Fantasy Audiophiles vs. Objective Audiophiles: Has the hobby changed?
Reply #3 – 2009-10-23 22:56:56
Assuming for a moment that Richard Greene's two groups are valid, here's my take on what's going on with these kind of threads: The real problem is that people think they need a reason / rational justification to feel good. You can look in the mirror one day and think "god, I'm ugly". You can look in the same mirror the next day and think "I look pretty good". Your face hasn't changed and nor has the mirror, but how you feel (and thus how you feel about yourself) has. So don't underestimate the benefit of feeling good (or underestimate a person's desire to defend such a feeling). Your "fantasy audiophiles" are not actually audiophiles at all, that's simply the vehicle for them making purchases that make them feel good (they buy audio gear to feel good, not because it makes an audible difference). The reason they have to believe that the cable makes a difference is that they are worried that someone will challenge their right to feel good (i.e. "why did you buy that?"). So they require a justification and then get into all sorts of trouble. After a while you can end up habitually requiring such a justification, especially if you are often required to justify your purchases. This then develops into a shortcut; i.e. it becomes more convenient to just believe your justification (afterall it's easier to defend something you believe is valid). If, however such people were honest and just said "it makes me feel good to spend money on x, y and z, and sure it's not rational, but it makes me feel good and that makes sense to me", then there's no argument. In fact that's a pretty rational reason for spending money (and in fact it's the real reason why most of us spend money on non-essential purchases, and it's also the reason why adverts are aimed at and talk to our non-rational "feelings" and not our rational intellect). Furthermore, the more people are pressured to justify such purchases the more they are likely to defend them (and such battles are generally fought on rational ground - because people like to sound sensible and seem reasonable), but really what is being said is "stop pissing all over my feel-good". Your so-called "objective audiophiles" are truly interested in sound (this doesn't make them better or special, they just have a different interest). Their primary goal is to understand what makes a difference to sound quality. Understanding this probably makes them feel good. The two groups have almost nothing in common, only the requirement to justify a purchase gives the illusion that one group has something in common with the other (and it riles the other group because they are truly interested in audible differences and thus they focus on the "fantasy audiophile's" justification, but realise that it makes no sense and so want to make that clear, because explaining why that makes no sense makes the "objective audiophile" feel good). In short, the two groups buy audio gear, but for profoundly different reasons, that's all. So when you think about "fantasy audiophiles" imagine that instead of hi-fi equipment they're buying roses; then we'd have no need for these "them (whoever they are) versus us (whoever "we" are) debates. Andy yes, word wrap is indeed your friend. It's very confusing; I keep thinking People are writing Really Bad Poems. C.