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Try to explain Shun Mook $300/m interconnects to anyone outside the hobby. They'll act as if you've asked them to join the Moonies.

Their passion is good, but not some of the tangents they go off on. They can make this hobby seem kooky or get people worrying about cables instead of speakers and room acoustics.

Some of the tweaks get a little crazy. I think it hurts the hobby. I think high pricing hurts as well.

If you look at the lunatic fringe of both political parties, you'll agree.

Many valuable discoveries have been made by those thought to be lunatics.

I'm not sure, but I love the song....

What harm can come from it?

It makes our hobby less boring, amuses the outsiders, and occasionally something good comes out of it.

Regarding the enjoyment of recorded music in a domestic setting as a "hobby" is in and of itself a good way to exclude 90% of your potential customer base. The "lunatic fringe" does indeed convince most non-audiophiles that we are audiophools. Peter Belt et al have a lot to answer for.

Some of it is good, in that radical new ideas can be born. Some of it can be bad, as obsesive/compulsive disorders can distract from the final goal: enjoying the hobby.

A little from column A; a little from column B. We need people who think the unthinkable, in order for the art/science to progress in new directions. On the other hand, there are people who make our passion look ridiculous every time they open their mouths or type their thoughts. Mind you, even when you read the more frothy-lipped contributions (like the Stereophile letters page), at least they care—the nutters. Sorry, can't have one without the other, I'm afraid.

Each of us must assume we are functional to survive. That does not mean any of us are lunatics, just that some of us need herd instinct to feel safe. Baa-baa.

Bottom line is that the lunatic fringe (it's called that for a reason) hurts the hobby. It discredits the hobby and makes it inaccessible. How do you explain to someone who can buy twice the computing power at half the cost compared to a year ago vs audio's lunatic fringe which asks for twice the price for benefits which seem to only be audible when the listener is aware of the price of the product. It makes the hobby look like it's populated by a bunch of suckers.

It switches normal people off, putting hi-fi at the fringe—reducing volumes, which therefore means less investment in real innovation.

Harvey Rosenberg: a good thing. Peter Aczel: not so good.

I just think the whole, "Just because it can't be measure doesn't mean it's not there" crowd is annoying. Please tell me again how a carbon-fiber power plug cover or the quantum dots affect the sound?

How will we grow if some one doesn't think outside the box? It is innovation that has transported us to where we are now. Edison was thought of as a non-traditionalist. Look at the fruit that has borne.

The crazies are out there no matter what field you are looking at. Sure, they can be distracting to some, but sometimes (often) there is a kernel of truth in their fanaticism that does lead to true improvement in the end. We need the crazies to keep us sane.

There is no question but that those in the lunatic fringe who listen very carefully can push systems and discover new methods for sonic splendor, but 99% of it is BS. Solid engineering (without a blind adherence to dogma), together with careful listening is what really moves the industry forward.

It seems to me there are folks who are fiercely loyal to one technology or another. The best I've heard often come from people who are willing to toss conventional thinking out the window.

JGH kinda said it best here: "I know I did, and my whole excuse for it—a love for the sound of live classical music—lost its relevance in the US within 10 years. I was done in by time, history, and the most spoiled, destructive generation of irresponsible brats the world has ever seen. (I refer, of course, to the Boomers.) " Where is the new generation? Wherever we can find it! I battle with naysayers and haters (MP3s are the culprit) all of the time, and it is much worse now than 10 years ago, vinyl lovers excepted, sort of. (Most consumers at record stores don't own great LP rigs—the stores certainly dont'!) I would find it interesting to see what's the age the of consumers who buy the newest remasters of the Beatles catalog. Baby Boomers or younger? JGH thought different, and he was an archetype. Mikey is too. And I thank god for both of 'em!

Trying innovative, out-of-the-box ideas is how we move things forward. Expecting someone to pay $100k for a component to support that research is just silly and further stigmatizes the whole field.

It's a good thing, because designers get into bad habits, designing with current demand in mind instead of innovating to make something that will engender new demand. It's a bad thing, because it tends to cause rifts among otherwise civilized people.

Who is the "lunatic fringe," the innovators or the people who ridicule the innovators? Better clean up your question.

Fanaticism is almost never a good thing. Balance—both between the left and right channels and in the quest for great sound—is essential to making listening to high performance audio gear flourish. Making people who do not have the same likes as you feel bad for their opinions is both narrow-minded and elitist, which pushes people away. That's bad for all of us who love getting the most performance while enjoying their music. Think about it.

An audiophile is, by definition, a lunatic.

Personally, I enjoy reading some of the assertions of the audio lunatic fringe. It's one of the fun aspects of audio. There's no doubt, however, that it doesn't help our reputation in the "real" world.

Magic beans which improve the sound really work!

It's good because the true lunatics often can raise the bar for what can be achieved. It's bad because the "false lunatics" are only interested in getting into our pocketbooks. That causes the truly cutting-edge side of the hobby to get lumped in with the shysters.

It seems like most hobbies/interests/passions have a "lunatic fringe." You can go nuts (and broke) buying into some of these schemes, many of them products of the manufacturers' advertising/marketing departments.