I would say there are two types of audiophile communities:
1. The sort that’s just looking to show off or is completely obsessed, without paying much regard to the enjoyment of the audio itself.
2. The sort that just wants to enjoy music.
The communities that fall into category #2 are great. They’ll give advice such as:
- Don’t waste money on X when you could buy Y for a fraction of the price. You’re unlikely to notice a difference.
- No, humans can’t differentiate between properly-encoded MP3 320 and lossless. It’s physically impossible, and I’ll show you how to conduct a double-blind test to prove it.
- Yes, X is better than Y, but it’s also a lot more expensive. Start with Y; if you’re really not satisfied, you can upgrade, but chances are Y is good enough.
- Why on earth would you buy that cable? Just get some cheap crap from Amazon. It’s a digital signal anyway.
- Balanced analog signals don’t benefit from expensive cables.
- Unbalanced analog signals don’t benefit from snake oil, which includes pretty much any cable over 20 bucks.
- If you’re enjoying your music, don’t mess with it. Stop trying to impress people.
- No, those $500 Apple headphones aren’t going to help you as an artistic professional—you need reference speakers, which those definitely are not. They’re designed to make even the crappiest audio sound like unicorn farts.
- Are you regularly flying first class and need something to dampen the screams of children? Get whatever makes you happy, but $500 is probably excessive.
1. The sort that’s just looking to show off or is completely obsessed, without paying much regard to the enjoyment of the audio itself.
2. The sort that just wants to enjoy music.
The communities that fall into category #2 are great. They’ll give advice such as:
- Don’t waste money on X when you could buy Y for a fraction of the price. You’re unlikely to notice a difference.
- No, humans can’t differentiate between properly-encoded MP3 320 and lossless. It’s physically impossible, and I’ll show you how to conduct a double-blind test to prove it.
- Yes, X is better than Y, but it’s also a lot more expensive. Start with Y; if you’re really not satisfied, you can upgrade, but chances are Y is good enough.
- Why on earth would you buy that cable? Just get some cheap crap from Amazon. It’s a digital signal anyway.
- Balanced analog signals don’t benefit from expensive cables.
- Unbalanced analog signals don’t benefit from snake oil, which includes pretty much any cable over 20 bucks.
- If you’re enjoying your music, don’t mess with it. Stop trying to impress people.
- Don’t buy $500 headphones from Apple. Amended: Don’t buy $500 headphones.
- No, those $500 Apple headphones aren’t going to help you as an artistic professional—you need reference speakers, which those definitely are not. They’re designed to make even the crappiest audio sound like unicorn farts.
- Are you regularly flying first class and need something to dampen the screams of children? Get whatever makes you happy, but $500 is probably excessive.