Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
Many have listened to both my friends and my systems, but they just don't get it!
Reader Sharon Churchill is curious about whether or not <I>Stereophile</I>'s readers have much contact with female audiophiles.
EARLY IN MY COUTSHIP WITH MY WIFE BOT WAS SHE INTERESTED IN AUDIO BUT AFTER MARRIAGE IT BECAME PAINFULLY OBVIOUS THAT IT WAS MERELY A RUSE OF THE COURTSHIP RITUAL WE ALL PLAY WITH OUR PERSPECTIVE MATES. NOW MY DAUGHTER SEEMS VERY INTERESTED. SHE KNOWS HIGH END SOUND HAS A DECENT ENTRY LEVEL FOR A 9 YEAR OLD, MID/HIGH END SYSTEM(DADDY'S HAND ME DOWNS) BUT THIS BEGS THE QUESTION IS THIS BECAUSE SHE'S DADDY'S GIRL?. IT JUST SEEMS THAT FEMALES JUST AREN'T THAT INTERESTED AS A WHOLE BUT THERE EXITS SIMPLY EXCEPTIONS.
My wife's ears perked up when I brought in a turntable. She much prefers the sound of LPs. She is going to go get her old LPs from her parents' house. I was getting excited until she started talking about her Carpenters and disco LPs! Maybe one audiophile in the family is enough.
I don't know any women who search for audio equipment as fanatically as do audiophiles, but I do know many women (including the wives of audiophiles) who have an excellent sense of what sounds good in a stereo system. I trust my wife's hearing as much as I trust my own when evaluating equipment and recordings. Not only does she listen differently, but she can also tell when I have arranged my system for the better (or worse).
It is very appropriate that this vote came up now, as there was a very nasty and female-unfriendly discussion on one of the analog lists I subscribe to. In my lifetime, I have recruited about as many male as female friends to the world of audiophilia. And my significant other herself is the proud owner of a main system with a pair of Magnepan MG 2.6Rs, which she drives with Counterpoints, and soon she will get herself a VPI turntable. Her second system is built around Energy speakers, with Adcoms and an Ariston turntable.
Female-Audiophile. Come on now. Women do not spend their hard earned money on entertainment. Only us frivolous guys do. I do have a female friend that has really good hearing. At a Stereophile show she pointed out the flaws in a highly regarded French horn speaker along with it's muy expensivo electronics. Meanwhile everybody else in the room were too busy cowtowing to be objective. After all, they were in the presence of greatness.
It would be rather stupid to assume that men love music more than women. What us men love more is the pursuit of attaining "perfect sound" from our systems. We just can't be satisfied with what we are hearing! It may sound amazing, but we can't be happy. I know you other audiophiles know what I mean!
I am not sure; I meet so many people who want to be something or another. What I do know is I have two in my home who qualify. My (25-year-old) daughter is by far the most knowledgeable and interested of any female I have known (really makes it fun to sit down and compare either equipment or material). Some of her friends don't understand how she can get so excited about it, but they also have never done a side-by-side comparison of a CD against an LP (and decided that the CD wasn't worth the plastic it was sandwiched between). I say there is no reason for this kind of question; we are all in it for the enjoyment, and it has nothing to do with gender.
They don't exist. I tried like hell to find one five years ago so that I could marry her and live happily everafter. But every woman who I thought had shared my orgasmic lust for audio, I later found out had faked it! They reveal themselves when they start comparing the size of your audio budget versus the size of their engagement rings; then they broach the subject of turning your listening room into a nursery. I finally gave up and married a woman who's half-deaf, post-menopausal and rich! I'm in heaven.
I have yet to meet a female who would consider herself an audiophile. However, I know quite a few who can appreciate the sound quality of an audiophile system. In fact, my wife can hear differences in system components that I can't detect. Nonetheless, she would be just as happy with a $1000 system as one costing $10,000 (especially if she could spend the difference on new furniture). She just can't fathom why I'm constantly talking about upgrading when we have a perfectly good system already.