4 ms·

This genre of post is really the internet equivalent of being an audiophile.

by idlewords 3y ago

umvi 3y ago
Or any type of connoisseur
- Gigachad 3y ago
  I’ve noticed the “connoisseur” types seem to always be miserable. No product is ever good enough, everything has flaws and you always have to spend top dollar to still receive a flawed product. I fell in to this trap previously. Spent $4000AUD on a huge OLED tv, then when I had to move it was too big to bring so I sold it and bought a similar sized IPS tv for $900. Realised that, yes, I can see the difference between an oled and an IPS tv, but I do not enjoy using it any less. I had spent an extra $3000 and got no extra enjoyment from it.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - ubercore 3y ago
    I've gone this path with audio. Spent some time and effort on a good system (nothing crazy, but I was happy), had to move, just got a sonos system for convenience and because placement of speakers was hard in our new place. Can definitely hear the difference, but I've been happy enough that I've lived with Sonos for 2 years now.
    - censor_me 3y ago
      [dead]
  - zorrolovsky 3y ago
    No, I found an exception: cheesoisseur - that is, cheese appreciator. At least in my experience. From years 0 to 25 I kept my taste in cheese simple. Then, one day at 25 I went to a wedding and tasted a couple strong cheeses that carved a path in my neurons for the rest of my life: Epoisses, Cabrales, Stilton, Queijo Serra da Estrela. I've been enjoying that stuff for 20 years now. Some of the cheeses are somehow expensive but nothing stupid if compared to gadgets, audiophile equipment, wine or clothing brands. I can buy 250gr Epoisses at £8, 10$ USD, or 9.5 EUR at a couple major supermarkets in the UK. And let me tell you, all I need in life is a long run in the morning and eating Epoisses at any point in the day. That's the description of heaven to me... the rest is superfluous.
    - notahacker 3y ago
      You just sound like someone who enjoys cheese! A wine connoisseur wouldn't be seen dead picking their wines from the upper mid-range section of a supermarket and would try to avoid actually drinking the stuff where possible, and I assume cheese works on the same principle. To be a true connoisseur you should probably go to an artisanal cheese maker, ask lots of questions about churning process then take a very small piece, tap it lightly to your tongue and mutter "bad mould pairing, not as well aged as the 2019 variety"
soligern 3y ago
The difference is audiophiles invariably have good results after spending all that money.
- gadders 3y ago
  Do they really? A lot of it is snake oil.
  - soligern 3y ago
    Not really. You just end up paying more and more money for equipment that delivers what it promises but the relative improvement becomes harder and harder to discern because you begin to approach the limits of the upper end of audio fidelity.
    - gadders 3y ago
      And by the time you can afford all the expensive gear, you're old enough that your hearing has degraded so you can't hear the difference.
      - maigret 3y ago
        How do you mean? With age, one can hear less and less very high frequencies (above 10kHz), but those are not that critical for music. There are lots of old conductors who can hear 100x more details that I ever had. Many studio engineers for super popular pop records are above 50. Most of the listening is actually in the brain.
  - meowface 3y ago
    Sort of. (I kind of am, or used to be, an audiophile, so I'm naturally very biased on the subject.) Going from low-end to mid-range is a big jump and mid-range to high-end is a modest jump, but high-end to ultra-expensive is typically "not really better, just (slightly) different". If you're a moderate audiophile then you'll end up with a system that sounds a lot better than what most people will have by default, and then you'll be happy with it and won't change it for years. Given the years of value you get out of it you're not spending that much money. If you're a stereotypical "religious audiophile" maximalist then you'll be chasing the top of the top and buying obscenely expensive things every month or two for years and years without any perceivable improvement over what the moderate has. This can sometimes manifest as the notorious $1000 audio cables but more commonly it's like spending $3000 on some headphones that aren't really better than a $350 pair. And then doing that over and over and over.

This genre of post is really the internet equivalent of being an audiophile.

umvi 3y ago

Or any type of connoisseur

Gigachad 3y ago
I’ve noticed the “connoisseur” types seem to always be miserable. No product is ever good enough, everything has flaws and you always have to spend top dollar to still receive a flawed product. I fell in to this trap previously. Spent $4000AUD on a huge OLED tv, then when I had to move it was too big to bring so I sold it and bought a similar sized IPS tv for $900. Realised that, yes, I can see the difference between an oled and an IPS tv, but I do not enjoy using it any less. I had spent an extra $3000 and got no extra enjoyment from it.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ubercore 3y ago
  I've gone this path with audio. Spent some time and effort on a good system (nothing crazy, but I was happy), had to move, just got a sonos system for convenience and because placement of speakers was hard in our new place. Can definitely hear the difference, but I've been happy enough that I've lived with Sonos for 2 years now.
  - censor_me 3y ago
    [dead]
- zorrolovsky 3y ago
  No, I found an exception: cheesoisseur - that is, cheese appreciator. At least in my experience. From years 0 to 25 I kept my taste in cheese simple. Then, one day at 25 I went to a wedding and tasted a couple strong cheeses that carved a path in my neurons for the rest of my life: Epoisses, Cabrales, Stilton, Queijo Serra da Estrela. I've been enjoying that stuff for 20 years now. Some of the cheeses are somehow expensive but nothing stupid if compared to gadgets, audiophile equipment, wine or clothing brands. I can buy 250gr Epoisses at £8, 10$ USD, or 9.5 EUR at a couple major supermarkets in the UK. And let me tell you, all I need in life is a long run in the morning and eating Epoisses at any point in the day. That's the description of heaven to me... the rest is superfluous.
  - notahacker 3y ago
    You just sound like someone who enjoys cheese! A wine connoisseur wouldn't be seen dead picking their wines from the upper mid-range section of a supermarket and would try to avoid actually drinking the stuff where possible, and I assume cheese works on the same principle. To be a true connoisseur you should probably go to an artisanal cheese maker, ask lots of questions about churning process then take a very small piece, tap it lightly to your tongue and mutter "bad mould pairing, not as well aged as the 2019 variety"

soligern 3y ago

The difference is audiophiles invariably have good results after spending all that money.

gadders 3y ago
Do they really? A lot of it is snake oil.
- soligern 3y ago
  Not really. You just end up paying more and more money for equipment that delivers what it promises but the relative improvement becomes harder and harder to discern because you begin to approach the limits of the upper end of audio fidelity.
  - gadders 3y ago
    And by the time you can afford all the expensive gear, you're old enough that your hearing has degraded so you can't hear the difference.
    - maigret 3y ago
      How do you mean? With age, one can hear less and less very high frequencies (above 10kHz), but those are not that critical for music. There are lots of old conductors who can hear 100x more details that I ever had. Many studio engineers for super popular pop records are above 50. Most of the listening is actually in the brain.
- meowface 3y ago
  Sort of. (I kind of am, or used to be, an audiophile, so I'm naturally very biased on the subject.) Going from low-end to mid-range is a big jump and mid-range to high-end is a modest jump, but high-end to ultra-expensive is typically "not really better, just (slightly) different". If you're a moderate audiophile then you'll end up with a system that sounds a lot better than what most people will have by default, and then you'll be happy with it and won't change it for years. Given the years of value you get out of it you're not spending that much money. If you're a stereotypical "religious audiophile" maximalist then you'll be chasing the top of the top and buying obscenely expensive things every month or two for years and years without any perceivable improvement over what the moderate has. This can sometimes manifest as the notorious $1000 audio cables but more commonly it's like spending $3000 on some headphones that aren't really better than a $350 pair. And then doing that over and over and over.