Great topic Rich. This one could go on and on and on and . . .
From TedB in another place:
There has been a lot of discussion, over the years, about audiophiles and music lovers . . . Audiophiles (and I'm one of them, trying not to be, but it's an addiction) believe that there is a higher standard than "their own ears". They believe that there is a perfection, or set of empiricals, that must be set as a goal, even if their own ears don't agree. It is this reason (perfection) that causes audiophiles to die as audiophiles. It's a goal that can never really be attained. And not because of the obvious, perfection, but because of the reality that there are no real sets of empiricals...except for low distortion and a few simple other necessities. The rest is up to the beholder.
Complicating this goal is the fact that the variables that audiophiles are given to work with are almost limitless. It's like, as a child, on a great family vacation, having your parents take you to your first great restaurant, with all the hoopla of the service and the smells and sights and sounds, and tasting a great dish.......... and trying to replicate it later in life. Too many variables, most of which you'll never hear/smell/see again. But the goal has been set! I sometimes think that all audiophiles became audiophiles cuz they heard a great hifi as a child and are spending the rest of their life trying to replicate that sound. I wish I knew what/where/when mine was. Probably my uncle's place. He had great tastes in music; first place I ever heard real stereo come from anywhere but left and right.
So...the variables...for us... room, hearing ability (changes every year), cables, sources, software, impedance mismatches, tubes, amps, preamps, speaker size, speaker design, crossover design, active/passive, speaker placement, integration w/ or w/out subs, age of components, vibration isolation, ac conditioning, tweeks, listening position, etc. etc.....and the worst of all....the combination thereof.
Music lovers, on the other hand...they have it all. They trust their ears, some of them actually know what real instruments sound like ( Smile), and they are happy with good sound.....gremlins and all. They spend their money on music. I'm that person.....sometimes.
From BobM in another place: We are all compromized ... our ears, our rooms, our wallets, our spouses and SO's, our experiences, our exposure to live music, our likes and dislikes, our hearing, our ability to write long meandering sentences ... To know onesself is more than just an audiophile goal. It is something most strive for all their lives and never achieve. So who thinks they can achieve it in our little hobby either, especially since there are people out there changing the rules, and the tools all the time. The variables are almost infinite, so the experiment is flawed. That doesn't mean you can't have fun or enjoy your systema nd the music it produces. It does mean that you will always be compromizing. So maybe the answer is to relax, have a beverage of choice and spin some disks. Isn't that supposed to sooth the savage beastie?
There are so many facets to this that I won't try to encapsulate my thoughts in one post but will come back to it from time to time. A few current highlights:
I think every one of us audioheads has the pursuer of sonic goals (audiophile) and lover of content (music lover) inside. We wouldn't care about the audiophile stuff if we didn't love the music and we wouldn't have nice systems if "just the music" was enough. I really liked Jeff Day's Musicality piece when it was released but it's strange to me that now "audiophile" has taken on a negative connotation with some folks. We all are both and I think each of us constantly struggles with where on the continuum we personally fall.
I believe there are gear combinations that can make a person happy for the long haul. Of course it depends on the person and how well they know themselves. For instance I don't believe I would ever be satisfied with "normal" speakers for any extended period but having found ones that I like I think I could settle for lesser amps/preamps/sources delivered by those speakers long-term. This is my music lover statement. The flip side is I'm in the process of upgrading my preamp when there is NOTHING wrong with the Lamm. heh.
There is always the pursuit of "more" which is the audiophile talking. The music lover hopefully is a sanity check as an unbridled audiophile will never be happy and will always be poor. However there are endless stories of musicians with "crap" systems with our lot speculating that either they don't need as much help imagining the performance, or alternately that all reproduction falls so short as to be a meaningless pursuit.
Without that audiophile bug, we would never ask "what if". I've heard in numerous places that damping factor is heavily influenced by speaker cabling. I recently dumped my 500 wpc Crown K-2 amp for $750 in favor of 2 bridged Behringer A500s (200 wpc) I got new for $340. This was a significant upgrade in bass performance, going from 500 wpc to 200 wpc. I attribute the improvement to using 8' balanced runs of IC and 15" lamp cord speaker cables. I haven't hooked the long speaker cables up to the Behringers to confirm it's the cable length responsible for the upgrade but I think I know the answer. My complaint before wasn't total output or transitional speed (as in walking bass) but in kick drum punch and overall room pressurization speed - basically what would commonly be assumed to be damping factor issues. My observation has been EXACTLY what I hoped/assumed. Some folks would dismiss this as "the error of fulfilling expecations" - whatever.
Again, great topic. I'm very interested to hear what others have to say.
