[Fabulicious]

Thank you for responding, I kinda neglected to look at the time stamp on this thread until I had posted :/

 

[CanadianMaestro]

I think that most of today's youth, raised on iPods and MP3's, do not appreciate the glories of audiophile sound because they've never had a real opportunity to sit down and listen to a two-channel system with music that does the system justice. And I don't mean heavy metal and grunge rock. More like very well-recorded, possibly hi-res quality, classical, jazz, rock, and acoustic music. So, yes, in a way, it probably is an "acquired" taste, not to sound snobbish. I'm convinced that, most people who do listen to quality audio will be hooked and will want more of it. That's how I got into it. Started out with a very modest system, then realized, why not audition a few higher-performance gear to see how they sound. I don't believe hi-end audiophile quality sound is innate -- unless someone finds a gene for audiophilia! Unlikely.
 
Just my 2 cents' worth.

 

[haloxt]

I think love of high fidelity can be an acquired taste, but often it may simply be a reaction to just how bad modern low fidelity recordings and reproduction gear are instead of because there is an actual desire to listen to sound reproduced as faithfully to recording as possible.
 
But I also think that it is an acquired taste to like to listen to highly distorted and colored noise. Basically all high fidelity is is accurate reproduction of real life sound, and mid-fi is a compromise between euphony and fidelity to compensate for technical shortcomings, and generally speaking, most people don't get much enjoyment out of listening to real life sounds or mid-fi/hi-fi reproduction of real life sounds, most people get their kicks off of listening to distorted recordings reproduced by low end reproduction gear colored to make things sound like engaging noise.
 
Take someone who gets bored from mid-fi and hi-fi gear to a concert that doesn't amplify the music and he'd probably fall asleep and think his Beats "sound better" (better? better? sound better what?), and he'd probably also be bored by most real life sounds, whether instruments, birds chirping, wind, voices. What people who listen to music solely for euphony don't realize is that music isn't simply about euphony, there's many other different emotions which are obscured by coloration and technical limitations of low fidelity gear. That's one reason I always watch movies and play games when testing audio gear, so I don't get deceived by the euphony and mistake it for fidelity.

 

[pp312]

  What's up with all the necroing lately?