Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
Let's see: my ex-wife, several of my male friends, my mom, my boss—and it goes on and on.
Audiophiles get a lot of ribbing at times for all kinds of reasons. Has anybody ever made fun of you for being an audiophile?
Recently I upgraded some power cables and there was a noticeable difference and so I asked my wife to come listen to the improvement in transparency and the size of the soundstage. She just smiles and says wow!, but she says it like I am from another planet.
At just about every change in the house, I am consulted in hushed tones about whether we should opt for air-dried maple or mdf, or should we go ahead damp with lead shot, whether it's for a block under a flower pot or a daydream about new counter tops.
Once, I was demonstrating my new speakers to a visitor who expressed the opinion that my speakers were "crap" because they did not play louder. I said: "never mind the volume, listen to the wide soundstage and separation of each individual insrument. You can even hear the musicians shuffeling in their seats and turning the pages of their music!" He noticed my copies of Stereophile on the end table and told everyone after that that I was a "Stereo fool."
Everybody I know thinks it's nuts. None of my friends are audiophiles. All of them love to listen to music on the system when they come over for a Clos de Tart or Tuesday night poker game but they all think spending a lot of money on a stereo is flaky. I never tell anyone how much anything costs anymore. It's pointless. A couple of $500 bottles to go with a brace of aged Smith & Wolenski steaks burnt just so on a $1200 grill is OK but spending that kind of money on Kimber Select or Benz Micro just escapes them. So I put on Hums of The Lovin' Spoonful and watch them go right back to their youth. I can take it 'cause I can reach them where they live.
Today, if anyone made fun of me for being an audiophile I'd swap out their hosptial grade AC outlets for generic ones without telling them. Tee hee. However, back when Polk speaker cables were new and I mentioned my purchase of them my two person audience told me I had an "advanced case of audiophile-itis." They were high-end salesmen.
Who hasn't? There's about as much respect or understanding for what we audiofools do as there is for yak herding. Not that the world doesn't need a good yak herder or another $50k amp, it's just that the hoi polloi don't care. Most of my friends look at my beautiful system, shrug their shoulders, and offer me advice on the order of: "why didn't you just save thousands and go buy this crap at Circuit City?" Then they get into their $60,000 SUVs and drive off to another $200 meal. They will never know...
Not all my friends think of me as nuts, my wife "doesn't understand" me but guess who they all come to for advice when purchasing sound reproduction equipment? I have also made a goodly number of converts at work, convincing many that the American audio industry is alive and doing quite well, thank-you very much. That's part of what it is all about, too!
I was recently the victim of some left-handed ribbing from an unexpected source. I've put together what I might call a pretty decent system over the years, picking up some very nice high-end pieces. But, my power amplifiers (Adcom GFA 565 monoblocks) were definitely mid-fi, and I knew I needed to replace them to get the most out of my music. Recently, I was shopping for an amplifier to replace my aging beasts, and the first dealer I went to actually made fun of me for having those old amplifiers still in use. His words were something along the lines of taking them out to the pistol range with my Desert Eagle and putting them out of their misery. (I decided against spending any money there!)
All the time. "You spend too much time fussing with/cleaning your records...why aren't your speakers put out of the way in the corner?"—and my favourite, "why do have that big thing on the floor with the bulbs in it...why don't you have a receiver?" (My amp, of course.)