

I Am an Audiophile, and I Won’t Apologize for It - smacktoward
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/02/audiophiles_neil_young_s_pono_has_brought_unfair_scorn_for_lovers_of_high.single.html

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anigbrowl
I think the author is more of a musophile, and expensive stereo equipment is
the altar on which he sacrifices to the muse. IMHO, real audiophiles become
sound engineers. There's no way you're going to have a better sonic experience
listening to a record in your living room than you are at the mixing desk or
in a live room of a recording studio.

Of course good audio equipment costs money, but studios don't spend thousands
on individual gold stereo cables and such nonsense. If you want to sell me a
cable costing thousands of dollars it better have 24 channels of balanced
audio, be 50 meters long, and weatherproof. But in terms of just getting
quality playback of a quality recording, you can get by fine with relatively
affordable pro gear - it just doesn't look as nice as 'audiophile' stuff. This
is the real difference. I've done sound engineering for a living for years and
also make electronic music, so I have maybe $10k of highly specialized audio
equipment surrounding me right now. But it's not very aesthetically beautiful,
rather it's utilitarian and nerdy.

There is a pro analogy to this that you can see at shows like AES, hwre
certain boutique manufacturers charge out the yin-yang for summing mixers
(volume/pan only, no EQ or tonal modification of any kind), as long as they
look like they came form the 1950s and have giant chickenhead knobs and so on.
You get what you pay for up to a point, after that the value proposition goes
down but there's a social exclusivity premium instead by having something
others can't afford.

