I really dislike statements like that... to me it is a confusion between snobbishness and enthusiasm.Originally Posted by cosmos
See above.
Exactly!
I became interested in the reproduction of music and an early audiophile when at at age 11, I heard for the first time the sound of shimmering cymbals while listening to my dad's even then old entry level Sony reel to reel through some ten dollar headphones. Thinking back on it, it was exactly the premise of that filmed discussion. Up until then, I had only heard music on my mono transistor radio or through the crappy lid speakers that came with the Sony, or through the 3" speaker in the TV. I already liked music... that was a natural. I enjoyed listening to my transistor radio, but once I heard a glimpse of what I had been missing I was hooked. I sought out my dad's friends who had Ampex decks and AR or KLH or JBL speakers. I was hooked. I wanted more! I began reading hand me down High Fidelity magazines and lusting after my own system.... by high school I was able to get my dad to buy a Fisher receiver and some less than excellent Fisher XP something or other speakers... this led me to Speakerlab in Seattle where I read every free technical gazette and every publication I could get my hands on and eventually built my first speakers... now decades and hundreds of pairs of speakers I have built and sold later, I still love this stuff. I still love music and I still love audio reproduction.... therefore I must still be an audiophile.
Unfortunately within the audiophile community there is a sizable group, on line at least, who view discriminating listeners who have made the financial sacrifice to own quality and sometimes exotic gear as somehow merely a bunch of snobs. Of course some audiophiles are snobs, so are some beer drinkers, so are some golfers... but being an enthusiast does not make a person a snob.
Then there is that other label... geek. Yep, we must all where that one with pride as well.
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