Are we a dying breed?
Do audiophile passion is fading? Will DIY is here to save it?
Will love to hear you thoughts about it.
https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/09/audiophiles-gone-soon/
Do audiophile passion is fading? Will DIY is here to save it?
Will love to hear you thoughts about it.
https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/09/audiophiles-gone-soon/
My 30 year-old son still buys LPs, and the LP stores around here still get a lot of traffic. We still like listening to LPs through the tube amplifiers.
Yes. The other electronic items have become computers that do a lot more than to play music.
Ed
A decline in DIY audio would be commensurate with the fact that the world has entered the age of instant gratification.
Very good point and also noticed here. Someone said to me "you and I are used to DIY but my kids are used to "Can-You-Do-It-For-Me".
I'm afraid so. You can give your iPhone to a 3 year old and they will scroll onto youtube in a nanosecond.
My generation scrounged old tv-sets for transformers and sweep tubes for ham radio transmitters!
My generation scrounged old tv-sets for transformers and sweep tubes for ham radio transmitters!
We all have this need for dopamine. With age, this tends to diminish. 🙂
If you want to know from the perspective of a younger person, whenever friends or acquantances come over and see the gear, sometimes the A word (audiophile) will get thrown. Are you an audiophile? You can hear it in the tone of voice that they don't mean "wow!" but more "seriously?".
I always answer no, that i just like to tinker with stuff. Since most of my stuff is home built and doesnt looks a bit jank i can get away with it.
Sometimes i even get the impression they see it as being somewhat of a fool, because "look at this guy spending all this money and effort, im getting my music for only a fraction of the price!". And God help you if they're aware of the "this power cable sounds different" crowd, then they will actually associate you with delusional foolishness (not here to argue if they do sound different or not, but you realise how it looks to normal people). For a lot of people that is the first time they are exposed to audiophilia, they're immediately repulsed and dont look at it twice.
If there's a bit higher earning young person, who has to themselves a thought i could invest a bit into sound, they will just buy a modern MQA whatever streaming integrated thingamajig that's color matched with their furniture, and speakers in a similar vein. If they're feeling spicy maybe some generic hybrid tube PP amp.
Why is it like this i wonder. But sometimes i get the feeling myself like i shouldnt be caring about this stuff either considering everything that's on the plate already, like i shouldnt be investing this much mental resources. Do you know how many of those same friends are on psychiatric meds and going to therapy? I've had 2 already end their lives. Sorry for being heavy here but consider how many of yours friends in your youth were doing that? These are not junkies under the bridge but university educated people.
Messing around with speakers and amplifier topologies and whatnot is the last thing on your mind when you're in survival mode, and a lot of people now are thrust in a world of barely making rent and just managing the logistics of their lives, finding meaning and no exit.
So, there is not even a culture or idea of audiophilia among them, its something you get exposed to on the internet and maybe it clicks with you.
It seems like maybe audiophilia was a brief blip in history produced and supported by the relative prosperity young adults in 60s/70s/80s experienced. Those young adults are now the 60 year olds in question that are slowly dissapearing. Its probable it will resurge in some way on some date, but not now, for sure.
On another note remember how they had "build your own radio" kits in 50s and 60s, where you could just let your kid play with a transformer plugged into mains? Or those chemistry kits? Just in general this kind of curiosity and boldness has somewhat been sterilised, has waned, and the rest has been redirected.
As for DIY, generally sitting hunched over breathing leaded solder fumes for hours on end is not appealing to someone who's primary mode of entertainment is going to a night club, hiking or whatever. Its seen as "kind of cool but with a hint of loser". The time and effort payoff is just not there, nobody today sits alone in their room appreciating how their music is now 50% "more spacious". So unless your hobby is basically electronics engineering this is a non-starter.
Just my 2c, from someone not detached from young people.
P.S. not sure about the "instant gratification" strawman. You could say i am one of those instant gratification people, mind ruined by fast media, barely able to read more than 5 pages of a book before i have to switch to something else. Start 15 projects finish none. You get the idea. Yet im here and im doing stuff. Its not such an obstacle if you have the wish that you want to do it to begin with, for most people the very idea is already a non-starter so gratification barely comes into play.
I always answer no, that i just like to tinker with stuff. Since most of my stuff is home built and doesnt looks a bit jank i can get away with it.
Sometimes i even get the impression they see it as being somewhat of a fool, because "look at this guy spending all this money and effort, im getting my music for only a fraction of the price!". And God help you if they're aware of the "this power cable sounds different" crowd, then they will actually associate you with delusional foolishness (not here to argue if they do sound different or not, but you realise how it looks to normal people). For a lot of people that is the first time they are exposed to audiophilia, they're immediately repulsed and dont look at it twice.
If there's a bit higher earning young person, who has to themselves a thought i could invest a bit into sound, they will just buy a modern MQA whatever streaming integrated thingamajig that's color matched with their furniture, and speakers in a similar vein. If they're feeling spicy maybe some generic hybrid tube PP amp.
Why is it like this i wonder. But sometimes i get the feeling myself like i shouldnt be caring about this stuff either considering everything that's on the plate already, like i shouldnt be investing this much mental resources. Do you know how many of those same friends are on psychiatric meds and going to therapy? I've had 2 already end their lives. Sorry for being heavy here but consider how many of yours friends in your youth were doing that? These are not junkies under the bridge but university educated people.
Messing around with speakers and amplifier topologies and whatnot is the last thing on your mind when you're in survival mode, and a lot of people now are thrust in a world of barely making rent and just managing the logistics of their lives, finding meaning and no exit.
So, there is not even a culture or idea of audiophilia among them, its something you get exposed to on the internet and maybe it clicks with you.
It seems like maybe audiophilia was a brief blip in history produced and supported by the relative prosperity young adults in 60s/70s/80s experienced. Those young adults are now the 60 year olds in question that are slowly dissapearing. Its probable it will resurge in some way on some date, but not now, for sure.
On another note remember how they had "build your own radio" kits in 50s and 60s, where you could just let your kid play with a transformer plugged into mains? Or those chemistry kits? Just in general this kind of curiosity and boldness has somewhat been sterilised, has waned, and the rest has been redirected.
As for DIY, generally sitting hunched over breathing leaded solder fumes for hours on end is not appealing to someone who's primary mode of entertainment is going to a night club, hiking or whatever. Its seen as "kind of cool but with a hint of loser". The time and effort payoff is just not there, nobody today sits alone in their room appreciating how their music is now 50% "more spacious". So unless your hobby is basically electronics engineering this is a non-starter.
Just my 2c, from someone not detached from young people.
P.S. not sure about the "instant gratification" strawman. You could say i am one of those instant gratification people, mind ruined by fast media, barely able to read more than 5 pages of a book before i have to switch to something else. Start 15 projects finish none. You get the idea. Yet im here and im doing stuff. Its not such an obstacle if you have the wish that you want to do it to begin with, for most people the very idea is already a non-starter so gratification barely comes into play.
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What seems to be missed here and in the linked article is the improvement in low-end audio quality accessible to pretty much everyone these days. When I was young, inexpensive record and tape based equipment sounded really low-fi, and the difference between consumer grade stuff and high end was enormous. Then digital music emerged, and it was even worse!
But today, digital sound has improved immensely and everyone has a smartphone and Bluetooth headphones that sound far better than anything available to the average person in the past, rendering the difference between low end and high end so small as to be irrelevant to most people. Why spend thousands of dollars on equipment when things already sound great and are super convenient?
Take care,
Doug
But today, digital sound has improved immensely and everyone has a smartphone and Bluetooth headphones that sound far better than anything available to the average person in the past, rendering the difference between low end and high end so small as to be irrelevant to most people. Why spend thousands of dollars on equipment when things already sound great and are super convenient?
Take care,
Doug
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This is also true, audio is a "solved problem" for most people, depending on who you ask (obviously not audiophiles). In fact just to get a hint of novelty, who is now driving the resurgence of records and cassette tapes. Yes even cassettes are being issued for new releases.
Same thing with resurgence of shooting on film. "Perfect" quality of modern imaging systems is now cliche and actually the guy shooting 400 ISO B&W is the one interested in photography. They didnt grow up with that stuff, so that's the cool thing to them.
I think that the reason the term "audiophile" is treated with such derision these days is primarily due to all off the snake oil salesmen in the past few decades, for example: Machina Dynamica, selling things like "brilliant pebbles", "clever little clocks", and "teleportation tweaks" for big bucks that anyone with even an ounce of critical thinking skills would immediately dismiss as complete garbage. The average person these days is exposed to so many scams and rip-offs every day, and when they see simple power cables selling for thousands of dollars claiming to bring audio perfection, they think, "yup, just another scammer looking for suckers to buy their lies."
Take care,
Doug
Take care,
Doug
That’s it.
Readily available gear is good enough and cheap enough that rolling your own is more a distraction than a hobby paying dividends.
But, forever, we will engage in activities that help us experience happiness, even if the neighborhood bot and its AI can outperform the technical aspects of the end result.
I am not sad about it. It’s a creative challenge and an invitation to push beyond the boundaries of the mundane.
On this, I think it’s due to audiophiles spending more time using music to listen to their gear instead of using their gear to listen to music.
It’s also due to audiophiles being more preoccupied with satisfying their consumerist cravings than anything else. I know people who keep buying and buying new gear because “they got bored of the sound”.
While I agree that this could be a part of the issue, this type of "gear lust" exists in may hobbies, for example: photography, however they don't seem to suffer from the same negative reputations as audiophiles do.
Take care,
Doug
Oh yes, we're a dying breed. Along with model engineers (the people who build scaled-size steam engines and mechanical clocks), and any other hobby that requires serious effort on the part of the participant. I do it for the intellectual challenge more than the end result (but that's nice, too).
I agree with the article on the fact that audiophiles are over 40 years old (let's say on average 60), who were young when vinyl records were in vogue and transistors "reigned" in the music scene. I've talked about it several times with a friend of mine, I'm already over 50 and kids today love listening to smartphones or digital devices, with DJ-type headphones etc, that in terms of prices are accessible to everyone.
However, I want to be optimistic and think that maybe the matter will continue, maybe there will be fewer of us. This may also depend on the (quality) audio industry which will have to maintain prices that are not too prohibitive and encourage old-time listening.
In my 30, I would happily invest time and money creating a place where one can relax and sink into the magic of music or movies. But the circumstances are different and I have neither the time nor the money to engage in something like that unless it's building something that pays off through rent.
As guy above said, Am in survival mode and hope that will change in future.
For me its staggering how smart are many people here and those calculations they handle.
As guy above said, Am in survival mode and hope that will change in future.
For me its staggering how smart are many people here and those calculations they handle.
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