Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?

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Genez

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #20 on: 6 Jan 2018, 05:17 pm »
Thanks for the link.  I thought I was getting old and out of touch (with modern pop music).   :roll:  :lol:  :oops:

We have become a society of convenience, instant gratification, constant entertainment, and virtual realities.

Vinyl and tubes don't fit any of those attributes and can seem so 19th century to today's youth.

NuPrime fits in today's world: compact, energy efficient, digital friendly, simple aesthetics, and affordable.

Don't underestimate the younger people who can think for themselves.   You'll find them in vinyl stores.... even discussing the virtues of the tube sound.  I witnessed to it.  I do not buy vinyl any more.   Just went in to browse.  Overheard a conversation and chuckled to myself... and also felt a sense of relief.

Folsom

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #21 on: 6 Jan 2018, 05:27 pm »
Young people are much more likely to be aware of audiophile gear than previous generations. What they dont care about is enermous ugly speakers from the 70's, overly complicated solutions, and most of all it isnt them who wouldnt buy a tube amp and a bunch of midrange gear, it is their pocket books they inhereted from baby-boomers. They cant afford to care, but hopefully that'll change.

nickd

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #22 on: 6 Jan 2018, 05:38 pm »
Lots of good points here, cellphones etc.

I do think the personal and portable, has inspired the popularity of headphones thus reducing stand alone systems.

That and a huge cultural shift to more crowded living spaces. New tract homes usually have a TV over a fireplace. Not a spot in the house for a pair of floor standing loudspeakers. And where would you put any components?

As the recording industry money dried up, so did any focus on recording quality and mastering. Most of the stuff we are hearing today was recorded in a “Home studio” using a laptop computer. Then mastered on a pair of $300.00 plastic pro monitors.

Good sounding microphones, analog tape and Altec’s in the mastering suite are sorely missed indeed.

Just some thoughts.

Genez

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #23 on: 6 Jan 2018, 05:46 pm »

Vinyl and tubes don't fit any of those attributes and can seem so 19th century to today's youth.

NuPrime fits in today's world: compact, energy efficient, digital friendly, simple aesthetics, and affordable.


I think you should take a peek over in the Head-Fi forum.  Serious Headophiles.  Nuprime is well known over there by the younger generation. Also,  many tube head amps are being listened with.  They discuss power cords and fuses, too.   

Headphones are the main thrust over there.... it seems to be where the younger audiophiles are heading while they are not able to yet afford a full system. Heck at their age we were buying Kenwood receivers and Advent speakers.  At least that is what I saw at that time.  It was the older folks buying the Nakamichis and the Luxman.


WGH

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #24 on: 6 Jan 2018, 06:01 pm »
In this new year, ask yourself what you could do to expose something new to someone. I did this last year by making some compilation disks for my 30 something nephews. I gave them stuff that they never heard before... Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, early Genesis, King Chrimson Tommy Bolin and others.  I told them they must give them "the 5 play promise", before they stopped listening.

Once we are gone there will be nobody to teach the young ones how excellent the original music was, instead they will use Bruno Mars (meh) as an example of how good music used to be instead of all the Motown he mimics.

There has always been bad music, a local DJ liked to play obscure tracks from famous bands, the result was 25 minutes of really horrible music by really good bands. Now there is more bad music to sort through but it can be done, the proof is in the 109 GB in my New Music folder, none of it is current pop.

Young music listeners probably get better sound on their headphones than we ever did with our Kenwood receivers and Advent speakers. A friend still uses Advent speakers and although they were well regarded in their time they sound horrible by today's standard.

brother love

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #25 on: 6 Jan 2018, 06:17 pm »
Based on the linked YouTube video, is the OP inferring that the decline in Pop music quality has resulted in there being less audiophiles? If so, it is a lame assertion. Speaking of which, why is this thread in the Nuprime forum anyways?

That aside, I would argue with many of the points in the referenced video:

Re: Millenial Whoop & complex instrumentation- 3 chord songs have always been a mainstay in pop music. What about blues music? Some great stripped-down songs are powerful & grab you by the throat.

Compression-related issues & limitations had their place back in the 60’s too.  Music was toned way down due to the limits of transistor radios & cheap stereos. Then there was 8 tracks & cassettes after that.

As far as “quality” goes … for every “Day in the Life” or “Like a Rolling Stone”, there were a plethora of  “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” or “Sugar, Sugar” type songs. To compare songs of Dylan, Beatles, etc. with Justin Bieber, etc. is a ridiculously lazy exercise.  It’s like comparing “The Graduate” to “The Emoji Movie”.  What’s the point? There are best of/ worst of for every year, decade, etc..

The brainwashing point was legit, but it also applied to buying an album. Repeated listenings of the same songs after you plucked down hard earned cash was also a reason to like something in spite of early impressions.

As far as the actual thread title re: less audiophiles …

Entertainment choices are so much more extensive AND accessible than they were back in the 50’s- 60’s (where back in the day … to see a movie, you had to go to the theater, there were 3 channels on TV, radio/ albums/ reel-to-reel were only music sources outside of live performances.

Genez

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #26 on: 6 Jan 2018, 06:26 pm »
Based on the linked YouTube video, is the OP inferring that the decline in Pop music quality has resulted in there being less audiophiles?


There will always be audiophiles.   Just more frustrated audiophiles.   People who can never discover that they are an audiophile.

If you have the gift for a musical instrument?   You'll walk around feeling not right and empty about something undefined if there are no instruments around for you to discover your gift with.   

charmerci

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #27 on: 6 Jan 2018, 06:31 pm »
Literally, the first thing that I notice is that there are hardly any good intros (about 20 seconds to a 1:30) anymore. The Doors were good at it. Now, it's a few drum hits, a quick lyric or a bass riff then it's right into the music with all the musicians playing the whole 3 minutes without stopping. In other words, arrangements have been thrown out the window.

Genez

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #28 on: 6 Jan 2018, 06:36 pm »
Compression-related issues & limitations had their place back in the 60’s too.  Music was toned way down due to the limits of transistor radios & cheap stereos. Then there was 8 tracks & cassettes after that.



Compression was used differently back then.   It was to prevent peaks that would cause the stylus to jump out of the groove, or distort.  Now. with digital not having this dynamic range limitation?.. They jack up the volume on all instruments in an unnatural way.   Its not the same thing. 

Back then they also had to pump up some of the lower level sound as to rise above the groove noise inherent with record playing.  But not like what they are doing now.  Back then is was to adjust to the limits of the playback record player, or tape overload.  Now with high dynamic range of digital its being abused and keeping listeners from really enjoying full range in a way that was never possible before.   

Its become the "junk audio" industry, just like some big food producers are doing in destroying the nutritional qualities of foods, just so that the shelf life can be extended for more money in their pockets.  The shelf life is extended because even bacteria can not live off of it effectively.  The love of money is the root of all evil.  Not money.  The love of money is.

Folsom

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #29 on: 6 Jan 2018, 06:38 pm »
Negative space has become almost a lost art form.

Lots of young people love music. Lots of young bands, some good. Problem? Money. They can't afford anything worth a damn to play on let alone record with.

You have to take to heart... Mainstream until 70's = pretty good. 80's was a mix. 90's it was pretty bad. Now mainstream is basically unbelievable trash. *All* the young music lovers get this and either listen to old music or independent non-top-40 stuff.

Here's a local place. Check out any of the bands playing there on their bandcamp/myspace/etc.

WGH

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #30 on: 6 Jan 2018, 06:47 pm »
The video mentioned the simplification of modern lyrics, he must not have heard the original 1959 version of Woo-Hoo by the Rock-A-Teens, it was a big hit when I was growing up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cLsFtGE8zU


WGH

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #31 on: 6 Jan 2018, 06:57 pm »

...big food producers are doing in destroying the nutritional qualities of foods, just so that the shelf life can be extended for more money in their pockets.  The shelf life is extended because even bacteria can not live off of it effectively.

The bad news: New Twinkies have a shelf life of 45 days
The good news: Twinkies never had any nutritional value
More good news: According to Hostess, it takes forty-five seconds to explode a Twinkie in a microwave.

Elizabeth

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Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #32 on: 6 Jan 2018, 07:02 pm »
Fwer audiophiles because audiophile companies are putting themselves out of business.
Plus complexity.
Most of us are old(er). When we started a great stereo had a turntable, and speakers, and either a receiver/separate amp preamp. and a few free cables, or at most a few dollars worth of wire.
And you had a stereo.
Then Cd got added, then streaming
And add in wires,
Then all of our OWN bickering.
Anyone interested at all would read this stuff, look at the prices, and find some other hobby!

Also with the rise of gaming.. most young folks if they had a few hundred bucks, would spend it on a Playstation or XBox. And not on a stereo.
Though I agree headphones do seem to be the way to a future revival of audiophilia.. When all those young'ins get a house, and a real job.

charmerci

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #33 on: 6 Jan 2018, 07:04 pm »
The video mentioned the simplification of modern lyrics, he must not have heard the original 1959 version of Woo-Hoo by the Rock-A-Teens, it was a big hit when I was growing up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cLsFtGE8zU



Sure - it happened back then but take a week in '59 then '69 - listen to the top 10 hits and then compare one week in Dec. '17. NO comparison!!!

deadhead

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #34 on: 6 Jan 2018, 07:07 pm »
I believe some of the issue is access.  In the 70's there were places like Tech Hifi where teens were welcome to come in and listen/play around.  It was a different segment of the market than the high end stores.  I don't see those kinds of places for my kids (21 and 25) to explore.  Going into Best Buy for example isn't the same experience.  The knowledge base is much lower and they're trying to be everything to everyone.

We, as a group, have figured it out due to necessity.  We spend the time researching online and direct to consumer.  We've already done the legwork and have an idea of what we want.

charmerci

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #35 on: 6 Jan 2018, 07:36 pm »
I just listened to Woo-Hoo. I'll break it down to show you why that song is far more complex than a modern hit.

Intro - single voice followed by -
2) guitar with a riff that then changes in the middle
3) add drums
4) add vocals
5 add saxophone
6) stop everything - drum solo
7) cowbell to drum solo
8 - stop cowbell add guitar with change of guitar riff (8 with a para keeps turning it into a  8) !)
9) re-add cowbell
10) resume vocal and sax
11) guitar solo
12) add interplay with drum
13)resume vocal
14) ending that doesn't sound like any of the rest of the song

It's actually an incredibly complex song with lots of arrangement. All in less than 2 minutes!

bacobits1

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #36 on: 6 Jan 2018, 08:57 pm »
AND....that's why "Pretty Woman" is such a classic! Really listen to it. Superb!

Way too much trash today. This came from the RAP hip hop junk.
Don't get me started on the absolute drivel on TV.
What shit these people are getting huge pay checks for!

WGH

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #37 on: 6 Jan 2018, 09:05 pm »
Plus complexity.

When newbies come over they ask what all the black boxes are for, I start describing the music server and can see there eyes starting to glaze over, moving to the DAC (which they never heard of) I start loosing them, at the pre-amp and amp I've completely lost them. At that point I don't even mention prices. But they always love the way it sounds, to them it is like watching a movie. I like movies too but will never buy the equipment to make one, my friends will never buy the equipment to make music.

neekomax

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #38 on: 6 Jan 2018, 09:33 pm »
I think the answer to the OP's question might have to do with the eminently uninteresting AND errant tone and themes of the discussion here: "Old stuff was great, new stuff is shite".

Hey you kids! Off of my lawn with your hippity hoppin and rappity rappin! Lawrence Welk is REAL music!  :lol:

Dudes, there's galaxies more, and more interesting, and better recorded, and more varied, music now than ever. Just 'cause no one's spoon feeding the best of it over airwaves to the masses is nothing to get all huffy or despondent about.

 

Folsom

Re: Why do we seem to be seeing less audiophiles?
« Reply #39 on: 6 Jan 2018, 09:54 pm »
When newbies come over they ask what all the black boxes are for, I start describing the music server and can see there eyes starting to glaze over, moving to the DAC (which they never heard of) I start loosing them, at the pre-amp and amp I've completely lost them. At that point I don't even mention prices. But they always love the way it sounds, to them it is like watching a movie. I like movies too but will never buy the equipment to make one, my friends will never buy the equipment to make music.

So true. But the buy in for all-in-one isn't cheap. The LIO is a fabulous all-in-one, and not expensive at all for what it is, but is still a price tag where many people are going to be thinking for more than a moment about it. I see nothing wrong with the pricing, but rather that paying someone to do something well is such a burden on the income level.