a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

[Jeff B.]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

This is a very serious thread..........

I had fully regretted reading this thread... until I found your post. ;)

What a shame about the rest of it though.

In the future when rants arise - post some more of these. :D

[djg]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

He was a funny guy.

[lunchmoney]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

Let's just pick our favorite thread out of the hundreds on this topic, a nice long one...

One that's at least 20 pages long, starting nice and respectful at the beginning, and ending with an angry flame war complete with banned members. A nice juicy one.

Then let's make it a sticky, lock it, and be done with this. It will save us all a lot of valuable time, time that could be spent watching kittens on youtube.

We might as well be debating the existence of God.

[mtmpenn]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

Who needs an amp? I got some white headphones that came with my iPhone AND a Bose sound dock. I am the envy of all my friends.

My wife prefers to listen to pandora on her iPhone with the sound coming out the iPhone speakers cranked to 11... More convenient than using the dock and even more distortion!

[lunchmoney]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

Who needs an amp? I got some white headphones that came with my iPhone AND a Bose sound dock. I am the envy of all my friends.

My wife prefers to listen to pandora on her iPhone with the sound coming out the iPhone speakers cranked to 11... More convenient than using the dock and even more distortion!

You forgot to skip the wired headphones and go bluetooth. Now you're free to dance around naked with maximum distortion.

[rone]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

An audiophile likes to brag about how much they spent and how good it sounds.

No that is a snob. I like to call them audiophools.

I consider myself an audiophile and I listen a lot through a $129 Pioneer receiver.
I also have some Audiosource amps...which are audibly quieter than an old Onkyo receiver I used to have. That Onkyo had a tone defeat and after switching back and forth a couple times, I just left it on direct...

I have heard numerous amps, some that have an obvious character and some that don't. The ones that sounded bad often did because they had some sort of mismatch with associated equipment (loading the preamp too much, can't handle the speaker impedance, etc...) Sometimes the futzy $$ audiophile gear is rather poorly engineered. The designer has a "minimalist philosophy" that has unintended consequences...

When it comes to recordings, recording quality is nice, but if you don't enjoy the performance....it's just a "demo cut"...

[scottq]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

I had fully regretted reading this thread... until I found your post. ;)

What a shame about the rest of it though.

In the future when rants arise - post some more of these. :D

+1

LOL. I seriously regret getting involved in the first place... Moving on!

[djg]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

Borrowed from Bill F's forum.

[jinjuku]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

No that is a snob. I like to call them audiophools.

I know, that is why I put the big grins and smiley out there. Just having some good natured fun.

Me, I am an audio enthusiast:D

[lunchmoney]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

I am an audiophile without a lot of money... (yes, I believe this combination does exist, and would describe most people on this forum).

I'm not convinced that spending thousands on an amp, cd player, whatever, would make enough of a difference even if I did have the money.

Yes, I've heard some very expensive gear... not worth it, IMHO... I don't remember ever thinking WOW.

The only true WOW I've experienced was due to the speakers. I remember the first time I ever heard my SR71's, they were hooked up to a $200 Yamaha receiver... WOW!

[dantheman]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

So far there are 2 things that have given me an audio "wow" experience: speakers and bass EQ. Lots of treatments have made an easily audible difference, but not really in a "wow" way. Some amps make a difference at normal volumes, but I'm not really looking for that form of different on my main system. I am thinking of a third system revolving around a readily audible amp. Just for fun.

Dan

[Pallas]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

So far there are 2 things that have given me an audio "wow" experience: speakers and bass EQ. Lots of treatments have made an easily audible difference, but not really in a "wow" way. Some amps make a difference at normal volumes, but I'm not really looking for that form of different on my main system.***

Ditto, except for one more: moving a coffee table out of the path between the mains and the listening position was an eye-opening "wow" for me. I list that because (a) the effect was really huge, and (b) it wasn't intended as a "treatment" so much as just a room rearrangement.

The only amps and wires I've heard that have made a difference have made it clearly for the worse. The amps because they weren't well spec'ed for the system (not powerful enough and the speakers were inefficient), they had channel imbalances that were uncorrectable, or were noisy. The wires (yes, I have heard a difference in wires once - MIT things with extra resistance, on Martin-Logans) simply dulled the highs.

[dantheman]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

Before I got a floor standers, I had an open cell foam coffee table.:eek: Explain that to your friends when they come over and see their faces.:o

Dan

[Interlochen2]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

"Ill tell you a unique test, when you change the amplifier and the client wants to listen more or less...over a 6 month period. Just time them in their listening habits. Very revealing about a components quality...how badly do you want to listen to the system.....this the fundamental audiophiles operate on...it is their effort to articulate these subtle changes that people want to make fun of and misunderstand the most. How are you going to EQ for listening duration? Trust me you don't have the answer so don't bother even speculating, especially if you'll go so far to believe all equalizers sound alike"

Exactly Mzisserson. That entire post was a Sledgehammer. The critical element of time.

[lunchmoney]

Re: a bit OT. Is an 'audiophile' amp a waste of money?

"Ill tell you a unique test, when you change the amplifier and the client wants to listen more or less...over a 6 month period."

Meh... over a 6 month period there are a thousand other factors that can and do effect how much a person listens... life, work, kids, stress, video games, stamp collecting... how can you peg it down to the quality of the amp? Poor science.

MikeZ has some excellent points as always. This just ain't one of 'em.

Love ya Mike