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It's hard enough to find any audiophiles, regardless of sex, among the people I meet.
Reader Sharon Churchill is curious about whether or not <I>Stereophile</I>'s readers have much contact with female audiophiles.
If by "audiophiles" you mean women as interested in the gear as in the music, I have to say I've met 10 female audiophilesand seven of them worked in the industry. That's in 22 years of involvement, during which time I have met hundreds of their male counterparts. What's wrong with this picture, folks?
So far, I've never met a single female who has shown anything more than a passing interest in things audio. My wife, the woman I'm most in contact with, barely tolerates my audio obsession. I know that they are out there, but you can't prove it by me.
This question is really a function of how we define the term "audiophile." While I know many women who are deeply impressed with and positively affected by the high-quality reproduction of music, I regret to say that I have yet to meet one who has actually purchased any gear to this end.
The two female audiophiles I know are different from most of their male counterparts. Specifically, they are concerned with the musicality of their systems, rather than with special effects (e.g., soundstaging, bass slam, and the like). They view their equipment as means to an end. Interestingly, they both prefer vinyl to CD.
My wife likes music. She became an audiophile the day I split our video and audio systems. She has no qualms about using a turntable-based system in the LR, and CD/DVD in the den. She used to hate having to switch this and that. Come to think about it, I did too!
Unfortunately, I have not really found any. Angie, the dealer at one of the the stores, is the only one I know! Too bad. I try to get some women interested, but it's hard. I did find one person, however, who really likes to listen to lots of different music (the way we do), but she doesn't have any real gear of her own (yet?!)
Female audiophiles? I've heard rumours that they exist . . . Also, I've heard of a large, possibly prehistoric reptilian creature dwelling in some murky lake in Scotland . . . Haven't checked out either of these personally, but the latter has something of the ring of truth about it . . .
Never met a female audiophile. However, I sold stereos for a while, and I think women have better hearing. They focus right in on the "gestalt," as HP would call it, whereas men tend to focus on the equipment, what they've read about it, and to what they think is going on technically. I think women are unimpressed with high-end audio because they're unmoved by the "cool gear" factor, yet the majority of high-end systems don't really sound all that good. It will be interesting to discover what female consumers think of SACD and DVD-Audio.
My SO and I are women who do love great sound, and we have some other ladies involved on an informal basis. I have found going into a sales outlet does cause the gentlemen to be somewhat uncomfy in dealing w/me, I will not hazard a reason why.
None. The women I have tried to bring into this hobby (including my wife) say they like the sound, and the equipment is impressive. But I find them listening to boomboxes with just as much pleasure as my megabuck system. Most of them are not involved with all of the jargon in this hobby. You know the jargon, don't you? Soundstage, timbre, depth, imaging. They just know the music.