[Carl V]

interesting.
My casual observations slightly differ.
Like it or not....our home Hi-Fi is no where close to reality.
If you ask women who know what live music sounds
like & then play them recorded music in a home environment
most will recognize the nice sound...but most will wonder how much
better it is than their BOSE or modest HT system.  Ask yourself, if a live
classical symphony is 100...a live unamplified Jazz quartet is 100...what
number would you give a simple AVR & 5.1 setup? what wold you give
to your own 2.1 or 5.1.....it's not really close to 100 is it? **sigh**  this it
what drives males :engineers, designers, hobbyists.
20 years ago i was affiliated with a a high end HI-Fi shop.
we had ladies nite out on Thursday nite. We provided nice food & beverages.
We invited a wide cross section of women. Law society, medical, Dental, Music
instructors.  Without fail it came down to Looks, Simplicity & price. many of these
ladies attended the local symphony...all mentioned that it was just an expensive stereo.
Many drove the nicer models of cars. Had Nice Clothes. Nice watches. Nice purses.
Nice homes. Nice vacations. In short money wasn't a first stumbling block.
And looks were & are important. Simplicity was/ is important. push one or two buttons!
it had better work perfectly each and every time with one or two button.

BUT sound had better be DAMN good...and many objectively commented that is wasn't
appreciably or statistically better than a nice Bose Setup or their HT set up.

Last but not least...how many women participate on Audio forums. Photography forums?
How many Women go to Music forums Or piano sites...Car sites.  They buy cameras and cars
they buy nice cameras and cars.  Nice clothes. Nice vacations.  But they dont fuss over them
like we do nor do they go to our extremes.

[thunderbrick]

Last but not least...how many women participate on …...Photography forums?

Trust me.  A LOT!  But they don't give a rip about the toys.  They may struggle with the settings and controls a bit (and don't like to wait hours in the snow for that perfect shot), but they know exactly what they want to accomplish in the image, and will go to the ends of the earth to get there.   
I took a group of about 20 shooters out recently to photograph eagles. 

Most of the guys just blathered on about lenses and cameras. The women stayed largely quiet except to ask for advance on how to do x, y, or z.

Sound familiar?

[Russell Dawkins]

Carl V and thunderbrick,

What you are describing here is what I consider to be a healthier approach than that of the "enthusiast".

Good food, good watch, a good car, a good etc., etc. Not the best watch/stereo/car - that way lies obsession.

Obsession can be loosely defined as the re-doubling of effort once the original goal has been forgotten.

Many musicians fall into the same category as women, because they know that their home stereo does not sound like the real thing, nor do they kid themselves that it ever could - all they ever expect it to be is a reasonable facsimile - one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and doesn't take up too much space.

[Freo-1]

Carl V and thunderbrick,

What you are describing here is what I consider to be a healthier approach than that of the "enthusiast".

Good food, good watch, a good car, a good etc., etc. Not the best watch/stereo/car - that way lies obsession.

Obsession can be loosely defined as the re-doubling of effort once the original goal has been forgotten.

Many musicians fall into the same category as women, because they know that their home stereo does not sound like the real thing, nor do they kid themselves that it ever could be - all they ever expect it to be is a reasonable facsimile - one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and doesn't take up too much space.

Sage advice.   

[wushuliu]

Jesus, this isn't rocket science people. Women are less interested in audio as a hobby because they were not raised with female role models who advocated it as a hobby/profession/interest. All this 'women are more inclined to this or that by nature' etc is bullsh*t. The absence of something as you grow up is just as powerful as what's present. If you grow up and you see happy and successful people who are like you or who you admire doing certain things you will see that as a possible future for yourself. Compound this with the fact that only in the last few decades - and some would say otherwise - have men accepted women as intellectually equal and capable in all things, well, duh, you're not going to have a lot of women who care about this hobby. Same can be applied to race/ethinicity, etc etc. depending on what country you call home.

If you advocate for more visibility for women who are a part of the hobby you will have younger generations who then see it as a possible future for themselves. It's that simple.

Goes without saying the natural corollary to this is marketing. If you grow up with nothing but a certain image defining what you should be interested in then, yeah, you're not likely to consider other interests. Maybe instead of the half/fully naked lady wrapping her legs around speakers we can have a professional woman enjoying the well-earned fruits of her labors...

[wushuliu]

Has Stereophile ever even done an issue highlighting women in the hi fi industry?????

Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win Best Director EVER for Hurt Locker. Does that mean women are just not good feature film directors?

I mean come the f*ck on...

[stereocilia]

Jesus, this isn't rocket science people. Women are less interested in audio as a hobby because they were not raised with female role models who advocated it as a hobby/profession/interest. All this 'women are more inclined to this or that by nature' etc is bullsh*t. The absence of something as you grow up is just as powerful as what's present. If you grow up and you see happy and successful people who are like you or who you admire doing certain things you will see that as a possible future for yourself. Compound this with the fact that only in the last few decades - and some would say otherwise - have men accepted women as intellectually equal and capable in all things, well, duh, you're not going to have a lot of women who care about this hobby. Same can be applied to race/ethinicity, etc etc. depending on what country you call home.

If you advocate for more visibility for women who are a part of the hobby you will have younger generations who then see it as a possible future for themselves. It's that simple.

Goes without saying the natural corollary to this is marketing. If you grow up with nothing but a certain image defining what you should be interested in then, yeah, you're not likely to consider other interests. Maybe instead of the half/fully naked lady wrapping her legs around speakers we can have a professional woman enjoying the well-earned fruits of her labors...

I'm contemplatively nodding my head in agreement. Nurture, not nature. That makes sense. A penis is not required to operate a music system.

[dB Cooper]

Women love music just as much as men do, but protestations to the contrary, a lot of systems aren't about music as much as much as they are about conspicuous consumption. Women aren't into inch-thick art deco faceplates, speakers that look like they were originally from the set of a '50's sci-fi movie, and the like. The hobby needs to reach out not only across gender lines but to entry level hobbyists who can't- or won't- spend upper-five to six figures on home audio.

I wouldn't presume to force her into the role of Spokesperson for All Women, but I'd be interested in VinylLady's take on the topic. Sounds like she has little difficulty operating an audio system.

[thunderbrick]

A penis is not required to operate a music system.

If that's what one uses, be sure to include that info when you post it for sale…

If a remote control is included we may safely assume the owner is a Dallas Cowboy fan…..

[steve in jersey]

I think "Women & HiFi" is a fantastic combination !!

Who else is going to bring us a beer from the fridge once we're in "the Zone sitting in our Sweet Spot"

"Hon, before you sit down could you angle the outside of that left speaker about 5 degrees closer : Oh sorry , I've lost some of the
center image now can you move it back a degree & a half ?" "Alice, you're the greatest !!"

(yeah I'm single, if you couldn't figure that out) (Just Kidding, I don't need Women hunting me down "like the dog I am !") 

[Don_S]

I have some good friends who tried to raise their children "gender neutral". And before some wise ass (actually dumb ass) comments on cross dressing that is not what they meant. It had to do with things like allowing the children to pick out their own toys.

Later the mother recounted her experience with that. With some amusement she told me "boys and girls are different".  I noticed that when I visited and we all sat down to play a board-game. The son quickly lost interest and got out of his seat to play with his trucks, returning only when it was his turn to throw the dice and move his marker.  Later he just threw the dice and immediately scampered off again. I think he was gone before the dice stopped moving. We had to move the marker for him.

There are too many female musicians who care deeply about quality of the music they make to convince me they don't care about how that sound is reproduced in their homes. Men have just made it an unpleasant and daunting task. Just because women don't enjoy the journey doesn't mean they don't aspire to the destination. But then again, maybe they don't.  Hey, they are different.

[SteveFord]

I have found that women really like live music but recorded music is generally reserved for background noise in a car.
Stereo systems, no matter how good, are treated like background noise in a car.
A live concert, well, that's a different thing.
There are exceptions, of course, but most of them could give a fig about our "little radios".

[mjosef]

Mhnnn...I have found that a bunch of men musing about the psyche of women often times enters FantasyLand.
 

[BobRex]

The conductor of the Allentown Symphony is a woman.  From what I understand (told to me by a dealer) she used/es the big Genesis arrays (think IRS clone).  So maybe it has something to do with primary involvement. 

[Don_S]

The conductor of the Allentown Symphony is a woman.  From what I understand (told to me by a dealer) she used/es the big Genesis arrays (think IRS clone).  So maybe it has something to do with primary involvement.

Obviously her frame of reference is orchestral-sized and closer than front row.    How the heck to musicians and conductors keep their hearing?  Or do they?  If they do not, that would be ironic and sad.

[BobRex]

Obviously her frame of reference is orchestral-sized and closer than front row.    How the heck to musicians and conductors keep their hearing?  Or do they?  If they do not, that would be ironic and sad.

I beleive I've read that many musicans do suffer from hearing loss and tinnitus.

[macrojack]

Conversations among men about what women like and how they think predate the invention of music much less electrical music reproduction. Futility is in your future.

[srb]

How the heck to musicians and conductors keep their hearing?  Or do they?  If they do not, that would be ironic and sad.

I know several musicians who for many years have used earplug attenuators from their audiologist.  They are custom molded to their ears and pass nearly the full frequency spectrum, but with reduced volume.

One source is Etymotic, who manufacturers Musicans Earplugs™ and are adjustable for 9dB, 15dB or 25dB of sound reduction.

Steve

[GentleBender]

I've found that my wife won't even try to learn how to use any extraneous electronics in the house. As long as I'm around, she just leans on me to take care of it all and won't pay any attention to me showing her how to use things herself beyond the ABSOLUTE basics. I'm sure I'm not the only dude who deals with this "lack of interest / caring" attitude with home electronics from the spouse.

In my experience it is the same way. If I die, I think my wife will throw all of it away as soon as something goes wrong. She will not know how any of it works or how to fix it. It would cost thousand of dollars to have the Geek Squad figure any of it out.  You can see her eyes roll into the back of her head as soon as I try to explain how it all works.  She admits it and it doesn't bother me, I am the one that likes it and she is able to enjoy the fruits of my labor. It was that way with the previous wife too. I believe it is the majority and that as more women participate in this or any other industry the more it will cater to them since they would be able to be included in the design and interface stages. I am also an idiot so please don't think I know what I am talking about and take this too seriously. Things are always changing and I am interested in what they can, do and will bring to the table. But I honestly like wood, metal and black boxes...

[Russell Dawkins]

My wife is a good musician (oboist), teaching her instrument at university level and having been a member of some of the country's best orchestras. She cares a great deal about the sound she produces when playing and she also cares about the tonality of the sound of her studio sound system and our home system. On the other hand she absolutely doesn't want to know anything about the technology involved and becomes agitated whenever talk turns the slightest bit technical.

My feeling is that she, along with most others I've met (men and women), have been conditioned by their experiences at school where, thanks to inferior textbooks and teaching techniques, they are exposed to science in such a way as not to be able to grasp fully even the fundamentals, and leave frightened to attempt to understand any new technical concepts for fear of failure. The result then is that for the rest of their lives, when put in the position of being expected to understand something of a technical nature, the response is to shut down and turn away. This would apply to myself, too, if I hadn't embarked on my own independent search in the library.

That's the way I see it.