By I have never met anyone who does not like music. We are all, to greater or lesser degrees, lovers of music. Many of us enthusiasts attend concerts. We rock out in the car, we sing and, yes, we listen to stereo systems. I am absolutely convinced everyone likes music in some form or another and by no means do you need to be an enthusiast. We have musical genres numbered in the hundreds because our collective appreciation of music is so varied. We all pretty much like listening to some sort of music and, not surprisingly, different or unique styles.
Equally interesting, the audiophile hobby is embraced by only a small fraction of music lovers. Ask yourself this question: how many audiophiles do you know? As many as five? More than 10? How many friends do you have who want a system like yours? Compared to all music lovers worldwide, it would seem our hobby is in serious short supply. And now, maybe you better understand the difficult mission of Future Audiophile.
So, what are some things about our hobby audiophiles will find challenging and what are some things we welcome and enjoy? This is not a study of equipment choices and which type of component may be preferred. This is an examination of the hobby itself. Let’s take a look at some of the more prevalent likes and dislikes .
What Are Some of the Less Than Desirable Elements of the Audiophile Hobby?
- System cost, I feel sure we can all agree, is expensive and unfortunately continues to rise.And why not? The cost of everything constantly goes up these days. It’s not unusual that our audio components do so, but it may also mean we must willingly and unarguably accept paying more for gear. On the other hand, and certainly for all my years in audio, component prices compared to build quality and performance have never been better than today. A very nice-sounding audiophile system may be purchased for about $1,000 to $2,000. For perspective, dinner for four at a three-star Michelin restaurant may easily cost as much or maybe more, and an audio system will be around the next morning. This cannot be said for the enjoyment and cost of the meal, and the time it takes to consume the six-courses-plus-intermezzo three-star dining experience.
- Justifying the cost of an audio system has become more difficult when compared to other real-world financial commitments. For a couple with two children, money is unsurprisingly generally allocated towards more important expenditures. Educational needs, medical needs, mortgages, cars, saving for college, and even family vacations will almost always be considered far more important than a stereo system. And why not? They all are. This is why our audiophile systems are assembled with disposable income. And, of course, the amount of disposable income determines the level of audio system.
- Space in the home for more important things continues to take precedence over an audiophile system. Let’s face it, we simply do not have as much available space in the home for a dedicated two-channel audio room. Many audiophiles are forced to make their systems work in a part of the home where the system will never be the main event and sonics cannot be effectually optimized. Putting bookshelf speakers on a great room bookshelf may look nice but will seldom be the place from where amazing sonics will emanate.
- Two-channel audio is constantly in a competition of sorts with home theater. Despite both being under the audio/video umbrella, home theater and two-channel audio are realistically different entities. The best two-channel audio gear may not really be set up for home theater, and the best home theater systems can technically play music, but very likely not in the same way as a world-class audio system. My system, for instance, has no provisions at all for home theater. Yet home builders and real estate agents always tout an available space for a home theater room. Conversely, how many real estate agents will point out the benefits a potential two-channel room will have in mitigating standing waves? How many homes have purpose-built square rooms, a design geared for home theater, as opposed to rectangular rooms, a design geared for two-channel audio? Our hobby is simply not as popular as we would hope.
- Very often, there will only be one audiophile in the home. The “wife acceptance factor,” or WAF, is just as relevant today as it has always been. This compounds the issues in justifying what the other family members may well deem a total waste of money. If the whole family can be brought into the hobby, an audiophile system of any cost will be far more acceptable.
- There are not enough other audiophiles in close proximity to where we live. I am pretty fortunate on this front, as I have two audiophile friends who live about seven minutes away from me. I have several more within about 20 minutes. Jim Swantko and Frank Picarello also aren’t too far away. So, I can get together with my friends, listen to music and talk audio. For most of us, however, having a friend to discuss slap echo and what is the newest and hottest loudspeaker on the market can often be logistically difficult.
- Because of the variety of equipment choices, there are not enough ways to determine which one is the most preferable. Where dealers were once in almost every moderately-sized and larger city, they are now becoming much more difficult to find at all. This makes it far more complicated to demo a particular brand or model in which there may be some interest. Additionally, very few dealers carry more than a few competing brands. And why not? Manufacturers want dealers selling their equipment, not a competitor’s. This makes it more difficult to assess the sonic quality of any one component – especially if the assessment is comparative by manufacturer.
- While many may champion the variety of choices we have in terms of the availability of different designs, having these choices does not make it easier to decide which one is the fiscally better choice. While many audiophiles will equally enjoy digital and analog LPs, devoting monetary resources and space in the home make multiple source systems more challenging and expensive. Giving equal amounts of time to each source is also a dedicated effort. No matter how much anyone may like an analog LP, there is no doubt digital is an easier format to play. Factor in the cost and availability of digitally-streamed music, and the choice becomes quite one-sided. Yet we still love analog.
What Are Some of the Really Good Elements of the Audiophile Hobby?
- Unlike language, music is more of an expression of sound. When a musician or band plays a song, there are musical cues and details a live performance will portray. Most recordings of live musical events do an excellent job of capturing the detail and substance of the occasion. However, most low-fidelity and middle-fidelity playback systems cannot accurately reproduce these nuances that make recorded music come alive. Most often, it takes a high-performance audio system to do so. And having our music come alive is one of the great benefits of the audiophile hobby.
- High-performance audio can deliver attributes such as soundstage and imaging, amazing clarity (like when a singer’s breath is heard), a perceptible, powerful dynamic impact for a you-are-there experience, easily distinguishable bass, midrange and treble, and a tangible feeling of musical effortlessness. Things are very right when the music just flows along and you feel like you are listening to something performed in the moment, not a recording.
- All hobbies must provide some sort of fulfillment. Audiophiles who research the hobby, assemble a system based on their research, take the time and effort to properly dial in the settings and precisely position speakers, hopefully in a time-aligned manner, can reap the benefits of feeling they’ve completed a job well done. I suspect any audiophile who feels like they have hit all the nails on the head can sit back in the listening chair, relax, and enjoy the sonic excellence of a well-recorded piece of music. There is genuine value in contentment.
- Our audiophile-level systems are dedicated to, and intended for, the absolute enjoyment of music. This, as opposed to achieving the basic task of background music for which a middle-fidelity system is predominantly intended. My wife and I once had some friends over for dinner. The wife of one of our guests asked for a particular track from The Eagles’ Hell Freezes Overrelease. Halfway through the song, I looked over and her eyes were closed and she had tears running down her face. This was an obvious emotional connection of some sort, certainly known only to her. Could this happen if the song had been played on a $599 receiver from a big-box store? Perhaps, but I doubt it. High-performance audio, rendered by amazing sonics, typically imbues a tangible emotional connection lesser audio systems may not necessarily provide.
- Considering what some of our systems can cost, we always enjoy impressing our friends with the amazing sonics of a really wonderful sound system. More than once, I’ve had a non-audiophile ask me if I had a speaker on one of the far side walls, or some other position well away from the main speakers. When I tell them the basics behind imaging, and they are completely impressed, I feel justified. This makes all the time, effort and money I poured into my audiophile system totally worthwhile. Dare I say proud, even?
- Unless we live alone, enjoying our audio systems means we can more easily justify our systems to other family members. I have an audiophile friend who also loves sports cars. This is not uncommon in our tech-savvy and well-heeled hobby. The friend’s wife once expressed her confusion to me about why we so highly loved our systems. I tried to explain the reasons why, but to little avail. I finally commented that when her husband was listening to music, she knew exactly where he was and what he was doing. The same could not be said when he was driving his sports car as hard as traffic, and the police, would allow. To my surprise, she agreed.
Final Thoughts on the Bad and Good of the Audiophile Hobby
For those of us who are proponents of the hobby, we have at our disposal a host of options. We can prefer any combination of equipment and musical variations and still be considered an audiophile. We can postulate, even argue with fierce determination, about the benefits of the wide variety of choices in sources, amplification, speakers, cables, room setup, and a seemingly endless assortment of audiophile mantras. Why exactly we chose this particular hobby has always been an interesting question. I have no explanation, or understanding, into someone who thinks a handheld device is all anyone needs to listen to their favorite tracks. How can they not aspire to something better? If a favorite song sounds beguiling on a cell phone, imagine how magnificent it will sound on a world-class audiophile system. Yet there are those who are perfectly happy with an iPhone and a set of wireless earbuds. That’s a place to start, but it is only a start.
Some may attribute this to a simple lack of access. Some may attribute this to the substantive purchase cost the hobby may demand. Others still may not be all that enamored by music of any kind, less still by music on an expensive audio system. And lastly, I feel certain some people have other hobbies to which they devote their disposable income and time. Likely possibilities include sports cars, watches, art, wine, and many more. And for those of us who have made the choice to devote our available funds, and whatever spare time we can muster, to the art of finely-reproduced music, we really do not care what anyone else thinks. We are not concerned if someone is surprisingly amazed by what we spent on an audiophile-level stereo system. We are in no way apprehensive if our friends and neighbors cannot seem to understand why we are so devoted to a cabinet full of audio gear when, in their estimation, an Amazon Alexa works just as well. We do not really worry about anyone who thinks we have taken leave of our senses because we spent an entire Saturday afternoon moving two speakers one or two millimeters at a time, and finally exclaiming how the sonics are now so vastly improved.
We are audiophiles, and we love the beautiful minutiae of the hobby. We are not encumbered by the confusion and derision of our contemporaries who don’t share our audio passion. Because, at our core, when we can become completely immersed in a piece of music we in some way find emotionally moving, all the bad of the hobby seems to matter less and less. The result with which we are left is the satisfaction in having put forth cost and effort into something we find so completely enjoyable. Pretty fine way to enjoy a hobby, I would say.
What elements would you add to the these lists? Are there any you don’t agree with? We always love to hear from you and will post your moderated comments ASAP.
