I am doing a research paper on what the mentality of the everyday audiophile(not golden ear audiophiles) is in general regarding tastes in gear.

I made this survey to aid me in accumulating information.

I would be greatly grateful if you would take some time out and fill it in.

I will post final results from the survey here as well.

Here is the link to the survey.
http://www.my3q.com/go.php?url=alexkerhead/90661

Thank you,
Alex

Edit: Link to revised survey added. :)

Alex,

Some constructive criticism if you do not mind.

I would reword many of those question. For example.

Do you prefer audio gear made in your own country?

Does country of origin influence your buying decision

Should a pre-amp, receiver, or integrated amplifier have tone controls?

Does your pre-amp have tone controls.

Are CD superior to vinyl records?

Do you prefer Vinyl or digital.

I feel that many of your questions are confrontational and patronizing. Your surveys results would be better served with a few changes. In its current form I will not take the survey. Again just some suggestions.

Grumpy

I took your survey, and I agree with Grumpy above, Rewording some questions will save having to answer the same question twice or more. I realize your trying to force me the user to narrow down my responses to give exact details but it seems a bit over done.

Also if your wondering I managed to misread the last question, as I haven't finished my first cup of coffee.. I really took the survey today, honest.

I think the drift is to test for open mindedness, not to verify "what an audiophile thinks". This is very opinion oriented and not at all factual. The questions are mostly global. Think of on exception and most answers will be "no".

I agree with Grumpy's comments. I particially didn't like #16:

A fullrange speaker has the capability to sound superior to multi driver systems?

Many multi driver systems are fullrange. An option here would be one or two big woofers compared to several smaller woofers.

Overall it was fun. Can you post a link here in the thread to the results?

There's a lot of gray area in the audio market. Yes and No questions are hard to answer with a lot of things, because so many answers and opinions are subjective. You almost need short answer questions.

Hey alex. Cool survey, I just completed it. I found many of those questions interesting, particularly the speaker inquiries.

Thank you for the revision ideas Grumpy, and for taking the survey folks. My first time doing something like this, been a big project.
I will see if I can edit the questions somewhat. :)

Edit: I will have to make a new survey, so I will have to wait until alter today.

I took the survey, but I think you're "begging the question" with many of your questions. You are assuming your questions are valid in supporting your idea of what is an audiophile. Just my $.02 :smoke:

It wasn't meant to be like that, but I can see how it looks like that..lol

I must have been half asleep on some of those.

I just did this for you, and I can see where you were trying to go with this, but as stated, some of the questions are very hard to give a yes or no to... I would say many need a depends answer, which is what I used the not sure button for...

I've heard a fantastic sounding fullrang speaker over a lot of multi driver systems, and also the other way around... Mybe asking what a person prefers? just some ideas.. but it looks like you will get some interesting responses and over all picture if you can hone the questions a little better...

BTW.. some plastic faced stuff can sound good.. but not as a whole.. just ideas to help you think about wording..

I guess I can see where you are coming from if you are trying to demonstrate how audiophiles can be opinionated, but it doesn't really reflect how they actually are. I'm not sure which is more important to you.

From a statistical point of view, it does make sense to ask both "Do you think CDs are superior to vinyl?" and Do you think vinyl is superior to CDs?" Redundancy leads to more accurate results.

Took the survey. I spent all of 2.5 secs to complete it.

Easy, straightforward questions. Good job.

As grumpy noted, this one definitely needs rewording: "Should a pre-amp, receiver, or integrated amplifier have tone controls?"

If I answer no, am I saying that they should not have any tone controls or that it's not a requirement that all must have them?

The preliminary results are interesting seeing that some regarding vinyl and CD as well as SS and tube seem to contradict each other.

- JP

Hmmm, to me it seemed that my answer to most questions was "sometimes". Unfortunately there was no box for that answer.

OK, I revised the survey, however the results from the last one are void. Please take the survey again if it isn't any trouble, I would be very grateful to anyone who could.

Here is the link.
http://www.my3q.com/go.php?url=alexkerhead/90661

Much better. Very straightforward yes/no questions since you are asking about my main system and not my opinions.

I liked the first one betta, but still, a good job!

Nice survey Alex, I'm also curious to see what the results are.:yes:

How is one to answer this one if their system composes units from several regions?

Where was your gear made?

- JP

How is one to answer this one if their system composes units from several regions?



- JP
Hummm, quite right!

Well, lets improvise, maybe list where your favorite component was made. :)

How is one to answer this one if their system composes units from several regions?
- JP

That's most people I know, here or elsewhere. Just my own gear would include USA, Japan, China, Denmark, Canada, The UK, Taiwan...

Hummm, quite right!

Well, lets improvise, maybe list where your favorite component was made. :)
I selected 'other' for lack of a better choice considering my favorite component was made by an Australian designer.

- JP

My stuff was made in England, Denmark, and Japan. :)

yeah, my stuff was made in america & japan too, I could only choose one though, and I have components from the '70 ties, and from 2007, so I couldn't give a 100% correct answer to that question...

There ya go Alex. I think you'll get more the kind of answers you are looking for now. A lot less bias to this one.. only the one about where was your gear made will be a little iffy... I have stuff from all over... you have to remember it's a global economy... even what year it was made can decide where it was made..

Anyway, good luck, and be sure to post the results here..

BTW... my browser crashed, and I was in the middle of reading the results page.. anyone have a link to it?

BTW... my browser crashed, and I was in the middle of reading the results page.. anyone have a link to it?

I think this is it. :) http://www.my3q.com/view/viewSummary.phtml?questid=188137

It is java extensive, so it may crash earlier IE versions.

Question #2 What price range is your primary system?

Do you mean value or purchase price? I paid significantly less for my equipment than it is worth (auctions, GW, SA, eBay, Restore Store, etc.).

Question #2 What price range is your primary system?

Do you mean value or purchase price? I paid significantly less for my equipment than it is worth (auctions, GW, SA, eBay, Restore Store, etc.).

The current value of components, like what they might fetch on ebay or an audio shop. :)

That worked out better after revisions.

I think this is it. :) http://www.my3q.com/view/viewSummary.phtml?questid=188137

It is java extensive, so it may crash earlier IE versions.

Very interesting results.. I think you'll get a little more of what you are looking for with the way this is worded, and what the results are looking like.. I gotta say, some are surprising me..

The current value of components, like what they might fetch on ebay or an audio shop. :)
Doh! That's exponentially more than what my answer was. Any way to change individual answers without retaking the survey and skewing the results?

- JP

Doh! That's exponentially more than what my answer was. Any way to change individual answers without retaking the survey and skewing the results?

- JP

I took it to mean what I paid... not the worth now... you buy new stuff, the second it leaves the door, the price is cut somewhere in half.. I'm still gonna stick with my original answer...

ANother point, is that program able to accept multiple choices? frex my receiver is from Japan my speakers from USA.

Doh! That's exponentially more than what my answer was. Any way to change individual answers without retaking the survey and skewing the results?

- JP

Unfortunately no. :(

However, I will probably use a general estimate with the results, using a 20% tolerance. :)

ANother point, is that program able to accept multiple choices? frex my receiver is from Japan my speakers from USA.

Indeed, I will probably not use that particular question's results in the research paper, because of this situation you mention.

ANother point, is that program able to accept multiple choices? frex my receiver is from Japan my speakers from USA.

same situation I had.. so I used Other I think it was... but then I get into the issue of a couple pieces have american company names, yet they outsource over seas.. so you really have to remember it's a global economy any more.. and our companies in the US are too cheap to make it here, because we all expect to pay a low price..

We want the world, yet we want it free.. go figure..

Much better now Alex but "Which age gear do you prefer?" is way too confining - some use equipment from the 40's through to present day (as I do) solely based on how it sounds and fits in their systems.

A few other questions on there are not black/white, yes/no for me either but I see what you are trying to accomplish.

Interesting exercise.

I thought it was a great exercise. It's definitely giving us an idea of preference and bias. :)

One thing I would like to see is questions about age (which could explain the results for the computer question) and genre preference. I have been a member of AK for a few months and I'm constantly reading posts that are clearly biased from an age perspective. For example, older AKers are very biased against Hip Hop and Rap music. I just think it's informative to know what the age of the person is that gives these type of biased answers.

Good job! :thmbsp:

With all these suggestions, within a few days, I will have a comprehensive and detailed survey to fill out, if everyone is up to taking it. :D

I like that idea, my system is so varied and spans several decades of components I got confused when trying to remember where everything came from! LOL

With all these suggestions, within a few days, I will have a comprehensive and detailed survey to fill out, if everyone is up to taking it. :D

We'll get you an A+ on that paper yet :thmbsp:

Took your survey. Good luck with your project.

Took your survey. Good luck with your project.

Ditto :thmbsp:

Thanks everyone!

Hi Alex,

Most of the current survey is OK, but I had probelms with the following questions:
19* The best sounding speakers are what size?
Did you mean "the best speakers you have heard are what size?"
18* Which age gear do you prefer?
Could this be multiple selection, as I have gear from 1970-2003 in my current "preferred" system?
13* What type of speaker do you use?
Did you mean single driver or multi driver? and was this including the subwoofer?
8* Which media do you prefer?
Depends on the recording/piece of music. My "In the wee small hours" is definitely vinyl - almost all the rest - digital. But If I could get them all on quarter inch reel to reel, then I'd dump all the rest... So, how about multiple choice - what media do you listen to (vinyl/reel-to-reel/CD/DVD/SACD/cassette/DAT/MP3/other) maybe even with % options?
5* Where was your gear made?
As I've got bits made in Europe, Japan, Thailand, China, USA and by me right here in Australia - maybe this should be multi-selection.

I didn't do it as I didn't feel I could do justice to these questions.

I'll check back when you've revised it, though.

I took the quiz, but as Grumpy and a number of other folks pointed out it was difficult or impossible to give and answer to many questions. Country of origin of my components? In one system alone I would have needed to use all of the answers but one in order to be correct. Maybe a bit of tweaking in the questions to allow for more flexibility would get you much more accurate answers. Fun to do the quiz anyway.

I took both of the surveys and answered them as best I could. More of the questions could use the "I am not sure" Answer.

It's too bad we can't enter comments for the questions, but then interpreting our answers would take forever. :D