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Originally Posted by fordgtlover
 Principle 1
The primary purpose of the gear is to reproduce quality audio. This immediately would exclude gaming headphones, and playstations (their primary purpose is to play games). Principle 2 Portable gear is not High-end. This might be contentious, but I'll throw it in anyway. Principle 3 Value for money is not the primary purchasing or evaluation consideration. High-end audio is not all about the best bang-for-buck. It is about the purist pursuit of the best audio reproduction - to your ears, and to your budget. Principle 4 There are no small improvements that are not worth chasing. High-end audio is about chasing those final improvements. Cable discussions, DBT and proving that a tweak is scientifically valid is NOT part of high-end audio. Principle 5 Skeptics need not apply. If you are skeptical of the worth, value or benefit of any equipment, tweak or improvement - you are probably too focussed on the value for money equation; that is not high-end audio. Principle 6 High-end audio does not need to subject itself to DBT. This would be akin to arguing that the owner of a Ferrari should prove that his car is better than your VW beetle. Principle 7 High-end audio is about what you want rather than what you need. If you can't understand why anyone would buy a $1 Million dollar car or a $25,000 watch, then you probably won't understand high-end audio either. Principle 8 High-end audio can include DIY. Whether it be cables, DACs or Amps (even headphones), there are many DIYers whose primary goal is the pursuit of the best quality audio. Just because a product has a brand name doesn't make it any better - remember, the focus is on the ability to reproduce the best quality audio not how fancy it looks. Principle 9 High-end audio can include older and used equipment. Just because something is old doesn't exclude it from being high end. Older equipment offers terrific opportunities for high-end audio at decent prices. Used high-end equipment is still high end equipment - think classic cars. This my 2 cents worth. These are not rules to be applied strictly- but more to shape thinking. This group should not be elitist, but it should allow free discussion about the pursuit of the best quality audio - including questions from newbies (but please, not the 'High end amp for $300 questions'). Newbies should only come armed with sensible questions or views, that have actually been researched. |
Principles 6 and 4 contradict one another. In most cases, small improvements are only detectable through DBT or something similar. Remember, this is about ultimate, no compromise sound reproduction. If something may not be pulling its weight, it has to go. If you can find through DBT that a certain component renders no audible improvement over another, why bother with whichever is more expensive or uglier or whatever. Without DBT, this becomes a matter of who has the prettiest or most expensive gear, not whose gear reproduces the best sound. That's technophilia, not audiophilia.
Principle 5 also seems like nonsense to me. Why shouldn't one be skeptical of the benefit of a piece of equipment? If it doesn't matter what something actually does, excuse me while I go start a cable company. There's money I should be printing!
In regards to Principle 1, that would only exclude gaming headphones and other things that didn't produce the best possible sound. What if Icemat accidently made the greatest headphones ever? Unlikely but possible. Same sort of reasoning applies to principle 2, though it's less necessary. UE11s at the end of a high end home headphone chain would certainly qualify as high end, no? Aren't these IEMs designed for professionals whose accuracy and reproduction demands are far more stringent, and whose perceptions are far more refined than the couch-audiophile with money to throw at his problem?
I should think Principles 8 and 9 would be obvious enough. Boutique commercial equipment is DIY as far as I'm concerned, just in a fancier case (or fancier garden hose).
Oh, and excuse me for the long quote, but it seemed worthwhile in this case.
