Who Is An Audiophile ... Music Listener Or Musical Equipment Collector?

Music Madhu

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Its quite sad to come across many audio enthusiasts who keep jumbling their musical equipment rather focussing on developing interest in listening to MUSIC.
I suggest many a friends that GOOD AUDIOPHILE IS NOT THE ONE WHO HAS VAST COLLECTION OF HI END GEAR... BUT THE ONE WHO HAS GOOD EAR ..
1)Develop a taste for music
2)select particular genre of music (one or more.. Ex. Hindustani vocal / instrumental / some western genre
3)start exploring that genre
4) Get well with the nuances of that particular class
5)Collect top labels/albums OR digitalised music belonging to the genre of your liking.
6)for me MUSIC SYSTEM BUILDING STARTS HERE... It goes like this..
Music of your taste
CDs/vinyl s/Digitalised music
CD players / VPs/ Digital Streamers/DAC
Matching Amps
Matching Speakersj
Matching connectors
DONE.

Once you are done with .... Spend as many years as with your set up and listen vividly
Don't tickle around with permutations and combinations of equipment.
THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD CALLED A BEST SYSTEM OR ULTIMATE SYSYTEM.
BUT You must become the BEST OR ULTIMATE LISTENER.
Hope spoke enough...
Enjoy music..... its ETERNAL

Wishes
Madhu
 
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6)for me MUSIC SYSTEM BUILDING STARTS HERE... It goes like this..
Music of your taste
CDs/vinyl s/Digitalised music
CD players / VPs/ Digital Streamers/DAC
Matching Amps
Matching Speakersj
Matching connectors

But doesn't Any Love/Passion go in the same way? Let me rephrase..

Girl of your taste..
Going to Liked Restaurants together
Doing common hobbies together
Holidaying together
Living-In together... :cool:

Err.. BUT why do you expect every passionate Love to end up in MARRIAGE?
Nobody should be critical about Another Live-in IMHO!
 
Life of an Audiophile is very tough. Especially the DIY kind (like me). You have to spend sleepless night reading various materials and then come to some kind of consensus. Then you should go around trying this out. If it works then look for the next mod else reverse back to square one. Once the satisfaction level is reached look for something else. Doing all this leaves little time to listen to music. More than listening and enjoying the music i like the journey of getting there. Most Audiophiles never settle down whether its music collector or equipment collector. Once you settle then its "Nirvana". i.e. silence

One of my friend use to say - " Life of an Audiophile is more tougher than working in Army".
 
Life of an Audiophile is very tough. Especially the DIY kind (like me). You have to spend sleepless night reading various materials and then come to some kind of consensus. Then you should go around trying this out. If it works then look for the next mod else reverse back to square one. Once the satisfaction level is reached look for something else. Doing all this leaves little time to listen to music. More than listening and enjoying the music i like the journey of getting there. Most Audiophiles never settle down whether its music collector or equipment collector. Once you settle then its "Nirvana". i.e. silence

One of my friend use to say - " Life of an Audiophile is more tougher than working in Army".

That's where I am coming from . purpose of DHYANA is MOKSHA. and the tools for DHYANA are.... Silence and breath.

Similarly Purpose of MUSIC is to attain NADA BRAHMA The tools are listening / practicing /concentrating on MUSIC .
Irony of the issue is .... Instead of concentrating ON MUSIC we get tempted or distracted by ANALYSING TOO MUCH about the music players thus PARALYSE OUR SELVES.

Cheers
Madhu.
 
Equipment is very important, but it need not be expensive.
Audiophile has been cleverly linked to cost of equipment.

I have heard setups where just a single cable is more expensive than my entire setup and have come away disappointed.

The source quality and synergy within the chain is more critical than the individual component.

From my experience the speaker is the most critical in the chain as that is what we listen to.
 
Often we fail to enjoy the music. I have seen my mom blissfully singing to glory listening to a hundred rupee radio...I would even define that as an Audiophile
TRUE... it's impossible to escape from the TRUTH... Becoming a good listener to a good system is more important than running behind "Good " systems !!!
Madhu
 
Audiophile's dont become they are just born, there is of-course an innate craving for music in all of us but when you are able hear all the nuance's of an artists delivery within a perfect presentation that brings you closer to the music it gives a feeling of euphoria.
 
The generally accepted definition of an audiophile is
  1. a person who is especially interested in high-fidelity sound reproduction.
So you look at it very practically it about how the sound is reproduced and which means getting the best out of any system in terms of setup, acoustics, positioning, seating, equipment, ancillaries etc etc. While the most common use of this is related to music it may not necessarily mean so !
While most people really start off with equipment focus as one evolves in this field in terms of taste and awareness you get more on more into tuning the system to give the best. It does not necessarily mean spending more money but spending more time and listening more and more critically to things you dont usually give importance to. eg a music lover might not really care about the usually hidden cues in music, the continuity of a usually unheard cymbal or background score, the attack and the decay of a percussion etc while an audiophile would.

Of course there are people who listen to the system more than music. In fact I had communicated with a gentleman, many years ago in singapore who only had 10-15 8 track tapes and his joy was in listening and metering his own system !!! While I personally dont really believe in that who am I to judge him as as long as he takes joy from it. I guess a pure music lover does not really care about the system, in fact very few musicians themselves are audiophiles !


Again its your own thing..forums are about learning from others anyway as each of us lie in a different space in the spectrum of a pure music lover to a technical/critical listener and we are all audiophiles as long as we think about improving the reproduction of sound from a system
 
Live shows, Concerts when you attend them are what an Audiophile should be categorised as. anything other than that is always a compromise and we will keep trying to achieve audio nirvana trying to assume that if this were done to the setup then this would be close to perfection or what the artist wanted us to hear. I am yet to come across an artist telling us that this equipment combination is what they sound best in.

Audiophile is just a snob way of saying that i belong to a club that is elite, for my gear defines me

Ps. No disrespect to anyone but my views are my own.
 
Live shows, Concerts when you attend them are what an Audiophile should be categorised as. anything other than that is always a compromise and we will keep trying to achieve audio nirvana trying to assume that if this were done to the setup then this would be close to perfection or what the artist wanted us to hear. I am yet to come across an artist telling us that this equipment combination is what they sound best in.

Audiophile is just a snob way of saying that i belong to a club that is elite, for my gear defines me

Ps. No disrespect to anyone but my views are my own.

:) i understand..i cannot afford going to live unamplified shows of music i love so have to attempt to reproduce them at home.

Also some folks like Rafi are no more and will have to wait a long time till i am in a place to listen to them sing live so trying to make do till then with some recordings.
 
Its quite sad to come across many audio enthusiasts who keep jumbling their musical equipment rather focussing on developing interest in listening to MUSIC.
I suggest many a friends that GOOD AUDIOPHILE IS NOT THE ONE WHO HAS VAST COLLECTION OF HI END GEAR... BUT THE ONE WHO HAS GOOD EAR ..
1)Develop a taste for music
2)select particular genre of music (one or more.. Ex. Hindustani vocal / instrumental / some western genre
3)start exploring that genre
4) Get well with the nuances of that particular class
5)Collect top labels/albums OR digitalised music belonging to the genre of your liking.
6)for me MUSIC SYSTEM BUILDING STARTS HERE... It goes like this..
Music of your taste
CDs/vinyl s/Digitalised music
CD players / VPs/ Digital Streamers/DAC
Matching Amps
Matching Speakersj
Matching connectors
DONE.

Once you are done with .... Spend as many years as with your set up and listen vividly
Don't tickle around with permutations and combinations of equipment.
THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD CALLED A BEST SYSTEM OR ULTIMATE SYSYTEM.
BUT You must become the BEST OR ULTIMATE LISTENER.
Hope spoke enough...
Enjoy music..... its ETERNAL

Wishes
Madhu

I think its a combination of both.....music is a passion for most...owning high end gear to hear that music is a challenge for some. That some slowly try to build the system as the years pass by, keep changing systems till they find something which is good overall and most importantly sound Bliss to the ears!

Being an active DJ in the past, music is definitely in my veins....besides hearing music at home when i come back after work everyday....i ensure my 2 hours of travel time to work is loaded with music from my phone to my ears....

This is my 2 bits of personal views..ofcourse there would be some who differ or agree with me......
 
Live shows, Concerts when you attend them are what an Audiophile should be categorised as. anything other than that is always a compromise and we will keep trying to achieve audio nirvana trying to assume that if this were done to the setup then this would be close to perfection or what the artist wanted us to hear. I am yet to come across an artist telling us that this equipment combination is what they sound best in.

Audiophile is just a snob way of saying that i belong to a club that is elite, for my gear defines me

Ps. No disrespect to anyone but my views are my own.

I think you made a big point here.
The way I interpret it is that we should all be aware what instruments in real life (live) sound like. What male and female voice is like with a mic and without it, and the relative weights and places of the instruments w.r.t the vocals.

Then we would have a perfect benchmark to help us set a sound reproduction system.

Regards,

Ravindra.
 
Life of an Audiophile is very tough. Especially the DIY kind (like me). You have to spend sleepless night reading various materials and then come to some kind of consensus. Then you should go around trying this out. If it works then look for the next mod else reverse back to square one. Once the satisfaction level is reached look for something else. Doing all this leaves little time to listen to music. More than listening and enjoying the music i like the journey of getting there. Most Audiophiles never settle down whether its music collector or equipment collector. Once you settle then its "Nirvana". i.e. silence

One of my friend use to say - " Life of an Audiophile is more tougher than working in Army".
Half sound engineer and half music enthusiast is equal to Nowadays Audiophile. We try to find happiness in music & systems rather than profit in business or something else. I spent almost more than 5Lakhs on systems for in search of acquiring pure musical formats and learn a lot technical things, still continue my journey. It’s a passion which will last till last day of life, but taste of music will change with your age. Like I nowadays enjoy golden era songs by Rafi, Talat Mehmood which I didn’t like them 15 years back. Don’t know after 10 years I may like some thing else . Continue our journey on Musical path
 
True, music taste can change with age depending on how the listening faculty ages:). I personally am not able to listen to heavy stuff anymore except an occasional track.
 
As and when the Industry around audio evolved, the industry had to use this reference or say a benchmark called 'Audiophile' that always sounds cooler and let people give that said brand a serious notice. When you segregate a segment, you give it a feel of exclusivity and can always command a premium (ofcourse that brand needs to have that substance too). So when this very thought is put into even the end users mind, it can massage their ego a bit and lets them become that audiophile which in my opinion is like chasing a mirage. It gives you that kick and excitement but the sad part is it never lets you rest well with one particular gear.

Even now if an unknown brand uses a caption "Trusted by Serious Audiophile", I bet most of us are going to take a look what that's all about! (I made that caption up btw!)
 
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