Audiophiles, Audioworkers & Assholes

Urizen

Lunatic Member
"And so I get really confused and frustrated when I hear these two communities slinging disdain at each other like a bunch of middle-schoolers having a food fight in the cafeteria. <snip> Folks, drop the disdain for each other. Come together at the table, put the PB&J back in your lunch boxes if you’re not going to eat it, and look across at each other and realize that when you might just bump into each other in the grocery store — probably somewhere near the peanut butter — and you might just have something worthwhile to share with each other." — Allen Farmelo

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http://pinknoisemag.com/spiels/audiophiles-audioworkers-assholes
 
Great read. Thoughtful comments.
I'd vote for two masters with industry standard clear marking.
1. General release
2. Extended range or (pick your superlative)

Heck, even my kids' phone speakers are sounding better than they did a couple of phone releases ago.
 
Thanks for posting. Thoughtful article. Retail does seem to be heading in a better direction regarding sound quality. The little bluetooth Sony's and Bose speakers are better sounding than I expected.
 
Interesting article. Based on what's written I'm not sure if I am more in the audioworker or asshole category. I would have considered myself an audiophile a long time ago, but I feel that term has been stolen. I see audiophiles making what I consider absurd statements about things like "this network cable is the biggest improvement in my system ever". Or "the DCS is amazing but changing the optical cable changed it completely." This type of BS turns people away from our great hobby and hurts the industry (except the people making multi thousand dollar network cables).
With age and maybe old man grumpiness, I've decided that things do sound different between systems, and yes, some tweaks can make a change to the sound. However, I know that sound reproduction is a science. There are ways to measure this, sound reproduction is not a good or bad thing, it is a right or wrong thing. Using that logic, I can guarantee that all of our systems are wrong, but the hobby is to achieve what is right. This is what people should be focusing on, journalist using silly adjectives to describe how something sounds is ridiculous and does nothing but hurt the hobby.
Maybe not all methods of measurement have been determined yet, but I know that there are certainly enough out there to point us in the right direction.
Audio is relatively simple in terms of science measurements, RF, and even light have very accurate methods of measurement, why is sound considered an art by some?
[rant off]
 
Audiophiles, Audio Workers & Assholes

I guess I am or have been all three at some point. I would like to see a thread of former audio workers' best/worse tricks of the trade.

Selling audio equipment in the mid-70's to early 80's, my colleagues and I used to do some harmless joking:

1. I used to indicate that upper end receivers had a higher BPSI rating (Buttons per Square Inch)

2. RTR (house brand, black box versions) speakers had the famous Vito crossover. (The store manager's name)

3. When an unreasonable bargainer would quote a stupid lowball price with "cash money", I would ask if the balance was to be put on a credit card or check.

Now some not so harmless tricks (I am still feeling a little guilty)

1. The company would put Pioneer HPM 100's on sale for less than the more profitable speaker lines. Could not easily sell against them. They would be wired out of phase and the tweeters put on minimum, but the L pads indicated flat by removing them and putting them back on at 12 o'clock.

2. Selling 5 year extended warranties on speakers with 5 year factory warranties.

3. Putting undersized fuses on low commission receivers causing "failures" right on the selling floor.

Some one tried this on me years later when shopping for a cassette deck:

Doing an A/B comparison between a $150 HK deck and a $400 Nakamichi. Salesman put both on record mode but set the Nak on High Bias and turned off the Dolby. "Wow listen to the high end on the Nak! Just stomps that HK!" I told him to f**k off, found the manager and went down the street for the HK deck. Wish I still had it.

Caveat Emptor y'all.
 
Interesting article. Based on what's written I'm not sure if I am more in the audioworker or asshole category. I would have considered myself an audiophile a long time ago, but I feel that term has been stolen. I see audiophiles making what I consider absurd statements about things like "this network cable is the biggest improvement in my system ever". Or "the DCS is amazing but changing the optical cable changed it completely." This type of BS turns people away from our great hobby and hurts the industry (except the people making multi thousand dollar network cables).
With age and maybe old man grumpiness, I've decided that things do sound different between systems, and yes, some tweaks can make a change to the sound. However, I know that sound reproduction is a science. There are ways to measure this, sound reproduction is not a good or bad thing, it is a right or wrong thing. Using that logic, I can guarantee that all of our systems are wrong, but the hobby is to achieve what is right. This is what people should be focusing on, journalist using silly adjectives to describe how something sounds is ridiculous and does nothing but hurt the hobby.
Maybe not all methods of measurement have been determined yet, but I know that there are certainly enough out there to point us in the right direction.
Audio is relatively simple in terms of science measurements, RF, and even light have very accurate methods of measurement, why is sound considered an art by some?
[rant off]

:thmbsp:
 
Just in it for "the buy"..?

Interesting article, well put and informative..Also interesting, another article:

"Men making music together is very phatic, assertive, socially interactive communication. We are here. We are whole. We are sounding. We are bonding."

Ref:Womb Envy: Recording Studios, Man Caves and Rehearsal Spaces as Modern Flute Houses, Author: Charles Keil; First Publication: Pink Noise, 11-14-14.

I have found when walking into the various "studios", set up at retail operations, and begging for the next customer..most audioworkers are focused on getting the sale. Very few want to discuss specs, acoustics, materials or the like unless its printed on the display.

So, I do all my research on-line, via article reviews or persons like-minded. When I get to the retail outlet, I'm just lookin for a good buy. I really don't expect the "audioworker" to know the product and I can't see him/her relating to the listening room I have at home.

I also find most audioworkers have limited knowledge of acoustics and don't care to spend lots of time with anyone having a higher degree of such.

I agree with the November article, "Womb Envy...", for most men "we are bonding", where we hear or play great recordings, tune a tuner or just max some bass.

We seem to give it our techno all when it comes to hearing the music :music:!
 
For a sec I mis-read the thread title as "Autoworkers" and thought why are they assholes?
 
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