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I try to always keep in mind that those of us fairly deep into the audio and music collection hobby are a very small segment of the population. Yesterday I had another reminder.Some friends who are a quite elderly couple visited yesterday. At one point she noticed my pair of tubed monoblocs sitting on the fireplace hearth and not currently in the system. So seeing the tubes she ask, "what is that, it looks like the insides of an old TV". This was not the first time I've had friends visit who were amazed that vacuum tubes are even still available. Now I'm far from young and these folks are nearly ten years older than me. Then she added her surprise that I or anyone would want anything that large, saying how they enjoy some sort of small box from Bose that they can connect to their smart phone for music and carry anywhere around the house or outside.
I admitted it was a specialized interest but that there must be at least 25 companies in the US currently selling new tube-based audio gear. And many others which, while solid state, are much larger and heavier than their little Bose.
Since retirement I've tended to spend a greater percentage of my time with audio buddies. That makes it easier to lose sight of what a small blip we are among the population at large.
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes." Thelonious Monk
Edits: 08/01/16Follow Ups:
I only have two audio buddies...we are a select few.
I figure just about everyone has some interest in which most people don't share their enthusiasm. That's alright. We just happen to have a hobby that involves sounds and music.
You forgot cash! And the way some folks act (nobody here of course!), you'd think that was the most important element of the three! ;-)
I know that I have some tech savvy friends that are just COMPLETELY AFRAID to ask me my opinion on any audio matters. That would mean getting out their checkbooks. Unfortunately, very true.
I seem to have a different experience, but then the system is almost always playing music. Non-audio folks usually take a look at what's making the music, then when they are close enough usually say something like "Wow, that sounds like a concert", or "I thought someone was in here playing the piano", or "Wow, I wish I had music like this at home".
Men, women, tradesmen, insurance guy, UPS guy, FedEx gal, on and on, all walks it seems, Maybe that the system has natural timbre, is not a hyped up tweeter'd ceramic driver'd exaggerated system has something to do with it.....
But the speakers are giant, the amps are giant, yet they all seem to look right past that and hear the music.
Back when I writing for Listener I had a pair of Lamhorn speakers on loan. They're an over 4 foot tall column with a full range driver similar to a Lowther in the front. The father of one of my daughter's elementary school classmates was an executive at Bose. We rarely talked about audio but at a party one night he asked to hear my system. I let him pick the music (he requested "My Sharona" by The Knack) and have the sweet spot seat. After hearing the track he said it was the best sound he'd ever heard, and that included his employer's products.
1. One was a Russian immigrant who I turned into an audiophile!!
2. My neighbor has Chinese parents and she was curious how I spin the platter immediately after pressing the start switch on the Rega turntable.
That's all in my 30 years of being an audiophile!
My next door neighbor is in her 80s. When I was over there recently the whole house was filled with the sounds of opera coming from the second floor balcony. I mentioned to her that it sounded great. She told me that she had a Bose radio, but her old Fisher system sounded much better so she used that instead.
M3
we are a very small segment of the population.
Did you make those in your garage?
Sue Kraft
The Audio Beat
My basement would be more accurate since we operated out of my house until the bathroom was the only part of the house that the business had not taken over.
13 years ago we to a property a little ways north that had more room, and so got us out of the basement (and living room and spare bedrooms) and gave me my house back. We've been there ever since.
Funny thing though- Novacrons sell almost entirely out of their looks, being one of the cooler-looking tubes amps made. It has a lot of polished chrome or stainless (depending on the era) and someone thought that was made in a garage??
n
The number one statement from no-audio folks to me, over a lifetime.. has been: "You must like loud music".
Mainly because I own speakers the size of doors....
that my speakers don't have the lows they expect. that's on music that doesn't really have any. when real bass comes along, they get the picture right away.
as a short circuit i will play 'flight of the cosmic hippo' for them. that quiets their protestations. most of the younger set already have the bass boosted in the headphones (right from the headphones) or in their program material as provided by their mp3 player.
cars too are already boosted and in my last 3 or 4 cars, i have to reduce the bass to about minus four, iven in the premium jbl system in my rav4.
...regards...tr
Mainly because I own speakers the size of doors...
Most folks don't realize what mine are. :)
Many non-audiophiles that I meet, that get to see and/or hear my system, are amazed by the amount of detail; but that is about it. The nuances that a good system is capable of reproducing are lost on those for whom they are not important, or are not a part of their music appreciation aural criteria. Also, E-stat, when I have had large speakers in my system, they are impressed by their apparent potential to play very loud.
I get similar responses with my high-efficiency system. I play music to some Millennials, they expect some loud rap/hip-hop, it seems like they've never been exposed to music as most of us know it.......
Uh. As a kid that grew up in the 80s (which means I'm 50) I have to say that music for my age group was beyond loud. Anyone who spent any time at a club in NYC (be it hip hop, punk or rock) knows that that tinnitus is from that. Mine is from CBGB. I think it was the Japanese all-girl punk band that finally did all the little hairs in my ears in.
Plus if you went to any rock concert, they were loud. Like, really loud man.
Over the past 15 years, I've never attended a rock concert without wide-bandwidth earplugs.....
A small blip can still go a long way! Years of demonstrating high quality sound to ordinary people has led to the discovery that a substantially larger number of them than might be expected appreciate the difference good sound can make. This has proven true despite widely varied age, educational level and financial means. The key is to create an opportunity to play something!
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