Rationalwiki on audiophiles, what do you think?

Can't say I disagree with most of what is written there....

Rather hard to disagree with the general gist of that wiki, but there are various minor points that I'm currently busy correcting it on!

 

Edited by Willakan - 9/27/11 at 12:57pm

Actually, although I've left it there, the link (25) at the bottom of the page "The Definitive Guide to 24-bit Flac" was amazing! So amazing I've bookmarked it. I'm sometimes called on to teach digital audio theory and that article demonstrated just about every single misconception and misunderstanding of how digital audio works. I've heard all those misconceptions before but not all together in a single article. It will make excellent teaching material!

In general though, I agree with you and LFF and the gist of the wiki page, but I too have just done some editing on it!

G
Edited by gregorio - 9/27/11 at 3:15pm

 

Where there are even bright tubes out there, so you definitely have to fish for a warm-sounding one.  The default tubes of the Little Dot are decently bright and not very warm.
 

 

I agree.

Though it misses the point of tubes and vinyl.

I run tubes because they're simple, straightforward, easy to work on, and replacements are easily found. Incidentally, the same reasons I bought my car. I want to keep the gear alive another 30-40 years and I also enjoy working with them. Tubes are simple enough for laypeople to work with. Also, chips go out of production every few years then become impossible to find. What's used in today's amps absolutely will not be available in 10 years, so repair is impossible. But I'll be able to get tubes 20 or 30 years out. Also, tube/solid state arguments tend to turn on accuracy. But even while not accurate to the finest degree, tubes sound pleasing and work fine. Run a blind test with people only to determine whether the enjoyed the music and you'll probably get 100% agreement that the tubed performance was enjoyable.

One more thing, tubes are still widely used in some high-power radio applications. They handle big voltages much better than chips. That probably won't change any time soon.

I also take exception to vinyl. When clean and played correctly, it sounds plenty good enough and can very much be enjoyed. But the real reason to keep a player around is for the staggering amount of music that isn't available on digital. Probably millions of recordings, and most are dead cheap. If you want to explore music and love trying new things, a turntable is a must. What I won't do is spend like $60 on some limited-edition 220g pressing of DSoTM for the sound quality. Sorry, I'll run the SACD, CD or old LP I got for $1. DSoTM is widely available. But if I run across an old gospel LP for 25¢ that can't be found elsewhere, hell yes I'll buy and play it.

Finally, the writeup has no sense of humor or even the slightest perverse interest in fraud, snakeoil and quackery. I love that stuff. Bernie Madoff is deeply interesting. I'll get stuck for hours on websites with quack medical devices. A local used bookstore/junkshop (with a couple thousand LPs!) had a shelf of cheap books on mysticism, occult and spiritualism. I bought them all. And when carnivals roll into town, I go. It's fun to see all the sham games and get a cheap corndog.

Audio is like a medieval bazaar with all sorts of wild sights and claims. Snakeoil merchants, soothsayers, magicians, and even a freak show of questionable modifications. There is no regulation, science is disregarded and people entirely buy into marketing claims and testimonials. The spectacle is something else. Not that you should buy anything. It's fun to show up and watch, just like strolling through the carnival but not getting suckered into playing a crooked game.

I've been on various wikis for over 6 years now, how have I not run across this one? Time to get an account and join in on the piles of win they have brewing

"In particular for analog playback devices, avoid sharing a circuit with a large inductor like a fan, air conditioner or a particle accelerator."

 

Ohh, well that may be the noise issue I've been having.

As a guitarist and a DJ for many years, I have always made it a point to distance myself from the 'audiophile' label. Over the years, while listening to and playing on different brands and technologies and doing bits of research, I have come to the summary that one of the main qualifications of 'audiophilia' is the willingness to spend -i.e., money is never a restriction to a true audiophile. Money is spent on unique technologies, rare/discontinued units, and impossibly high-spec design, regardless of the sound. 17-N OFC (no CCAW in the signal chain!), <0.000000001 THD, never touching vacuum tubes to skin, etc. are the things desired by audiophiles.

A true audiophile will never stop spending money on to get the perfect set-up because they will never be satisfied with

their gear. They spend more time worrying about their gear instead of enjoying the music.

 

That's what audiophile means in my book.

 

 

Quote:

Crap! You mean I have to unplug my particle accelerator???
 

 

great article.

i'm not educated enough to know whats what but that said i cant disagree with anything there

 

can someone explain this part to me:

As a result, some audiophile systems eschew even a preamplifier, piping the output from the playback device directly to the power amp. Sound engineers find this to be especially hilarious in light of the vast number of op-amps in any given mixing board.

 

soo.. does this mean that most all of our setups are "doing it wrong"... i dont know enough about all this to really understand...

Br777, that's talking about passive preamps. Some people just use a box with a source selector and a volume control.

There are various arguments about "purity," but I like an actual linestage for impedance matching and a little gain.

It's an idiotic article. Sure, audiophiles pay a lot for good sound, sure a lot of it is a waste, this can be applied to many areas and products. People pay obscene amounts of money for clothing that is neither very unique or good looking, such as $250 T-shirts with annoying patterns on them. People wear these things to look special to the other special people who know what to look for... nobody else knows or gives a flying f*** about the patterns on the shirts signifying mucho wealth. Some will spend any amount on anything that is their passion, whether it is right, wrong, or a waste has nothing to do with it. I despise these sort of articles that portray the obvious as some kind of shocking realization. For instance, a T-shirt from Target works the same as a T-shirt from Sacks 5th Avenue, why is there a price difference? Why do people pay more for Nike's? Why do people pay more for Mercedes? Why do people pay more for a Rolex when a Timex is probably more accurate? WHY WHY WHY?!?!

 

On another note, I've heard cables change the character of the sound before. I've never heard a proper sounding cable sound better than another proper sounding cable. What I have heard is purposeful coloration induced by cabling at the low end of a cable manufacturer's product line...

 

It's easy to get carried away with high end audio and there is a lot of BS. But it's not all BS. You do get more the more you pay up to a point, of course, beyond that it's personal preference. I will say with authority that $500-$1000 will get you 90-99% of the way there with a headphone rig. Beyond that it's more personal taste, some will find a sonic signature they just love, good for them, is it "worth it", who knows. Like I said, is a Rolex "worth it"? A ferrari isn't as fast as a lot of cars out there but most car lovers "in the know" will tell you that a ferrari is the primo driving machine. Point is, specs aren't everything, we aren't machines, we have preferences that have to do with personal TASTE, not specifications, that is what makes us human, to each his own as the saying goes.

 

 

 

Edited by cheapskateaudio - 9/28/11 at 1:46am