What is Audiophile Quality to you?

[IBSTORMIN]

I just saw "Audiophile Quality" on a 6-disc changer in a Ford product and it prompted me to ask EVERYONE, what is "AUDIOPHILE QUALITY" to you?

[blackraven]

The opposite of non audiophile quality:smilewinkgrin:

[Turbota]

Like I said in another post ... I would like "Audiophile" equipment, but after 25 years of military flying, my ears are not "Audiophile" quality anymore ... so I guess I couldn't tell the difference anyway! :)

During my last flight physical I was told that I would no longer get a "waver" for hearing loss ... End of military flying!

Ron,

[IBSTORMIN]

The opposite of non audiophile quality:smilewinkgrin:

SMARTASS!!............which I suppose is the opposite of dumbass!:smilewinkgrin:

[filecat13]

I think anything that helps you enjoy a pure love of music is "audiophile quality." After all audiophile literally means "one who loves sound," and in our specialized hobby there may be many sub-meanings. It all gets back to loving the quality of reproduction that takes us into a musical experience when no musicians are in the room playing.

There are some folks who claim to be audiophiles who are more properly called paratus meretricis because they love (or lust after) the pursuit of equipment more than the pursuit of music. They like to call themselves "audiophile" because it sounds more dignified and erudite than the vulgar, carnal impulses of their insatiable lust.

[02audionoob]

To me, an audiophile loves specifically high-fidelity reproduction of sound recordings and strives to achieve that, although the roots of the word indicate something broader. I would therefore see "audiophile quality" as being a level of sound reproduction quality sincerely aimed at satisfying that person.

[Auricauricle]

Bringing together the confluence of performance, technology and the various measres that are exerted to produce a musical experince that is absorbing, apprehendible and pertinent to the basic human condition is the fundamental goal of the audiophile.

In each of these moments of sonic energy is a packet of all the love, hope, creativity, passion, anger, sorrow and madness that informed the composion of those who poured in all these various elements in various bars, staffs and codes: hieroglyphics that tell the secret secrets of the Magi, the Wisemen and the Shamans. Audiophilia's quest is to reproduce those mements and in doing do to enrapture her listeners, whose awe destroys their natural world.

[blackraven]

Low floor noise, clean Natural reproduction of music, non fatiguing, pleasing to the ears. Off course, quality of the recorded material affects this too.

[Ajani]

There's no such thing as Audiophile Quality (to me).... Changing equipment falls into three (sometimes overlapping) categories: Better (worse), More Expensive (cheaper) and Different (the same)...

All that matters is that the setup sounds good to me... I'll let someone else worry about whether or not their equipment meets up to 'Audiophile Quality'..

[Auricauricle]

Blasphemer! (Hehehehe...)

[pixelthis]

Its in the ear of the beholder.
AND ITS ALL RELATIVE, REALLY.
Any of todays AVR'S with decent speakers meet the "standards"of a few decades ago, really.
But high line equipment from a few decades ago might in some cases sound better than todays gear:1:

[PDN]

For starters, "audiophile quality" is equipment not sold in mass market electronics stores (just my opinion). To me, it's equipment sold in the private hi-fi stereo and A-V stores where the sales people and owners are "enlightened and educated" in the higher end. Again, this is just my humble opinion. That's how I measure it.

[blackraven]

Audiophile=Florian's Gear!

[Rich-n-Texas]

Whoever has the most relay clicks in their gear when they turn it on is the biggest audiophile.

[musicoverall]

Whoever has the most relay clicks in their gear when they turn it on is the biggest audiophile.

LMAO - Beautiful!

[Florian]

Audiophile=Florian's Gear!

Mmh, i dont know. Sounds like a big kitchen radio to me :5:

[Auricauricle]

Does the smell of ozone correlate?

[pixelthis]

Whoever has the most relay clicks in their gear when they turn it on is the biggest audiophile.


Thats just your speaker wires shorting out.
Get some banana plugs.
And a fire retardant place to hide.:1:

[emesbee]

I never use the word 'audiophile', I think its a meaningless term. (Oops, I just used it!)

[markw]

It's something you can say about another to confer being thought of highly.

When one uses it in terms of oneself, it loses it's meaning and becomes pure self-aggrandizement.

i.e, one can strive for it, but one can never proclaim it for oneself.

* http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mensch

[pixelthis]

It's something you can say about another to confer being thought of highly.

When one uses it in terms of oneself, it loses it's meaning and becomes pure self-aggrandizement.

i.e, one can strive for it, but one can never proclaim it for oneself.

* http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mensch


I can.
An audiophile basically strives for the best sound possible within his resources.
And that is a lot of peeps on this board.
Including me.
Typical Markw statement, of course.:1:

[markw]

I can.
An audiophile basically strives for the best sound possible within his resources.
And that is a lot of peeps on this board.
Including me.
Typical Markw statement, of course.:1:I've noticed that anyone claiming themselves to be an audiophile tends to be a pompus sphincter who believes they are more important than they really are.

Thanks for providing a working example to prove my point, pix. :D

[bobsticks]

I believe, in the vernacular of the net, that is called being "pwned".

[pixelthis]

[QUOTE=markw]I've noticed that anyone claiming themselves to be an audiophile tends to be a pompus sphincter who believes they are more important than they really are.

Thanks for providing a working example to prove my point, pix. :D

[pixelthis]

I believe, in the vernacular of the net, that is called being "pwned".

Whatever that means.
Whatever it is, its like karl mark calling somebody else a commie pinko.
MARKW is the most pompous of the "pomp" on this board,
or just about anywhere else in the known universe.:1:

[Doc Sage]

Hello to all,

"I just saw "Audiophile Quality" on a 6-disc changer in a Ford product and it prompted me to ask EVERYONE, what is "AUDIOPHILE QUALITY" to you?"

At first I said, "AUDIOPHILE QUALITY allows me to be transported into the music and the reproduction equipment disapears", but then I recalled being moved by a CD on my getto blaster during my last camping trip. So...

Also the target keeps moving. What I saw as AUDIOPHILE QUALITY thirty years ago (see below*) will not make the grade today. So...

It is not a dollar thing. I listen to many low price systems that truly amazed me...and a few expensive one that left me flat.

And yes, the music source has some weight in acheiving AUDIOPHILE status. The Beatle's and Miles Davis got it, what ever it's analoque or digital.

So...is it just a marketing term? Can it be quantified? I do not know anymore.

* I visited my then girlfriends best friend's boyfriend. He introduced me to Supertramp's School on a H/K \Linn system driving home built spearker's using JBL components. That experience was the event that got my taste buds of great sound awaken.


Doc Sage

[Gerall]

IMHO an audiophile is one who constantly strives for better sound, that being subjective the their ears. I have visited people with "audiophile" equipment, but, at least to me, sounded horrible, mostly due to speaker placement and room acoustics. I am constantly mucking with room acoustics, speaker placement, and tube rolling. Of course if you have a 100k budget, and a professionally built and installed sound room, you will get better sound than many here get. But half the fun of it all is the "Mucking Factor".