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Hello fellow audio folks.I'm came upon this board while doing some research for a paper I will be presenting in April at the American Popular Culture Conference. It's based on a paper I wrote in graduate school entitled "Hi Fi Fetishism: Audiophilia in Postwar America."
I noticed a lot of threads here that dealt with gender and hi-fi, and this is one area in which I concentrate my analysis. You folks (men, women, hermaphrodites, etc) represent an excellent sample from which to glean some opinions and views regarding gender-specific attributes of audio enthusiasts (audiophiles, if you wish). Any thoughts on my queries would be appreciated. So let me start with a few and see what you have to say. Just to let you know, I am a big record collector and also have a nice pair of German consoles (Grundig/Braun) on which they sound supurb. Ok, some first questions:
What are the basic psychological and emotional attributes of the male audiophile?
Is there a "control" issue with men and their manipulation of recorded music?
Do men "listen" to music differently than women?
All commentary will be helpful, and thanks in advance!!!
Follow Ups:
I would (and others on this thread) like to read your graduate paper, "Hi Fi Fetishism: Audiophilia in Postwar America." Do you have a link?Audiophilia means quality hi-fidelity with a longing for the past/nostalgia (vintage audio) when life was simpler and non-digital.
Hi,I know this person who was raised around tinkering. Car, electronics, father did the tinkering and puttered, never amounted to much and had tons of junk in the end...in fact a warehouse so full, it looked like a disorder for horading. He was a Bell Labs PH.D at Redbank who lost it...he collected everything from Organs, Pianos, audio, stereo...
His son first got a receiver and speakers, then took them apart, tweaked and ruined them...then got another stereo in his 1st marriage and lived with it ok. Then the internet came along, ebay and TUBES...he obsessed, procured, bought sold, tweaked, neglected his family, kept at his job and spent 100K dollars US for box and boxes of stuff...amps he'd never use, repairs, tweaks, broke a lot of stuff...in the end lost first marriage and almost kids.
Then he had to move all that stuff, store it and 2nd marriage, mor tolerable WAF, wife's father was a bomb sight designer and tweaker of optical stuff...so it went ok. He learned a hard lesson and in great debt lost mos of everything, but because he has a new wealthy wife and a great source of work income, he slowly more carefully acquired better tube gear, refined audio, 6000 cds, etc...then came the next divorce...he abandoned $50K or more worth of classic, rare, audio and guitar amps, most pristine and most well restored by him, he learned from breaking things...
In the end he stored another 10x10 worth of stuff now valued at say $50K total, hundreds of rare tubes, amps, etc...he lives in an empty rented house, drives a mercedes and still have a huge bank account, no real life, no wives, a great stereo and home theater and an air mattress for he and his son to sleep on, separate ones. He was obviously deluded...now he never buys anything audio, at least rarely..he lost everything he had, almost like he wanted to shed the stuff, rare antiques the works...he must have 5 CD Changers, all high end, a few good speakers and say 10000 peices of music...his ex-wifes paid for most of it and he paid the legal fees.
Then came the IPOD and the music server and DVD movies...now he has all his music after a project he and his son embarked on to copy it all to IPOD, all accessable via that and a ESCIENT FIREBALL..nice and neat...again, he owns nothing else, not even a picture on the wall.
Psychologically sound, clear of mind and purpose he listens to music both background and foreground, watches movies, socializes with workers and friends. His son is the highest rated elementary school child in the US for testing purposes and IQ...his son builds lego toys and tweaks, takes apart, etc...
His kid(s) are into sports, animals and toys...finally, he seems to have settled on Air Combat fighter education...flying for $1000-$2000 a year with www.aircombat.com...go figure.
He basically created a swath through his life with ebay auctions and audio/guitar...I swear, he probably has at least the best selection of rare tubes and amps/tuners ever...all mostly pristine and what a guitar amp collection, he plays at the amatuer level.
He maintains that he will sell off everything soon for college tuition and retirement. He is in his 40s.
Still looking for the next best thing, but through valuable lessons and $150K in spending + $150K in legal fees...does not buy anymore.
FWIW.
He is still gainfully employed and has a great income, and a large savings account it seems.
There is surely something I don't understand about the psychology of this hobby. It hit me today. A few weeks ago, a friend gave me a receiver 30 years old that he had stored in his garage. It's a near-the-bottom-of-the-line receiver from a good maker. I told him that I didn't need it, but that I'd be glad to put it on craigslist with a pair of speakers (since I've got lots of extra speakers, too) and give him a fair split of the proceeds. I've probably got four or seven radios hands-down better than that one, and I was planning on trying to get just $30 to $50 out of it on craigslist.Well, before I got the speakers that I was planning to list it with refoamed, the receiver in my bedroom went in the tank and had to go in for repairs. Based on size considerations, etc, the friend's receiver was an apt temporary replacement, and I put it in service in the bedroom to check out that it works OK, etc, before selling it. It worked fine and sounded fine for about 1 week. Until this morning: it started spontaneously going silent on FM until I jiggled the tuning knob a little. Don't know why, but it was acting up.
So all day today, I'm in a quandary and I don't know why. It's a $30-$50 radio. It will cost at least $65 to get my favorite tech to work it over, no matter how small the problem. The obvious solution is to pitch the SOB. But after it has worked well for me, I'm reluctant to be so callous to the radio. I've recently been working on the psychological problem of becoming attached to things, learning to sell off my excess equipment and speakers that I have lovingly worked over, and that has taught me that I can live without some pretty nice stuff that I have sold. But just carting something that has been a pleasure to me off to the dump is a stronger step that won't come easy. This feeling really caught me by surprise today. Part of it is that my friend has owned this receiver since it was new when he was in college, and I don't want to disappoint him by junking it. But he acted like he was glad to be rid of it when he passed it on to me, so that's not very rational, either.
my wife doesn't like to play with turning on the system, and seems to have an adversion to learning to control it (fer christsakes its just a remote control!) but she really enjoys the sound from it! That said, most women AND men I have met always says they can't hear the difference, until I get them in the room and turn it on, then its like wow, I didn't know that is how it is supposed to sound! Basically, its just laziness on the part of most people I have met and as it is, most women have to spend time on looking nice,taking care of the house and/or kids, etc. and that time is taken away from other things they could be doing or learning, most men don't have that time drain, so that leaves time for other things...also, I don't care if your a woman or a man, I would be happy to help out and show how amazing the sound is on a good hifi system...there is sure a lot of info out there...
....his book is a fun read, too. I think you can still order a copy from his website, linked below....
Hello,my .02 cents.
What are the basic psychological and emotional attributes of the male audiophile?
I believe it's crafting, acquiring, looks, and sound - Music, contemplation, introsepction and "child" like toy behavior if you will...no diff. from tool collectors and woodworkers, to shade tree mechanics and grease/lifts and MAC tools...it goes on.
I think it's a search to make something work, understand how it works, and try to get every unce of sound out of a very expensive recording, they all cost $.
I dubt it's control, although some folks are OCD about it and some aren't, tweaks, etc...depends on the depth and commitment to the hobby.
Is there a "control" issue with men and their manipulation of recorded music?
- maybe yes, maybe no - on the one hand then on the other...I have a friend who decorated and spent every dime possible to make a house like a magazine ad, very fancy, up to date and socially COOL...could be said for Motorcycles, choppers, cars, stereos, etc...look at the building industry...wants v. needs...some self actualization and need to comfort inadequacies,maybe control.
Do men "listen" to music differently than women?
My experience, older man, older woman, younger woman, younger man, ipod generation...it varies like personalities..
FWIW
I'm an over-the-hill male who never succeeded in my career up to my potential, and I'm still working now with no chance of ever doing so. I've always scored about 65% introverted on the personality tests, and as I sink into the latest phase of my life, I'm letting the introverted side run rampant.Listening to relatively loud music gives one some solitude, even when others are nearby. Listening to soft music and napping on the sofa gives one some solitude. Going out to the shop and trying to revitalize some old speakers gives one some solitude. The artsy-craftsy aspects of speaker rehab gives me something benign that my wife can help me with and discuss constructively. It also gives me something to learn, as I was neither artsy-craftsy nor mister fixit when was younger and thought my career was on a fast track, and the learning helps me feel at least a little bit young.
I was an amateur musician, but my body has acquired some infirmities that make that frustrating now. Good to keep with the music by listening. It reminds me of happy hours spent making music.
Great writing!Thanks.
I can identify with almost everything you wrote about,and you write well.Raanan
There is A LOT of hi-fi fetishism going on with people who post on the
vintage board. It is not limited to "hi buck doctor/lawyer" audiophiles who spend $100,00+ on their systems.Most people here do not spend $5000.00 on cables, but most "normal" and abnormal people (including audiophiles) do not have 37 receivers from the 1970's in there houses. The also do not spend every free moment going to garage sales, thrift stores, combing classified ads, craigslist, and EBAY looking for more vintage gear.
That my friends is fetishism as well.
There is also a lot of reverse snobbery going on with vintage guys. "Cheaper" is always better, and there is always someone blabbing about how their $100 system beats out $10,000 systems. Sure I have heard many a high buck system that sounds like crap...and I have heard many great ones to. I have also heard many awesome sounding vintage systems (and some not so awesome sounding)...but they tend to be quite expensive as well...the great vintage units are not chump change. Price out a hi end 1950's or 1960's tube system that is up to snuff...and you are quickly approaching (check out the prices on a pair of Marantz 9's these days) the five figure range...and your Dynaco PAS and ST-70 you scored for $50 does not fall into that range.
Male dominated hobbies are all the same, Audio, Cars, Fishing, Photography, Woodworking, etc...they are gadget driven, magic bullet driven, and just plain fetish driven. You have guys who spend top dollar to have a few things, guys who spend very little money to have a lot of things (ala 37 receivers in the basement), and guys who spend a lot of money to have a lot of overpriced junk that they sell at a huge loss a few years down the road. "Battles", "Names", and pissing contest are always the key as well. Ford vs Chevy, Marantz vs Pioneer, Fisher vs Scott, Nikon vs Canon, the list goes on and on.
Male hobbies seem also to more about having than doing. People on this list seem to talk alot about fixing and finding hi-fi equipment rather than listening to hi-fi equipment. Just like the guys who are the most into cars seem to the least into driving them, and the tool fanatics are the least into actually building stuff, and the photo buffs always seem to be trading in MINT condition Leicas for the latest model.
Most people I meet (and it is quite a number of people) who are into audio border on the fanatic. Very few seem to have fun anymore, and even less actually seem to be into music. But this seems to be the mode since the beginnings of hi-fi in the 1930's. Even back in the 1950's audiophiles were the butt of jokes and seen as a bunch of strange closet cases.
The glory years of "mainstream" hi-fi seem to be the 1970's and this seems to be the era that many people on this board love. There were a lot of guys into it in the 1950's and 1960's...but as someone pointed out already- they really knew what they were doing- but it also was very craft and spec oriented back then as well. The 70's seem to be the era when it was a MUST for the average Joe to have a "killer system"...but that was also the era for the average Joe to have a Nikon around his neck in order to pick up chicks- and how much did he really know about photography??? Having a great system was a status symbol in the 70's...not a choice by people to suddenly care about sound. If this was the case than BOSE would not be selling tons of wave radios- all of that junk is in middle aged peoples homes.
I am also shocked by the disdain many people seem to have on this board for "doctors" who buy hi end audio...they seem to forget it was the very doctors who were buying what is now vintage audio. A Fisher 500-C was $379.00 in 1963 when you could buy a new Caddy for $5000...the same thing today is what- $50,000??? Fisher's top line console in 1963 was $4,500!!! A pair of Bozak Concert Grands would set you back $3,000!!! Spending $30,000 on a pair of speakers doesn't seem so crazy when you put vintage gear into its proper context. I have a 1957 Allied catalog that has $1200.00 tape decks in it!!! Mr. Average Joe was not buying this stuff. Avery Fisher was not putting an ad every Sunday in the New York Times to appeal to factory workers.
The post war to present audiophile is an extremely interesting subject and I wish you well in your research. I would love to read a copy of your research paper. It is to strange of a sub culture to ignore.
nt
It is spooky how on the mark that post is!
Hey el,
How about me? One system , Scott lk72/aristocrat speakers/
w12,t25 horn ,8hd,t35 tweeter, thats my system! You think
thats wimp?
Have a great day- I will!
Lar
on the contrary..I think it is sanity!!!
Tancred,If you read down through all these messages there's a common thread here. We do it because we think it's fun and it's another hobby like model trains or owning a motorcycle.
But the bottom line is I think you're in the wrong forum for "audiophilia" and "audiophiles" in general. Here, most of us like to find and restore older equipment. Common threads are searching for bargains at thrift shops and garage sales and searching for data on restoration.
There is a much more practical approach to the hardware here. Very expensive cables and gadgets are in the minority. Most of us use $0.39/ft lamp cord for our speaker cables because we don't see the point of $20/ft magic cables. If you're restoring a 40 year old Fisher vacuum tube receiver yourself, you had better have a practical view of things, a working knowledge of electronics, and be handy with tools. That does not describe the typical "audiophile", nor do I personally want to be classified as such.
From my observations of "audiophiles" and those afflicted with "audiophilia nervosa" I see two basic conditions: insecurity and conspicuous consumption. These manifest themselves as a kind of "elitism". A "mine's bigger than yours is" kind of approach. A search for bragging rights. A belief that if it costs more it must be better. A belief which is callously exploited by the marketeers.
An example from another field comes to mind. My son used to run a Dodge Neon ACR in the Sports Car Club of America's Solo II slalom series. Although they were not in his class, he turned in better raw times than a Porsche Boxster. The Porsche owner was incensed and insisted he must be cheating (he wasn't)to beat his Porsche with a Neon. It simply was not in the realm of possibility to him that a Neon could beat him.
Similarly, it is not credible to an audiophile that my $1400 system, based on 35 year old speakers, could be better sounding than his $40,000 system. Yet, I can cite several examples and provide witnesses.
If you want the answers to your questions, you might find some hints here, but I really think you need to find a hotbed of real "audiophiles" and not the hangout for hobbyists you've addressed here.
is Al Gear. Well, that's not exactly his name, but close enough. You see, I met him long ago. Back when I worked at an audio store in my college days. He was always hip on ARC stuff, but I doubt he really knew why. He ended up buying three pair of Dahlquist DQ-10s from us. So, what did he do with three pair? Well, he kept selling, then re-purchasing the speakers one at a time! I think he went through at least one pair of MG-IIs from us as well. I vividly remember the day Julian, Sam and I accepted an invitation to Mr. Gear's house. He owned twenty records. Twenty records. Four Sheffields and a gangly collection of pop and classical.Sounds great, Al.
Back in the 70's I came across this guy who had a 2 bedroom apartment, with a pair of McIntosh ML-4's and 2 pair of the big JBL console speakers (about the same size as ML-4's). He had the local shop searching the world for 6 Mac MC350 (300 watt monaural tube amps, model #??) power amps and wouldn't pick them up until all 6 were there. He wanted similar systems in the living room and both bedrooms! Sounds like a lease breaker to me. They had 5 and were searching for #6 at that time. This guy put every spare cent he had into gear.
rw
He owned a "no shit", real $100k rig...And one milk crate of records and one 25 slot CD stand of discs.Every time I heard this rig I had to hear Amanda McGloom, Lincoln Mayboreya and Christopher Cross's "Sailing".
Unless I brought some platters to spin the trip was a waste of time!
--
Al G
Dave
Later Gator,
Crank up your talking machine, grab a jar of your favorite "kick-back", sit down, relax, and let the good times roll.
It was my father that sat me down,in a dark room,put on a test record
of weird sound affects(locomotives,water dripping in a pail,hammers pounding on nails and such)and would ask me
how real it sounded.Damn,did it sound real!
It was my mother that yelled to turn it down.
What memories,I'm hooked!
Lar
would she build it herself? heck no, but she does love music. coming home with her on the couch listening to some tunes while reading is not uncommon. besides, what girl wouldn't love the smooth sounds of a pair of mcintosh MC60s powering some JansZen Z-200 ESL hyrbids?
After posting, I thoght about it. If a woman wants good sound, she really doesn't have to learn about sound equipment. There are plenty of males willing to help her for nothing more than a smile. I suspect there are some women that figure, why bother, I have other things to do. The last time a read about, women buy much more music than men. That not true in my house!
this was part of my diatribe a while back on the "death of hi-fi" basically, because it was very exclusive and snobbish by the 1980's, it fell into the same hole as the pop art frenzy during the same time. not to mention audiophilia is only marketed to rich older white males, which is not releative to todays pop culture:hi-fi was always expensive, but it's gotten to be like art these days. it's gotten so snooty and esoteric that most people don't give a shit. exactly like the art scene after its height of popularity in the 60's. therefore, hi-fi is falling further from the cultural mainstream everyday. it's still stuck in the 60's. and even worse so, because the audiophiles of the 60's actually knew what they were talking about!
hi-end products need to be in the cultural conscious so that the common man can lust after them. that's why every rapper sings about Rolex watches and has Bentley's in their videos. this is also why Mercedes Benz advertises it's $100,000+ S-class. not so that Joe schmoe buys it. just so that it's in the back of everyone's mind. the current hi-fi scene insults "the common man's" intelligence to the point where they just ignore it very existence. and now, many of today's kids and young adults don't even know it exists!
when i was working for an ad agency in los angeles that mainly dealt with marine and aircraft companies, my boss had an idea for one of our clients. the client was fountain powerboats (think big ultra-buck powerboats in daytona beach). rather than blow big money on commercials and what not, he got the boats into a few music videos, including Will Smith's video for "Gettin' Jiggy with it." it started off with will smith blasting through the ocean off the coast of Miami in a, you guess it, fountain powerboat.
lastly, urban culture has a strong influence on current pop culture
trends (meaning rap and the fashions that go with it). from the music and clothes to the Cadillac escalade rolling on 26" chrome spinners. this influences our youth and trends. NOT stuck up physicians waxing poetic about hi-fi and merlots. like it or not, that's the facts jack ;-)keep in mind, my ramblings have no statistical proof. i haven't run marketing control groups to do an actual analysis, but i feel I'm "pretty on" on this one. music and entertainment still drives our pop culture, so it's an obvious flaw that high fidelity is not part of it anymore. because, at it's core, it's an integral to the arts and entrainment. just as it always has been. the "audio scene" has just forgotten how to capitalize on it.
Robby,I have to agree. The "audiophilia" that Tancred talks about is a "high end" audiophile thing. Pretty far from the cultural mainstream and really pretty far from most of us on this forum.
I don't consider myself an "audiophile", in fact, I resent it. I really don't want to be associated with the "stuck up physicians" and the guys who obsess about little tripods for their megabuck cables.
Loud heavy beat music with lots of bass, that's male testosterone. Just like a 572" motor with smoking tires it means that we want to get some. That is why the human "race" is still here. If a female had our levels and lack of restraint we would not have nice names for her, but would still enjoy her company. Clasical music reproduction is to calm us down a little and get our minds back together.Bet when we have a female in a Hi-Fi tech session or seen on a V8 motorcycle we don't know how to act. Yep the male bonding is a safe place to hide and a way to communicate without the testosterone.
Further considerations....
How often is a female arrested for rape? (Must be like trying to stuff a marshmalow in a piggy bank.)
How many female drag racers compared to males?
How many XXX sites on the net are dedicated to the females?
Motorcycle sales by sex?
Mountain climbers, bungie jumps, etc.What I meant to say is we are different. Thank god cause I would not look good in babydoll pajamas.
Some bassis exists for all I spewed. Now I have done it!!!!
I am an avid Harley rider and the vast majority of riders I meat are male. However, I do meet a lot of female riders. They are our there!My wife used to be a social worker for a locked down facility for teenaged girls. You don't want to hear about your first "further" consideration. It's an uglyer world out there than most people think.
I could never get into the V-twin thing, but I do enjoy riding as well. :)
Its' all about low-end tourq. I ride a 1200 Sportster so I don't have to push so hard to get the thing to turn!
I rather enjoy shifting my Magna above 9000 RPM. Why? Because I can! It's music to my ears. And doesn't shake out my fillings at the same time. Bonus.The inherent lopey-dopey imbalance of a 45 degree V-twin sounds to me like the engine has lost a cylinder with a fouled plug or something. I'll take a 90 degree V-4. On the other hand, I do enjoy watching "American Thunder" with Michelle Smith. :)
Happy 50th anniversary to the XLCH. The Sportster was among the first superbikes and reigned as king for over a decade.
rw
I got rid of a 750 Kawasaki to get the Sportster and never looked back. If your Sportster was an Iron Head, you should give an Evolution a try. I have ridden both and it is like night and day. You can rid a 1200 Evolution all day. An Iron Head will nock you fillings out in a few blocks. I get less fatigue on my Sportster than I did with my Kawasaki. If you have a need for speed, and it sounds like you do spinning at 9K, the Sportster is not for you, but it is now a very comfortable ride.
I have read that the current Sportster flavor with its new rubber motor mounts has significantly reduced perceived vibration and mirror shake. But vibration will always be there with 45 degree V-twins in a way that you will never find in a V-4. It's physics. Just watch the motor dance in the frame.The V-Rod is a cool bike with a modern water cooled motor, but way overpriced IMHO. For that outlay, I could get a liter crotch rocket and a metric cruiser. Or an ST 1300 and change.
Different strokes (literally) for different folks.
Agreed, it's all in what you want.
I won't get into the gender differences, but for males audiophilia is an outgrowth of playing with model trains, flirting with dangerous voltages, connecting and disconnecting track, cars, wires and accessories in endless combinations.
Also model building, which requires endless patience and experimentation, gnashed teeth, and the like.
At least that's it for me.
I am with you on that. I went from Lionel trains and erector sets to electric guitars to audio.
If ican comment in the same vein as E-Stat. I am a retired engineering manager. Most of my staff over the years was male. To try and meet affirmative action plans, we were exhorted to increase our female staff levels. We really did try, but female engineers, lab technicians, and drafters are hard to find; and good ones are really hard to find.If you find the answer to why so few women go into the engineering profession; I think you'll have your answer to the audio question.
Hint: I have two daughters. I raised both with technical stuff all around them and they grew up helping me work on the car and my stereo gear. By the time they were 8 or 9, they could care less. My son grew up in the same environment. By 8 or 9 he was totally into sports. All three liked music and all three can play something. My daughters both went into education in college. But for reasons I don't understand, in his senior year my son decided to go into mechanical engineering. He never built models, he didn't play with the erector set I got him, and he could care less about my hobbies. His interests turned to cars and racing and he eventually got an SCCA competition license. I gave all my kids audio gear from 12 on and upgraded their equipment along the way. The girls both have decent stuff even today, but had I not given it to them, or their husbands bought it, they most likely would not have it.
Why are there not more female physics and chemistry teachers?
I enjoyed your post very much. I feel like my current passion for audio evolved from the same source as my childhood passion for Erector Sets, electric trains, and building models. I have long felt that the audio bug is more about tinkering with gadgets than it is about listening to music, although the latter is a nice fringe benefit. My wife is a professional musician and thinks my audio addiction is nuts. She has to get my help about once a week to operate her own stereo. I have never met a female who cared a wit about trains, Erector Sets, or audio gear. Incidentally, neither do most males. I could not get my two sons to put down their Nintendos long enough to get into any of that stuff.
On the issue of women is science, there is a guy who teaches physics at the Illinois Math and Science Academy and has separate classes for girls where he gets then to do a lot of hands on guy stuff like throw balls, mess around with simple machines, take things apart, etc. Apparently, he thinks aptitude for science is nourished by that sort of activity.
I'm not sure about awakening the aptitude thing. My son, now 33, had it from day one. As a little child he was fascinated by mechanical things. For quite a while we could keep him out of rooms by just closing the door, as he didn't understand door knobs. One day I was sitting at the kitchen table and the door to the basement was open. he got a chair, pushed it over to the door, climbed up on it and began to fool with the latch. He turned the knobs and watched the plunger go in and out, he put his finger into the mortise in the door frame, he pushed the plunger in with his finger. Over and over for maybe 15 minutes. Then he got down off the chair, closed the door, and reached up and turned the knob and opened the door. He was only about 2 1/2. Later he got involved with sports with all the neighbor kids and had no interest in technical stuff until his senior year in high school.You're quite right, I've met very few people who have that inate technical ability or interest.
Why are there not more female physics and chemistry teachers?Quite a few are in medicine. My wife is a PharmD and is the dean of a College of Pharmacy. Nationwide, the ratio of female to male students is something like 60/40. And continuing to diverge over time.
rw
My younger sister is an MDPhD and also has a MS in genetics. She is a researcher at the Univ. of Chicago.
True, and there are many nurses, dentists, dental hygienists, medical techs, doctors, biologists. But damn few are in mechanical or civil engineering or physics. The ones who are in physics tend to be in theoretical physics rather than the hardware oriented experimental physics.There seems to be something about the hardware side that's more of a guy thing.
I have always been wired to enjoy various mechanical and electrical toys. And started to enjoy listening to music at a very early age.
My degree is in philosophy but I also was a couple courses shout of a psychology degree. I also sold high-end stereo equipment in the 80s so I can anwer you questions but I'm not sure I have the answers you are looking for.1. As far as I can tell from dealing directly with hundreds male and female audiophiles that the is no one set of psychological nad emotional attributes to male audiophiles. My customers and friends were and extreemly varied group which spanned a number of socio-economic groups and subcultures.
2. With some people control is an issue, but its not particularlly more noticble among audiophiles, music lovers or vintage equipment fans. I have also know a few women who are controle freeks, so the problem is not limited to men.
More women of my generation tended to listen to music as backround music but quite a few men do this too. People interested seriosly in music (men and women) will sit an listen intently. I noticed that younger mem and women tend to listen to mucic as bacground. If they intently listened to the words they might change what they were listening too!
Dave
The same gender distinction can be said for other hobbies as well: automobiles, boats, cameras, guns, watches, etc. Women as a rule are just not as into gear as are guys.I think it has nothing to do with "listening differently" or "music manipulation".
rw
Its a my thing,
Lar
being a southern boy, I don't fully grasp the concept. So, you get ice thick enough to use as flooring? What ice we get, we'd fall through it in a heartbeat. And have.Let me understand the picture. We're sitting in a hut out on a piece of ice where the temp is oh, what? 5? Toasty 10? Do any medicinals enter the picture here?
Ive been down south for your winter tricks before!
(lets all meet at the tasteefreeze,jimbos bringin
his beeter}Next thing I know Im drivin a car with
no headlights at midnight in a goshdamn limestonecave.
While Im tryin to get my ass out of there, everybody
havin a gay old time!
Il stick to ice fishin thanks,
Have a great day
Lar
rw
I have been active (more or less) on this message board for a few years, and I have not noticed "a lot" of threads focusing on gender and Hi-Fi. Would that there were. What is "a lot" anyway?
"Cold Turkey isn't as delicious as it sounds..." --Homer Simpson
I suppose "a lot" is a relative term when you're dealing with thousands of posts and hundreds of strings, but I did find some discussing why women don't get into hi-fi, why men do, and even one that was upset at the stereotype of hi-fi being an exclusively male phenomenon. Men in basements, men in attics, women not "appreciating" hi-fi in either the technical or aural dimensions, etc.
Not one in 50 are female on this site. A lot of women are very interested in how a speaker looks in a room, in particular its decor attributes not the sound. That is, smaller, easily-hidden speakers are preferable to larger speakers that tend to stick out in a room decor. Generally the vintage speakers that fascinate the guys the most tend to dominate the room as well and appearance is secondary to sound quality.The solution, of course, is guys have out-of-the way places in the basement for their vintage sound systems, and the sound system in the formal areas, if present at all, will be something from B0$e or similar.
When a woman enters this room with a serious interest in high fidelity sound, the guys are all over her, and will do anything, or at least practically anything for her. If she expresses a sincere interest in vintage components and how they sound, I think they used to call that a wet dream when I was about 16.
In the latter case make a marriage proposal quickly or as this is clearly your one true love and you likely will never meet another.
Thanks for the opinion Dave.I agree with most of what you said. The "why are they like that" question, however, would involve a lot of brain research on women. I think our "wet dreams" will likely involve those we experience with our electronic equipment rather than the other kind, though one can always hope.
The only "vintage" equipment I have are the German consoles I mentioned. The Grundig, in particular, really sounds sweet, despite its MONO pedigree. I also have an old Garrard TT that needs a refurbishing.
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