I, I’m French and we have a made up word « idiophile » a mix of idiot and audiophile on a huge forum to call people who believe in non science related audiophile bulls*** like changing power supply or cables to have a better sound or buying 300K€ audio streamers etc
Is there a similar word in English ? “Audiofool “ I’m guessing. Is there a sub Reddit dedicated to this particular subject ?
Thanks 😆
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Honestly, does it really matter that much? If they’re minding their own business and enjoying themselves, there isn’t a problem.
I’m adamant that proper cables make a huge difference. To me people not willing to even try seem foolish.
You can be adamant all you want and call people fools if you wish. We know, objectively, that cables don’t make audible differences unless they’re extremely bad.
Your average lamp cord is indistinguishable from regular copper speaker wire, and what ever expensive cable you think is better.
I don’t see any room for debate on this. We can measure these cables to a degree of precision that is far, far, more nuanced, sensitive, and detailed than anyone’s hearing can ever be.
Should be pretty easy to prove with data wouldn’t it?
What are you measuring? Signal to noise - doesn’t matter since almost all equipment is good enough this way. However, it doesn’t even come close to measuring how things sound when reproduced thru a speaker.
The people who buy that shit also bought $25,000 Compaq Presarios from boutique electronics stores in the 1990s and insist it’s better than a modern computer because it has warm, clean, punchy computing and a 56k modem dial-up tone that’s high resolution.
It takes 6 hours for them to load a single Reddit post so we’re mostly free to tee off on them here uninterrupted.
There is also a sub for folks who blindly take internet strangers’ advice.
Westerners are posers compared to Japanese audiophiles.
What’s funny to me is that, as a former salesperson at a big box Home theater area, I know how awful the wiring and accessory markups are, so I avoid them at all times now.
And yet, I recall back in my car audio enthusiast days how the absurd wires were practically the whole point, and were valued as “awesome” because they looked fantastic even though they clearly provided no added benefit. I recall glass-boxed connectors of gold plugs, stupid wires like 4 gauge neon stuff running from the amp to the sub, etc. And neon lights just to make the unnecessary wiring look incredible.
Maybe what I’m saying is that my LR speaker wires cost $1,000/meter, they’ll sound much if they also glow in the dark.
It’s not stupid… the ridiculous gauge cables are actually functional in car audio because they’re working with much higher amperage than in home audio.
Actually probably not power cords, but the cables the analog signal passes through actually make a difference from my experience. Same for higher quality streamers (don’t know about 300k but…)
You can do it here of course. You can also join private groups on Facebook, you’ll find one for each good brand, and post there, each time someone ask for the cables they should use, etc.
You have to fight on all fronts.
People spend millions on art, or thousands on a bottle of wine. . . . It is hard to know what someone else’s hearing capability is. I can’t hear what others can, I can’t play golf like Tiger, play hoop like Jordan, think like Einstein, but just because I can’t, doesn’t mean they can’t either.
Please do not compare snake oil cables to art. It hurts.
r/livesound will have a field day with the “Audiophiles” and their nonsense crap.
I don’t know, is there one dedicated to monster HDMI cables?
Everyone likes to laugh at audiophile nonsense, until it’s their specific brand of audiophile nonsense.
A sub like that would just devolve into very long arguments between defensive people about ‘not very crazy, maybe plausible but probably not worth it’ stuff.
It’s weird how visual gear is not scrutinized to the same degree.
Well, power supply certainly matters right? If you’re not getting enough power that certainly affects sound quality, and quality of the AC sine wave affects many types of electronics.
I’d say the vast majority here are fine with being poked fun at.
There is is far less show & tell, and vastly more posts asking questions here.
At the end of the day, the regulars are audiophiles not to be snobs, but just have a passion to to understand what make recorded music sound better.
In any event, the genre is so big, many here don’t pertain to being a walking dictionary of knowing everything audiophile, and just pipe into a conversation
My own niche of knowledge is more focused on CD players and the path that sound takes (regardless which type of source), through equipment, to coming out of speakers.
A fairly small niche in a sea of knowledge, but a very useful niche for answering questions.