Am I an audiophile?

[Towen7]

Im no audiophile, at least I don't think I am. I dont pay a lot of attention to little intricacies in music. I've actually never had the ability to just sit and listen to music. My ADD would kick-in and I'd find myself doing other things. As a result Ive considered those that would do critical listening as a little unbalanced. Its crazy to me that someone would find a recording more or less enjoyable because of recording technicalities.

Well, I've been making a conscious effort to just listen lately and you know what? Quite unexpectedly I think I'm becoming an audiophile. Last night I was listening to a disc for the first time. The music was very good but I found myself thinking about clarity and dynamics and soundstage, etc. Then I put in a disc I had heard before. Even though I was familiar with the track and liked the music a lot, it was tough to get through. It lacked all of those things that I noticed on the new disc. I wanted to listen to the whole disc but I couldn't. The poor sound quality actually bugged me enough that I just stopped the disc and put it back on the shelf.

 

[Zing]

:eusa-clap:

:text-welcomeconfetti:

 

[CMonster]

You're next step is to learn how to ignore those things that you now recognize and find irritating so that you can relax, sit back, and enjoy the music.

 

[mzpro5]

To answer your initial question:

No you just cleaned the shit out of your ears.

:teasing-tease:

 

[PaulyT]

Welcome to the club, man. I'm with C - noticing it is the first step, ignoring it is the second.

 

[Flint]

I think this is the natural process of becoming a super-enthusiast (the term "Audiophile" no longer means what it was intended to mean). First you love music, then you love hearing music done right, then you learn to love good sounding music, then you learn to love music regardless of the sound yet appreciate great sound.

You will likely go through a period where you actually hunt for and buy recordings based solely on their sound quality. In a few years you will wonder what was wrong with you as the music on those recordings will be awful to you. That's okay.

 

[Rope]

I prefer the term audio enthusiast over audiophile.

Two different methods of listening and enjoying;the first, throwing concern to the wind, and enjoying what's presented. The second, critical listening, listening for fine detail, presentation, sound stage, imaging, and in some cases, a game of gotcha. Learn to separate the two, and have fun with both.

Rope

 

[Yesfan70]

Audiophile - n. a person who listens to the equipment, rather than the music.


Like Rope, I prefer the term "audio enthusiast" I want the best sounding quality I can get, but I still feel the worst sounding copy is better than no copy at all. I don't like MP3 in my rig, because I'm anal retentive like that. However, I have several recordings that are MP3 only (ex: Pomplamoose) and more times than not, I'm digging the music more than bitching about it being lossy.

 

[Botch]

Tom, I was going to post this question in a week, but I'll probably forget so here it is: what's your "videophile" status? Are you getting used to the look of your calibrated TV? Although I missed the calibration itself, I was a bit pleased to note that your projection looked more like my LED tv after the calibration than it did before (particularly the blacks).

 

[Towen7]

I posted about it in the Display section. Long story short... I'm glad that I did it but I'm not sure it was worth the money.

 

[-B-]

I was, I went through all the learning about speakers, recordings etc. Now I don't care and try to just hear the song......it's cheaper that way.

 

[Yesfan70]

......it's cheaper that way.

Amen! ray:

 

[Randy]

Me too. I have really not kept up with anything AV related for a while. I still get S&V and HT (multi year subcriptions), but I haven't read one in years. I just look at the pictures and put them down until I get rid of them.

As opposed to Playboy, which I still read and don't pay as much attention to the pictures. :eusa-whistle:

 

[Barney]

The other day I was sitting in my garage (had some chicken in the smoker) & was listening to random music on my Sansa clip. There was an old Led Zep song that played & I got to thinking about if their recordings would be better with todays recording industry & was checking for all the "audiophile terms"........then the song was over & started another. I forgot to just enjoy the song/music as it is...I really try to just enjoy the songs as they are (all except for a Hum album....just one great song on it anyway...Stars).