Reclaiming the Term ‘Audiophile’ | Audioholics

I
was recently watching a video made by audio reviewer and YouTube personality
Steve “The Audiophiliac” Guttenberg, in which he was interviewing Yale Evelev,
the president of Luaka Bop Records. The thumbnail for the video includes
text that reads, “Yale loves vinyl, tube electronics, and horn speakers, but
he’s no audiophile!” Steve has interviewed many music-lovers on his channel,
most with interesting stories about how they became enamored by — or even
obsessed with — music, audio gear, and sound quality. Steve often begins these
interviews with a simple question: “Are you an audiophile?”

Reclaiming the Term Audiophile  – YouTube Discussion

What exactly is an “audiophile”?

I
think Steve asks this question because, to him, it’s obvious that all of the
subjects of his interviews are audiophiles, though many shy away from
identifying with that term. Yale Evelev, for example, says that he is not an
audiophile, despite the fact that he owns multiple audio systems. Vintage audio
electronics can be seen sprinkled around his home. Yale loves his horn speakers
from Tannoy, JBL, and Altec, though he also has owned Bowers & Wilkins 800
Series speakers in the past. He has tube electronics from Line Magnetic and Sun Valley, though at one time he
favored gear from Dynaco and Cary. He has multiple turntables.

Most
people that I know, that are audiophiles, almost never say that they are.

—
Steve Guttenberg

As
I was thinking about why so many audio enthusiasts do not want to label
themselves as audiophiles, I was transported back to the Gender and Women’s
Studies class that I took in my first semester of college. (Yes, I did think it
might be a way to meet lots of girls all in one place, but I was also genuinely
interested in the subject matter.) One day, our professor asked us to raise our
hands if we identified as a feminist. Many hands went up; some did not. She
then asked us to raise our hands if we believed that women should be afforded
the same rights, privileges, and opportunities that men have. The rest of the
hands went up. By definition, she argued, we were all feminists if we believed
in equal rights for all genders. The professor then asked those who hadn’t
raised their hands initially what made them hesitate, and so began the class
discussion on the connotations of the word “feminist.” For some, the term had
negative connotations. “If I say I’m a feminist,” they might ask, “does that
mean I’m supposed to be a militant, man-hating, bra-burning extremist?” For
others, the term evoked images of suffragists (Susan B. Anthony), writers (Mary Wollstonecraft),
athletes (Billie Jean King),
public officials (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and modern-day inspirations (Malala Yousafzai). These were important figures who
changed the world. “If feminists fight for equality,” they might wonder, “have
I done enough to call myself a feminist? Do I deserve that title?” For those
who didn’t raise their hands at first, the dictionary definition of “feminist”
was only part of the decision whether or not to identify as one. I once heard a
standup comedian describing this exact phenomenon. He pointed out how strange
it is that so many people who clearly believe in the rather simple philosophy
behind feminism do not want to be associated with the word, and made his point
with an imagined scenario in which people were chatting at a party. It went
something like this:

Person
1: What do you do for a living?

Person
2: I’m a physician.

Person
1: My wife is a doctor, too. What kind of medicine do you practice?

Person
2: I treat kids.

Person
1: Oh, how wonderful, a pediatrician!

Person
2: No, no, not at all. Well, I’ve never been comfortable with that term.

Person
1: … Wait, what?

The Ugly Connotations of the Term Audiophile

I
believe it’s much the same with the term “audiophile.” There are many
connotations associated with the word, and some in our hobby think we’d be
better off abandoning it altogether. Some folks view audiophiles as an elite
class — people with golden ears, six-figure speakers, and turntables the size
of Volkswagens. If you’re slumming it with an old Sony receiver and a pair of
$100 yard-sale speakers, you might not feel like you qualify as a card-carrying
“audiophile,” even if you devour every issue of Stereophile, and even if you’re
obsessed with sound-quality, constantly trying to make your music sound as good
as possible. Or perhaps you don’t want to be labeled an audiophile.
You’re a rational, analytical thinker with a healthy respect for measurements
and an equally healthy skepticism toward magical thinking and pseudoscience. To
you, the term “audiophile” conjures up images of a foolish old man, buying
magic beans from a snake-oil salesman promising to make his speakers sound
twice as good. But the reluctance to identify as an audiophile is just as
prevalent among subjectivist listeners, who associate the term with
measurement-obsessed gear-heads who care more about graphs than they do about
enjoying the music. They see an objectivist’s attitude not as skepticism, but
as cynicism. To me, it is as simple as the term “feminist” seemed to my college
professor. If you really care about sound quality when listening to music (or
watching movies, or playing video games), there’s a good chance that you’re an
audiophile. If you care about sound quality and have even a casual
interest in audio playback gear, you’re an audiophile whether you like it or
not. In my book, anyway. (Speaking of feminism, I detest the term W.A.F. — Wife
Acceptance Factor — and I think the audio community should have left it in the
20th Century where it belongs. But that’s another story.)

The
term ‘audiophile’ has been relegated to the guys that are into audio tweaks, or
they think they have better equipment because it’s more expensive, and I’m here
to say that’s all nonsense. I think we can all be audiophiles.

—
Gene DellaSala, founder and President of Audioholics

Chief
Audioholic Gene DellaSala
recently made a video in which he states that we should reclaim the word
“audiophile,” for everyone who cares about sound quality. We should dismiss the
connotations of exclusivity and elitist behavior, and welcome anyone who enjoys
listening to music, and who seeks better audio performance. I am completely in
favor of that notion, but I think that we as a community have some work to do
if we want to make that a reality. Have you ever been treated as a pest in a
high-end audio store because you don’t look like you have big bucks to spend on
gear? It’s happened to me more times than I care to say. At audio shows, where
people ostensibly come together to share a common interest and learn about cool
new gear, I’ve seen people laugh at “dumb questions” from newcomers to the
hobby. I’ve seen a manufacturer representative treat potential customers with disdain
simply because they weren’t sure where they stood on the debate about cables,
tweaks, and power-conditioners. If you’ve spent time on virtually any audio
forum, you know how quickly the name-calling and vitriol can start to fly when
discussing any number of topics, from the digital-versus-analog debate, to
high-res audio and MQA. In his video, Gene touches on one of the most prevalent
negative behaviors in the world of audio: gatekeeping. Gene mentions people who
say crap like, “You’re not an audiophile because your equipment’s not good
enough,” or, “You didn’t hear a difference in cables? Either your equipment is
not revealing enough or your hearing is not good enough.” That kind of utter BS
needs to stop if we want the word “audiophile” to be embraced by the community
and held in high esteem.

It’s
all bogus. It’s all snobbery, trying to put yourself in an ivory tower and say
that you’re better than the other person.

—
Gene DellaSala

But
these types of behaviors can be hard to stamp out, even within ourselves. You
can have the best of intentions and still end up alienating people. I know that
I’ve been guilty of this in the past. For example, several years ago one of my
friends asked me what soundbar she should get. She was genuinely interested in getting
the best sound that she could, but she only had about $400 to spend, and her
boyfriend didn’t want to clutter their living room with speakers. I told her
that she should forget the soundbar idea and save up more money to buy a decent
receiver and at least 5 speakers plus a subwoofer. I wanted her to have the
best experience possible, and I’m not really a fan of soundbars. But after
thinking about it for a while, I realized that I hadn’t been helpful at all. In
fact, I had effectively discouraged her interest in getting better sound simply
because I felt that a $400 soundbar wasn’t “good enough” for me to recommend. I
dismissed her needs, and I felt like a dick. I later recommended a Pioneer soundbar (designed by Andrew Jones),
which was within her budget, and she ended up buying it. She loved it. It
offered the dialogue clarity that she had been craving, and was an enormous
step up from the speakers built into her TV.

I
think we need to really coin a new term here. I think a Hi-Fi enthusiast is a little
bit different from an audiophile because there’s a lot of negative connotations
associated with (the term) audiophile. Gatekeeping, dismissive, elitist…
frankly, I personally have experienced all of those things with people that are
self-described audiophiles.

—
Randy Messman, of the YouTube channel Cheap Audio Man

I
do think that the term ‘audiophile’ is, or has been, coopted in a negative way.
And I don’t know if I want to reclaim it… I don’t know if I would like to be
known as an audiophile. I would rather be known as someone who appreciates art
and music rather than someone that appreciates gear.

—
Andrew Robinson, audio reviewer and self-described “Recovering Audiophile”

RT60 Decay Time of AH Smarthome Theater Room (target = 350msec)

Anyone
can slip down the slippery slope that leads to behaviors that end up giving
audiophiles a bad name. Heck, even Gene dips a toe into gatekeeping in his
video. He says that anyone who loves music and wants good sound is an
audiophile, but he also says, “If you’re truly an audiophile you’re going to
want to get the best in performance — something that’s repeatable. Something
that you know, that you can measure and you can listen to. You can make
tweaks, and you can actually hear and measure differences in stimulus.” He also
says, “If you really want to be an audiophile, you want to embrace the science
of accurate sound reproduction because you want to get good sound.” There are
surely some audiophiles out there who love music and want great sound, but have
no interest in measurements. They understand that room acoustics are important,
but they either can’t, or simply don’t have the desire to measure their rooms’
reverberation and cover the walls in acoustic treatments. I know plenty of
folks like that, and you probably do, too. To them, it may seem that Gene is
gatekeeping about what it means to be a “real” audiophile. Does Gene think that
you have to do things his way to be an audiophile? Of course not. (That’s the
whole point of his video, after all). But his comments help illustrate my point
that it can be hard to express passionately-held beliefs without potentially
marginalizing others. Nevertheless, I think we should try.

You
are all audiophiles. If you are into your equipment. If you are into the music.
If you are curious about how this stuff works. If you are always looking to
better the sound and you actually sit down and listen.

—
Gene

We Are All Audiophiles!

One of Gene’s
comments that really resonates with me is the notion that maybe an audiophile
is just someone who actually sits down and listens to music. Steve Guttenberg
has said something similar — audiophiles are simply people who listen to music
and give it their undivided attention. They aren’t doing anything else — not
exercising, or cleaning the house, or cooking dinner. Just listening. I can
relate to that. But the most “audiophile” moment of Gene’s video comes near the
end, when he describes his experience of listening to immersive Dolby Atmos
music on a great system. “Multichannel, done right, is a truly audiophile
experience,” he says. “It transports you into that music. You forget about your
surroundings. The speakers melt away and what you’re left with is an
incredible, immersive surround effect. It’s like the voice of God, almost. It’s
like being in heaven.” To me, that is a perfect expression of audiophilia. Just
absolutely geeking out about the way great music played back over great gear
completely consumes you and carries you away. That, I think, is what it really means to be an audiophile..

Are you an Audiophile? Share your thoughts in the related forum thread and be sure to watch our video Reclaiming the Term Audiophile.