Speaker footprint, cool running small Class D amps, and streaming services are progress in terms of size, energy conservation, and access and convenience.
Is Audiophilia a Dying Hobby or Just in Need of a Tune-Up?
- Thread starter exupgh12
- Start date
Good points. Class D amps, besides running cool and being small have really advanced in sound quality (there a couple of class D amps out there that offer stunning performance). Advances in streaming quality and definition as well as some major advances in Digital to Analog conversion technology (DAC) have hit the market. Unique and patented turntable technologies have emerged. It's a great time to be in audio!
That does seem like a lot.
Amateur radio licenses have a 10 year term. I bet that number includes many tens of thousands of silent keys.
I think the growing interest in amateur radio was arrested after the 1980s with the advent of the Internet.
In my glass half full view of the hobby the love of sound and the love of music are very much parallel pursuits rather than exactly the same thing… though I’d consider it’s likely most audiophiles are also musicophiles but the priority and weighting we put on each of these values may likely vary.
It’s also entirely possible to be very much in love with the performance of the design, the technology and the engineering of audio and then the performance of music itself can act as an accompaniment in the listening. Not the way I choose for it to come out but completely understandable… the audio pursuit is a sensational ride. It can also be a complicit distraction.
However I also like to think that music can be the siren and seduce us over to it when we thought we were heading off onto the high seas of sonics and our focus more caught up in the rigging.
I’d also figure that for some (or possibly all at varying times) our priorities in listening can be about appreciating the qualities of the recording or a focus in the qualities of a performance or even more just in the value of the music in itself.
The love of the gear and the love of the sonics for me as great as they are become so much less meaningful without an accompanying deepened appreciation and connection to the music that I am playing.
But the truth is music has always survived without being recorded in performance but not so much without it living through being performed and shared and in being appreciated and valued.
In the end though music itself needs high end audio much like a fish needs a bicycle.
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I have a 28 year old son. He has a decent white collar job but the cost of everything from housing, food , auto - purchase, care and insurance, medical, etc . etc , and then putting aside money for savings/investment leaves , from my vantage point, a smaller portion for entertainment than maybe previously existed. He and his friends enjoy the music of their choices but aren't interested in a system, they spend their time and available entertainment funds on being out and about.
All of that said, if you do find younger folks who would be interested in a system but finances don't allow them to make the purchase maybe consider passing onto to them equipment that you aren't using any longer or going to be moving on from to get them started. Not virtue signaling but I've done that a few times for younger folks I knew while working and also for a couple of friends kids. They appreciated it and the feeling of helping them get started made me feel good.
Music is an end in itself. Audio gear is not.
While I appreciate headphones, I believe they should be classified as a different hobby—at least that’s how I see it. For me, headphones represent a distinct pursuit because of how they deliver sound: they differ in soundstage and imaging, lack room interaction, and offer a different physical impact.
Audiophilia is about "love of good sound", as implied by the name. Even though it's a different experience with headphones, it's the same pursuit of good sound. So yes, in that sense it's the same hobby for me.
We can agree on what defines an audiophile. However, given the differences and limitations of headphones in recreating music the way hi-fi systems do (such as soundstage and imaging, lack of room interaction, and different physical impact, to name a few), I consider headphones a separate branch of this hobby.
It's like watching films in a cinema, on a home theater system, or on a TV—while they all serve the same purpose, the experience isn't the same, and it's not what we aim for at the highest level.
Hi,
Watches are a kind of show off while the high end not so much show off. Perhaps it is amongst the hifi enthusiast, but this is a pretty small percentage in the population. In addition watches are more universal than high end system, I mean all genre show off them lady and man. High End system do not have much appeal to lady, how many lady are enthusiast hifi vs man? How many lady are in the forum ? The comparison to watch I feel do not apply. I would also say that in many case the high end system is a kind of argument with the lady companion which often do not appreciate the effort and cost and most of alll the result.
I feel also that the most enthusiast high end people in reality do not listen much music, but are rather in search of a kind of perfection of their rig neglecting the pleasure of merely listen to music.
Cost is also another issue.
Best regards
Adelmo
All good points. Young people pay what we consider small fortunes for experiences instead of “stuff”. Ticket prices for Taylor Swift are a recent example. Some were paying several thousand dollars for three hours of live entertainment, money that could buy a good used “starter stereo.”
One more data point. My daughter recently told me she’ll start a record collection when she’s settled (she finishes undergrad in April). I will no doubt get her set up with a “record player” but what she’s most attracted to is the collecting aspect of the hobby, and the music. She and her friends love going to vintage and thrift stores. Crate digging for vinyl is a natural extension of that interest. There’s a real “cool factor” to finding a record (rare as it may be) that hasn’t made it onto Spotify.
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Why does anyone care? It seems fake or misplaced concern. Why should the youth of today embrace some other generations hobby.
Its a very sound statement to say sitting for hours in front of a stereo is a waste of time and money to buy the expensive gear. At least a video game is active, engaged with 3 or more people and a lot less money.
And really, I see a lot of people walking around with headphones. They may be more engaged with music than old people are. They simply avoid wasting big $$$ chasing a unattainable goal.
Its a very sound statement to say sitting for hours in front of a stereo is a waste of time and money to buy the expensive gear. At least a video game is active, engaged with 3 or more people and a lot less money.
And really, I see a lot of people walking around with headphones. They may be more engaged with music than old people are. They simply avoid wasting big $$$ chasing a unattainable goal.
Recorded music needs some piece of equipment to play it back.
This sounds intuitively correct to me, but only because I love music.
Taking the other side . . . isn't every hobby an "end in itself"? Isn't watch collecting* -- isn't enjoying staring at an open case of high precision, beautifully made, opulently executed with gold or meteorite or jewels and enjoying knowing that you assembled this carefully curated group of timepieces yourself -- also an "end in itself"?
*I am not a watch guy.
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By a similar logic you could classify the very few people who
a) have a music room large enough to virtually reproduce the size and power of a full orchestra (room of width about 25 feet or not much short of it, long enough and with high ceilings) and
b) have speakers large enough to fill that room with sound and sound energy in quantities sufficient to fulfill the requirement
to be in a different hobby than the rest of us, including you and me.
They aren't, even though obviously they are able to (and sometimes do) attain greater heights of reproduction.
And I didn't consider myself switching the hobby when I switched from headphones to speakers. Sorry.
Republicoftexas69
Well-Known Member
Bunch of guys in Detroit, Tokyo and Stuttgart have similar worries as young people are no longer interested in getting their drivers license. Ride sharing is their mode of transportation. Times change, evolution?
@Ron Resnick Spot on…anything the younger generation can do to shut off the outside world, they eat it up.