I think the majority of people do not care about sound quality.

That's because being an audiophile is a sad, sad thing.

 

I don't care about sound quality the majority of the time. In the car, in the garage, cleaning the house, on a run, etc... don't care.

It's only when I sit down in the captains chair, in front of the big system, is when it matters.

 

Yes. I would never make a negative comment about someone else's stereo system. It's okay on-line among strangers where it's not a personal slight, but it's still often met with resistance, scoffing, hurt feelings, anger...

I used to think I'd improve the quality of my gear through the years, but at this point I don't ever think about it. I listen to music at lower volume than ever and the two people I know who have killer systems... I don't like the way they sound. They always play music way too loud for my tastes and the impact is a distraction to my ears; it's a barrier, the music doesn't draw me in. Both guys are really "into" their gear, they've built their own speakers and always seem to have a new/upgraded component to talk up.

It's a cool hobby for them, but to me it has very little to do with music appreciation.

 

I'd agree, most people don't generally care about quality until they experience it.

But, when a person has the rare opportunity to sit in the sweet spot of a truly high fidelity kit, relax and listen to a piece of music, something happens. They most often become noticeably, emotionally moved, and at that moment it changes the value they place on high quality music listening. Regardless of ones wealth, the heart will compel us to find the means to travel and explore endless sonic places we never knew existed. We become hungry and long to repeat that feeling.

Many of us rightfully view the funding and implementation of a high-end Hifi and music library as a necessary, long term investment. Understanding the value it brings to enhance our life and the lives of those close to us. As it is an exhilarating and rewarding gift to share. And to live a life without it would truly be an absurd existence IMHO.

We could argue or debate, until the ends of time, just how that kit would be defined and how the sound should be presented, as it is so subjective a thing. Yet, the simple fact is there are many ways to present a musical reproduction that will suffice.

It really doesn't change the result. Happy listening!

 

As long as we're generalizing...I've always been impressed with the intelligence level and thoughtful expression on this board. Are audiophiles smarter than the average population? I frequent some other hobby forums and the level of conversation is often disappointing.

 

My ears aren't terribly sensitive. I went to hundreds of shows between 1973 and 1993, many of them by heavy metal and punk acts at ridiculous volumes. I also played in bands from the age of 16 to around 30 and have worked on construction sites and in factories. I have some bootlegs that would make an audiophile puke. There are some albums that are unlistenable to me however. Merryweather Post Pavillion and the first Oasis album for example. They're exhausting--there's no room to breathe. MPP was obviously mixed for ear buds, but what's Definite Maybe's excuse--it came out 21 years ago.

 

I think there was a thread that concluded Rush fans that are the smartest... or maybe it was Prog fans. I can't remember, but it wasn't audiophiles. You'll have to do a search.

 

I don't know about that but they certainly seem to have more money than the average population.

 

At least Rush fans fashion themselves the smartest.

 

Guy, your comment got me thinking about the topic of noise induced hearing loss and how important it is for all of us to take care of our hearing, regardless of preferred format (LP, CD, mp3 etc.) or which sound systems each of us are using.

Regarding sound quality and current mastering trends, it's nice to see that more consumers are waking up and changing their expectations regarding how an album should sound. The changes in trends didn't happen overnight and the loudness war will likely continue.

 

Perhaps IQ testing could prove or disprove such theories?

 

That's too much of a generalization. There is a reason why this forum is moderated the way it is.
Audio and HT forums that are less moderated can, and do, get quite crass.

 

But, this is the only place that i've been on where the discussion degrades into such hostility.

 

This is what I am finding as well. I hang with guys who love music and not stereos. We have attended plenty of shows together over the years, and still catch a few together these days; they all still buy or stream music. The bulk of the get-togethers are at one guys house who has a Yamaha integrated and some Polk floor standards and sub; the other guys have similar rigs. He built a little desktop media player with ss drives and an audiophile dac card, it works very nicely and was an upgrade from using his ipod with 256kbps files; on that rig I can try a lossless flac against the stream of something and while if I strain can begin to hear differences on that setup, I am hard pressed to point them out to others. So quickly the discussion changes to is the music good, period; it seems to them any discussion about sound quality becomes persnickety nonsense that detracts from the music. On top of that, most of them would prefer to hear some compressed as hell bootleg off the radio from 20 years ago because it was a cool show. I have made some headway in pointing out well done masterings of music they like, but even then I doubt any of them are going to track down some OOP DCC disc when the stream of whatever remaster of that album sounds good enough.

 

And the difference is ........................

 

Your last sentence is the whole issue. What is "good enough " to the majority of listeners. I was in the market the other day and some girl stocking the shelves was playing
some little device while she worked. As I shopped I noted that the track sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place the band or the track, it was just some anonymous
vaguely zep-ish sort of garbage. It finally hit me that this was not just a zep-ish track it was a cover of a particular zep song, but so different that I'd had a hard time pinning it down. And then the ultimate realization a minute and a half in ... this was not a cover, this was the zep track, just produced in such poor sound that it was literally unrecognizable (a zep track without a bottom ?) Whatever virtues the original track had they were lost. "Good enough?" Ok. But good enough for what?

 

While I can agree with you does that make them close minded?

 

Sure. In my experience, we are all closed minded, only about different things. I am very closed minded about fashion, interior design, and reality TV shows, for example. We are not closed minded here on this board about sound quality, but many people are, I think.

 

Oh, geez... I HATE that! Hate, hate, hate!

 

I care about sound quality to a certain extent. I traded all my vinyl and made the switch to CD because a good bit of my vinyl was trashed. Too much partying, multiple record changing record players, guests leaving albums laying around, not being able to buy a new cartridge/needle when needed, etc. I don't get involved in vinyl vs CD debates because my history is that I CAN'T TAKE CARE OF VINYL, which takes me out of the conversation.

Now when I buy CDs, I don't want to take the time to research what the best mastering is of each CD I want. Unless the CD sounds like Voiceprints version of Jon Anderson's Animation (the one CD I own that is noticeably, seriously, bad), I'm good. My component system is decent, and sounds fine to me. The eq fixes any issues to an acceptable degree. I can get emotionally moved, wowed, or amazed by music I listen to and I don't think it would change if the sound was a bit better. I do not listen to crappy mp3s on my iPod, preferring to have less songs, but in aif.

It takes a lot of money and time to be a true audiophile, and most people who care even a little bit can't sacrifice either the time or money. Those who don't care at all are mostly music/fashion trend followers.

 

I agree with this. I attended a concert by the London Philharmonic at the Royal Albert Hall. The sound was astounding. I sat next to a young couple, and behind a family of tourists. The young couple read the program prior to the show and sat quietly listening to the music. The family took dozens of selfies (including during the performance), talked for a while over the music and then fell asleep. It made me wonder why they would pay good money for great tickets to a concert - there's nothing to really see at a classical music concert; you go for the sound. Puzzling.

 

You're missing out on the benefits of a superior feng shui.

 

If you think people need better stereo stuff - find it and get it for them.

 

Yo! You dissin' on Totinos? Them's fightin' words!

But, seriously, I want the best sound quality I can get for what I can afford. But, I also love the portability. That's a tricky balancing act, portability vs quality.

I'm also a stickler for video quality on my TVs.

After our house fire, and rebuilding, when it was time to replace all my A-V gear (well, the family's... oops) I set aside a budget of $20,000 out of our insurance money. For the whole house (including a dedicated home theater). And my wife hit the roof! No way was I going to be allowed to spend even half that much... for the entire house.

I think I did ok, though. Sunk most money into the home theater speakers (nice JBL), TV (huge smart Samsung) and Blu-Ray (Oppo) player. Then lucked across some amazing deals on Onkyo receivers (for the theater) and Vizio TVs (for the rest of the house) and Energy soundbars for all the TVs to finish everything out around $8,000 or so. (In a related note... I LOVE clearance sales)

And I have to say the theater sounds FANTASTIC! Now, I just need to talk her into replacing the 2 year old TV with a 4K one...

 

Oh, I hope so.