Old White People are Responsible for Where the Audiophile Industry is Today

Old white dudes with too much money... maybe that explains all the treble spikes and insane prices?

 

Based on Head-Fi and Changstar, I always thought headphone audiophile-ism was based on young-midle aged asian dudes.

 

Yes, also talk to senior audio engineers and earphone makers.

 

So what kind of people frequent this board then? Middle-aged guys with engineering degrees, hawaiian shirts and a disdain for bright headphones?

 

I'm a half century old white male that loves music.

 

I can't believe I wasted my time reading that .....................article, rant, whatever,.............WFC

and racist to boot

 

No worries- the article was way off base in its premise, IMO.

I think, if I can remember correctly, that when I was in the young demographic refereed to, few of my peers were into quality audio reproduction and were usually putting power boosting equalizers in their cars or getting a bigger boombox; loudness, palpable bass and painfully accentuated treble "made" for "good" sound. Still that way with most of today's target demo (hence, Beats popularity may not be 100% marketing, but actually has the sound signature most kids want) and it is probably the same proportion of my peers today that are really into quality audio today.

Same as it ever was...

 

Yep, just compare them to a ComputerAudiophile's meet where most folk have speaker setups:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/639-ca-bay-meet-greet-reacp/

 

Too racist. Nothing makes me more upset than racism against white people!

 

Yeah, why do those Old Albinos, have to be such "A-Holes" & give the rest of us a bad rep.?

(The rest of us Old Shits, have enough problems just getting out of our easy chairs to put on our headphones) (Calling what Audiophiles buy an Industry is pretty funny though)

 

What exactly makes a person an "audiophile", anyway? Schiit Modi+Magni is 200$, Sennheiser HD650 is 400$... so around 600$, same price as an iPhone. Is that enough to be considered an "audiophile"? Is a tube amp necessary? Classical and Jazz only? Is Taylor Swift allowed? Pease tell me, I need to fit in.

 

One important "ism" has been overlooked here:



Ageism

 

This explains why many audiophiles are chronologically challenged

 

While I was reading this article the only question on my mind was, "So...what exactly is this about? Is he trying to tell audiophiles that they should "check their privilege?" Then I got to the last line. Very Tumblr. Apparently popular opinions and preferences in a niche market are privilege? I don't think I understand. Are audiophiles oppressing people somehow? Would that make all subcultures inherently oppressive and exclusionary? My brain hurts.

 

That article worked well to remind me that my gag reflex is still perfectly functional.

 

Well I just read the article and while it's badly written in some parts I also agree with 90% all of it. And I wonder how many of the people reacting so offended in this thread are middle-to-upper-class white guys showing a kneejerk reaction.
I'm 27. White. Poor as f**k because I'm a student but still decidedly middle-class. I worked/work part-time at an audio dealer. Clientele? >90% guys. Also generally not poor people (it's kind of part of the definition of being poor that you dont have disposable income for unnecessary luxuries like hifi audio equipment). Now are they all white? Depends on your location. There seem to be a lot of asians very interested in hifi audio. I'm sure theres some rich arabs that shouldnt be forgotten either. But how many female mexicans have you seen at hifi shows latley? Or how many black people? I've seen one once. In a head-fi meet pictures thread. So it's mostly a sociological fact that the audiophile-cosmos is inhabited by middle-class to rich guys which are often, though not at all times, white.

I dont see how you could misunderstand this or be offended by this? Clearly this is simply a function of wealth and culture. People like different shit. How many people in Bumfuck Alabama do you reckon enjoy Immortal Technique? - Very few probably. How many people in Detroit enjoy Merle Haggard? - Very few probably. Thats not in and of itself a problem. People like different shit. There is nothing in Immortal Technique's music or its distribution that keeps the inhabitants of Bumfuck Alabama away. They simply chose to listen to different stuff. And so it is with spending habits. People have different hobbies etc. Again: Not in itself a problem.

What the writer points out though is that all the lamenting about the death of hifi (and headphones are notably except from this usually) MIGHT have something to do with 1.) high prices and 2.) an image problem. I know a lot of people who have much more disposable income than me, and they listen with shitty apple earbuds. Might the image of 'the audiophile' be part of the reason why? I dont think thats an outrageous idea at all. The writer then continues to argue that we might change that image by being more openminded towards low-cost, entry-level gear, thereby gradually increasing the diversity of the audiophile community and solving the image problem. Because we do know one thing: Pretty much everybody, every gender, every ethnicity, every religion - they all like music. And an elitist, snobbish attitude of old rich people at highend-shows where you can barely find a product under 5000$ is certainly not the way to expand the hifi demographic. Once again - dont see whats wrong about that.

TL: DR:
1.) Yes, if you can spend thousands of dollars on hifi equipment you ARE privileged. No and's, if's or but's about it.
2.) Yes, if you're an audiophile there's a high probability you're a white dude with a decent amount of disposable income. Thats just a sociological fact.
3.) Perhaps the economic fact that hifi-audio isnt selling as it used to can be PARTLY explained by an image problem relating to 1 and 2.
4.) We should try to change that - for the betterment of the entire industry - by being less snobbish towards entry-level gear.

Note: None of this applies especially well to headphone-audio. The author of the article writes about speakers and turntables. Have you been to a speaker show recently? Its f'ing retarded how that market has degenerated. In the context of the total audiophile cosmos the headphone world is in my estimation actually the most diverse, the most reasonable and the least snobbish. Its also the least expensive and has the greatest amount of young and non-white people.

So dont get all offended.

My god...