[bigshot]

Welcome back Whazzzup! We missed you!

 

[bigshot]

I don't think I have seen you on Good Music Guide

Those "Was Wagner a Nazi?"-discussions are indeed tiring.

I am not much into discussing specific recordings.

I've posted at GMG in the past, but right now I'm posting mostly at Talk Classical. But I stick to the recordings section to avoid all the "Which composers were gay?" discussions. I got sucked into a "Was Furtwangler a Nazi? thread today. I should know better. My interest is in conducting and performance. When I first investigated classical music decades ago, I wanted to collect the "best" recording of every major work. I eventually realized that was pointless, because there is no such thing as "one best". Now I'm most interested in the differences between performances, and Furtwangler, Stokowski, Bernstein and others give me lots of interesting variations to check out.

There was a crusty old coot who posted at Talk Classical a lot a few years ago. I learned a lot from him. He disappeared one day and was never seen again. I guess we'll all do that someday.

 

[BassicScience]

Today I got into a discussion on the Head-Fi social media group with a fella who said that 95% of Head Fi posters don't focus on music or sound quality... they focus on gear. He was trying to explain to me that people who describe equipment in flowery subjective ways do that because the gear itself is all that matters to them. It doesn't have to sound better. It's an object of desire. Gear is a fashion statement and a status symbol. It's like a Gucci handbag. It isn't any better than any other handbag, but it has status. I can't picture that myself, and I really doubt the percentage is that high, but he has a point. If I had to describe myself, I would be 80% musicphile, 20% audiophile and 0% gearophile. I imagine there are people who are the same proportions with the exact opposite priorities.

While I'm not sure that 95% of the members here are "gearophiles", sometimes it seems like that percentage is roughly accurate for the most active posters.

 

[redrol]

What gets me is when i ask what kind of music a person listens to, or maybe favorite artist and I get, well i listen to spotify and youtube and don't really have any favorites. Really?!

 

[bigshot]

Similar to that is when I ask someone what kind of music they like and they answer "all kinds". Then I ask what their favorite opera is. blank stare. Your favorite country music? I don't like country music. Favorite blues singer? another blank stare. It usually turns out that "all kinds" means all kinds of one small section of rock music.

 

[taffy2207]

While I'm not sure that 95% of the members here are "gearophiles", sometimes it seems like that percentage is roughly accurate for the most active posters.

That's because most of those active posters are actually reviewers. If you want to see the impact they have on head-fi mute them all (well 99%, Brooko is safe) like I've done. A lot of threads and posts are missing for me ,which is bliss, not going to lie. Now I don't don't have to see endless 'showing off' pics and all the 'Interested in this' posts that inevitably are posted by reviewers when a new gadget comes out, I've been sorely tempted to post "then buy it" on numerous occasions. If I want knowledge I come here, If I want flowery language, I'll take them off mute.

Back to biggies question, I reckon I'm 99% musicphile, 1% gearophile, the majority of my posts are in the Music forum. I don't consider myself an Audiophile at all. I was going to start a thread called "Are Audiophiles enemies of music?" a while back but thought better of it, I wasn't in the mood for flaming.

I had "Whilst you get lost in the details, I get lost in the Music" written in my signature on here a while back. That pretty much sums up my approach, I hate it when people go on about the sound of a Hi-Hat on certain tracks or "I can hear her breathing" on a song. That's not how I listen. I guess I'm more of an emotional listener and I also love the theatrics of Metal music. Yes, I want good sound but not to the point where it detracts from the Music to the point where I'm picking out individual aspects of it. I guess I want to just get lost in it (A few Head-fiers want me to get lost as well but that's another story ).

I grew up listening to vinyl and Cassettes and that's why I have a love / hate relationship with digital Music. I was happy with Analogue then digital came along and made me want more from Music. This sub forum has helped me tame those expectations.

I'm just as happy listening on an old Radio nowadays (As I was when I was younger) than insisting that I listen on a grand setup. I don't need all the details or expensive gear to enjoy the Music, thankfully.

But that's just me, each to their own.

 

[bigshot]

That's because most of those active posters are actually reviewers.

That's a nice way of saying "shills". The only way to continue to get free stuff in return for being an influencer is to keep saying what they want you to say about their product. The reviewers on this site are the same as advertorial in hifi magazines.

I do think there is a value to obsolete technology. There's a specific type of coloration added by various formats. Acoustic 78s don't sound the same when they are electrically transcribed, and hearing Elvis singles on a contemporary Seeberg jukebox is a real treat. If someone was smart, they would make a DSP with presets to simulate various response curves and noise characteristics of different kinds of playback. It would be fun to play with.

 

[taffy2207]

That's a nice way of saying "shills". The only way to continue to get free stuff in return for being an influencer is to keep saying what they want you to say about their product. The reviewers on this site are the same as advertorial in hifi magazines.

That's pretty much what I'm saying, yes Constant streams of 4 and 5 star reviews only helps the reviewers and the Electronics Companies. It doesn't help out people wanting to buy at all.

 

[TronII]

So many rules are being broken in this thread that I'm surprised it hasn't been taken down yet

 

[bigshot]

Hello Tronll Welcome to sound science. The rules you refer to are just for the rest of the site. We have a special set of rules here. Stick around a while and you might just find that this is the real Head-Fi .

 

[TronII]

Hello Tronll Welcome to sound science. The rules you refer to are just for the rest of the site. We have a special set of rules here. Stick around a while and you might just find that this is the real Head-Fi .

I'm more worried about the potential mass permaban

 

[Steve999]

I'm more worried about the potential mass permaban

It’s amazing, I never noticed it until @gregorio pointed it out once, it’s really just a few little corners of the net where people try to have an accurate discussion of this stuff. You think out of all of the people who can write in English in the world, there’s a pocket of ten or twenty here, a pocket of fifty or sixty there, a pocket of thirty or so there, I mean I have to wonder if there are even a thousand people total in on the discussions, total, out of the whole inter-webs. That’s a mind-bogglingly low number when you think about it. And even among the different pockets there are some philosophical rifts. For example, some engineering minded guys who want to see excellence in engineering and chase great measurements while some places are at a place where if the differences are not audible why are you paying all that money. Some places hit the recording process harder and some places hit the reproduction end harder. But in any event the nature of the discussion is highly unwelcome in many quarters.

 

[bigshot]

We fought hard to carve out this little island of sanity.

 

[castleofargh]

I'm more worried about the potential mass permaban

it is not allowed to discuss moderation on the forum, I need to punish you!
^_^


seriously though, I'd appreciate it if you guys could go easy on the judgmental and condescending posts. beside the fear of moderation, it just doesn't make you look that good.
I do share the idea that too many reviewers are vastly under qualified(or at least vastly overconfident, which makes them unqualified in my eyes). and I also agree that to get the system going, it is often a necessity to suck up to manufacturers who will only provide many more demos in the future if they see the reviewer as free or almost free advertising. but if reviewers have no alternative to run their hobby/job, why are they the ones blamed for it? a few reviewer tried to get out of this and asked for support to purchase gears so they could say exactly what they were thinking without any pressure(expressed or just something the reviewer creates for himself). but of course we don't want to give our money to some guy to buy himself gear we'd rather have ourselves. so maybe we'll give a little once to say that we support the idea, but that's it. that solution doesn't work very well in the long run.

as for any comment about the right way to have a hobby or spend our own money, sorry I just find that silly. it has nothing to do with moderation as you're certainly free to express your opinions. and mine is that it's silly.

 

[SilentNote]

I'm a musicphile... It annoys me when every shop I go in asks me "what's you budget" before "what kind of sound are you looking for".