast majority of money he can scrape together , including things like a change jar etc, goes towards improving his listening experience.
While he does not have to be a fanatic, he is definitely closer to that end of the spectrum.
Maybe someone who makes twice as much money as he does actually has a better system, but that is just a matter of them having more expendable income. It really does not make much of a difference what income bracket the audiophile is in. If they make more money, that just means they still save etc but they can just get more expensive gear if that is what they feel improves their experience.
An audiophile could have something as simple as a system worth maybe $1k or he could have a system worth $50k - it is just basically the best system they could put together with the money they have available.

The audiophile basically devotes the vast majority of his time and resources to music.
The music lover can have just as good of a system, but they are not totally devoted to it like an audiophile. They love music and want it to sound good, but if they happen to have some spare cash available, they would just as soon spend the money on one of their other hobbies - boating, hunting, fishing etc.
The audiophile may also hunt, fish etc, but he is not going to have that high dollar fishing gear or hunting equipment. It will be adequate for the job, but he would rather spend the money saved on bettering his audio system, music etc.
I think you get the idea.
So for me, it is basically just a matter of degree. There is obviously nothing wrong with being an audiophile nor is it bad to consider oneself a music lover.
But for me, over the decades, I have just always knew an audiophile when I met one, I just never really thought about what actually made me think of them as an audiophile.
I personally believe there are more music lovers then audiophiles.
I do not think I could consider myself an audiophile as there are many times when I have the choice to listen to music or do something else, I choose another of my hobbies. An audiophile can still do other hobbies, but the main part of their time is strictly spent with their system.
I feel I am getting closer to being an audiophile every week as I do find myself choosing serious listening over my other hobbies more and more.
Anyway - that is how i think of an audiophile. I have met many over the years and while they all had really nice systems, their systems did range from something I could afford to something i could only dream about. Put them all in one room though and they would all be like long lost friends.......
So don't be ashamed to be a music lover and don't feel like it is bad to be an audiiophile. They share more things then they disagree on. It is just some people are more devoted then others.
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That's it.You just hit the nail right on the head. Absolutely agree!

I've forever been a music lover (since Nat King Cole, Hawaiian music, and Connie Francis (She was my dad's favorite so I did hear a lot of it) - on a Zeinth console!) and since 1968 a 'Sansuiophile', not an audiophile, but could become an audiophile as well as a Sansuiophile. Sansuiophile and Audiophile were one of the same back in 1968, Sansui was pretty TOTL, at least, where I was. I really don't care much about 'audiophile' at present but I certainly respect the folks that are!! (My wife would 'for sure get in the way' of me being an audiophile: I'd love it, she wouldn't, that's the way it goes.) I do also like rare Sansui accessories. It's an extremely fun hobby and quite passionant and fullfilling for me as long as the gear doesn't malfunction. Especially fullfilling is finding those 'items', which are like 'impossible to find', that you know exist but are so 'very rare', that it take years and years and years, and even more years, to find if your lucky enough to find it. Sometimes you just never do or will. Guess you would call that Sansuiophile.

All I can say is (here we go again, and I guess it's audiophile)...the correct quality speaker cables 'DO' make a very nice sound difference! You just have to find 'the right ones' for your system. Vintage Cables for Vintage Stereos. So true and much less expensive. And only 3 companies really to research, that I know of: Sansui, Pioneer, and Hitachi. I've only hear the Sansui black jacketed cables, which are Wonderous. The Pioneer's and Hitachi's maybe would be quite nice too. I've seen em on eBay like once every 5 months or so.
 
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Especially fullfilling is finding those 'items', which are like 'impossible to find', that you know exist but are so 'very rare', that it take years and years and years, and even more years, to find if your lucky enough to find it. Sometimes you just never do or will. Guess you would call that Sansuiophile.
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I agree, while some would call you an audiophile, I would think of you more as a collector. You obviously love music and want the best you can find, but you are more interested in finding one specific brand. In my world, the audiophile doesn't care what brand it is.
Neither is better then the other, they just have different goals. In the end, both get good sounding systems and both are very happy - I don't see a loser here. I could spend all day at an audiophile's house checking out his gear and I could spend all day at the collector's house where i actually may be more impressed as he may have some rare stuff you never see.
Is just the way I look at things and never really actually put a label on it.
I have always thought of an audiophile as a unique individual; not that he has expensive gear, but their life revolved around their systems. I admired their gear and music collections, but I was just never committed enough to putting my own together. While I loved good systems, I also loved doing other things as much.
 
I'm not an audiophile at all. I'm just an 'enjoyer of music' and my stereo system of choice is Sansui.

I just enjoy Sansui stereo and am 'always' putting together a system with rare and very rare Sansui componets including accessories. It's pretty much done now but it is a never ending work in progress, just need a few more items which I'm sure I will 'never find' and maybe some I hopefully will find but I know it will be many-many years before I find it...or I could find it tomorrow, right! Ya never know. It's a quest. But I keep searching daily for fun. That's the only way you can find this 'gear', daily in depth searches. I search domestic and international eBays as well as some other sites, domestic and international.

For me it's just fun and very pleasurable to have really rare, hard to find, very functional Sansui items. I'm not overboard on it. I'm sure a few other folks feel the same way with thier vintage stereo of choice. It just adds to the listening experience. I mean, not only are they quality 'original' items, not only does it look really sharp and cool, to me, but it sounds and works great! It's just special to me. When someone comes over, no one else even knows it's rare or special, it looks regular. No one else really even 'sees it, at all', and that's fine with me. I don't talk about it. It's just fun and pleasurable for me. It's just really hard to find Sansui equipment. It's really 'not that much' gear in quantity, just necessary items to make a stereo system 'function'.

Just saw a beautiful Sansui square wall clock sell on eBay for about $180+/- plus shipping. It was a really 'fine' clock, looked new, made during the 'quad' era, but I don't need to know what time it is! LOL. But it was really a nice clock!! It was pretty really cool, rare for sure, and I'm sure the buyer will enjoy it for many years to come. Yeah, it was a really nice clock!!!! Maybe should of bid on it now that I think about it.

Yes, I guess it's collecting in a way. But everything collected is being used on a regular basis. So it's a functional collection of minimulistic items to make a stereo system function. The only extras I have are 3 Sansui headshells, 1 Ortofon cart, 3 other pair of Sansui speakers (1 rare pair and one beyond very rare pair), that's it (for my own personal stereo in the house). The only things I now need are a 1970 Sansui W-112 12 inch alnico woofer (that will be a 5+ year search - or longer, but it will be found - I may just have to buy another pair of 1970 AS-300 speakers, which would also be another 5 year search), a few sets of extremely very special and rare 1980 Sansui cables (I already have one pair of black jacketed speaker cables but am looking for any others I can find (I may never find another pair), and 3 pair of black jacketed 1980 Sansui interconnects which I will never find, as in never-ever, but I'm searching!), and a "T" FM wire antenna. That's it.

"Words of Wisdom" for rare vintage (audiophile) equipment: If you are really looking for something very rare or special...and your 'lucky enough to have finally found it'...** BUY IT!! ** You will never see it for sale again. I messed up on one item, a Sansui "T" FM wire antenna. I saw it for sale, bid on it, it went up to $35 plus $8 shipping and passed on it. Man, what was I thinking and that was a 'big' mistake. That was 4.5 years ago and have never seen another for sale domestically or internationally. I really didn't realize it, at the time, but it's an 'extrememly rare item'. It's never - ever for sale anyway. Just not for sale anywhere...ever. I got a Radio Shack one for like $6 but it's not the Sansui!!!!! LOL

In all honesty, it's just a fun and pleasurable hobby to me, to have the very rare items and accessories to not only 'hear', but to also 'see / look at' while playing the stereo. Even when the stereo is off, there it it!! I 'only have' what is required to make the stereo system function. Yeah...I guess maybe it is collecting, or a collection of sorts. :>)
 
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GOOOOOOODBYE! BLUUUUE SKY! GOODBYE, BLUUE SKY! GOODBYE....

(you'll have to forgive me...I've been holding that in for days, but I couldn't hold it back any longer)
 
TejasRichard: Do "babies taste of chicken..."???????? :sigh: That's strange...and very weird. What??
 
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