Where are all the young(er) audiophiles ;-) ?

Florian · « **on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:04 pm »

What happend to all the young audiophiles? I have noticed that with 22 i am pretty much the youngest audiophile i have seen anywhere. Anyone else my age here or do you almost so young guys know where they went?

-Flo

tubeytubeamp · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:15 pm »

They are all on the AVSforum talking about receivers and home theatre. It takes a little while for the average young audiophile to grow legs and emerge from the swamps of Best Buy and Circuit city.

Count yourself lucky or just smarter than the rest.

JoshK · « **Reply #2 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:17 pm »

What constitutes young? I am still less than 30 (for 3 weeks more). I have been an "audiophile" for 5 years I would estimate.

Florian · « **Reply #3 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:20 pm »

Well, thats why i was so carefully formulating my post

With the young Audiophiles i meant the 18 to 25 year olds i guess. Of course all ages could count as young but i ment the 18-25 year olds since those ages are very rare in terms of Audiophiles

Zero · « **Reply #4 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:21 pm »

Florian,

I turned the big 2-3 in late spring.

There are actually quite a few younger audiophiles around in smaller message boards (company websites). I actually talk to quite a few teens who have been in this hobby for years.

No, they may not have big dollar equipment, but they do care about better sound and get the best with the few dollars they happen across.

At our age (young 20's), most are paying off school, worried about rent, starting a family, cars, and other stuff of the sort. This is usually a period when those interested in stereo must take a break from the game.

I'm getting there, and fast..

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #5 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:33 pm »

I have at least one pair of socks that qualifies as an audiophile then, Florian.

Dirty Harry · « **Reply #6 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:34 pm »

39, 5' 10", 200.....DING!

Hey, start a poll and find out what we got.

mcgsxr · « **Reply #7 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:38 pm »

Well, I bought my first real system at 24, but for some odd reason, I keep aging!

Now at 35, and on system 2/3, I am still aging darn it!

I find that many of the younger audiophiles cut their errr "ears" on headphone kit, as that CAN be more affordable. I forsee trouble, in that that market is rife with affordable MP3 players, and if folks equate that with quality...

I never started with headphones, I came to this game via ghettoblasters back in the day, then a full Pro Logic surround system, and then System 1.

Florian · « **Reply #8 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 08:40 pm »

I just added a question at the top of the page.

R_burke · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 09:04 pm »

Quote from: Florian

What happend to all the young audiophiles? I have noticed that with 22 i am pretty much the youngest audiophile i have seen anywhere. Anyone else my age here or do you almost so young guys know where they went?

-Flo

Don't think they WENT anywhere, they are still becoming. When I was that age (many years ago) I would have been embarrassed to consider myself an audiophile. I probably was one, I was at least well on my way to becoming one, none the less I wouldn't have considered myself one.

jermmd · « **Reply #10 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 09:18 pm »

I turned 40 this past Saturday. Even though I was into music and built my own speakers when I was in college, I didn't have any money until I was 30 years old. That's when I was able to really get started in this hobby. And I was never really home when I was younger anyway. Between school/work/partying/chasing women, I didn't have the time or inclination to pursue this somewhat isolationist hobby. Since settling down, I had to find home based relatively safe activities.

Florian · « **Reply #11 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 09:32 pm »

Hey Happy late Birthday !!!

Dan Banquer · « **Reply #12 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 09:50 pm »

Where are all the younger audiophiles you ask? They are listening to hyper compressed pop music on lossy compressed formats. Who the hell needs high fidelity when the music has a 6 db dynamic range.
d.b.

maxwalrath · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 10:07 pm »

I hit the big 2-7 a few months back...

BillyM · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 10:09 pm »

Although I wont begin to call myself an "audiophile", I do like to consider myself as more of a cost-conscious enthusiast. At 20yrs old, I've always enjoyed reading and research of any topic to get the most product for what little money I could divide between my many hobbies. ...be it the most power and best suspension on the track-car, or smoothest most accurate sound from the stereo. I like to interact on forums with people who far exceed my level of understanding as it tends to flatten the learning curve and eventually helps purchases turn out best the first time around.

Lossless music storage
SPDIF on computer
Adcom GDA-600 DAC
Parasound AS-F2's *EDIT* HCA-1000A (i'm an idiot)
Athena AS-F2's
all SignalCables, custom length digital coax

Of all that, I've spent under a couple grand, including the little side projects I've gotten into (modifying a T-Amp, and a Sharp EX111). I've had plenty of fun with it and learned an exceptional ammount. Young, ofcourse. Limited budget, always. ...but those will both change as time goes on. For now, just having a good time sitting back enjoying the tunes and trying to catch up with some of you guys in terms of audio knowledge.

Thanks,
--BillyM

DARTH AUDIO · « **Reply #15 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 11:24 pm »

I-Pod Enough said..

rosconey · « **Reply #16 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 11:27 pm »

Quote from: DARTH AUDIO

I-Pod Enough said..

zactly

most kids also have no clue what bass should sound like-the bad sub in the car thing has got to be one of the biggest blights ever in america-
im unlucky enough to have a stop sign less than 100ft from my house

brj · « **Reply #17 on:** 27 Jul 2005, 11:56 pm »

Quote from: DARTH AUDIO

I-Pod Enough said..

Well, in all fairness, you can't place all of the blame on the device alone. After all, you can pick a well recorded CD, dump it on the iPod in WAV format, plug in a good cable connected to a nice headphone amp and headphones, and get very respectible sound. It may not beat the best rigs around, but it won't be something to sneeze at either.

You can also run the problem in reverse.... take the world's best CD/DVD-A/SACD/Vinyl/8-track player, connect it to some reject amps and speakers and play some horribly recorded music through it and you won't experience any of the potential quality inherant to that source.

Many people simply don't know what they are missing - they might want improved sound if they were aware you could get it (especially if they knew they could get it at reasonable prices). There is that whole "ignorance is bliss" issue to deal with...

Then again, when it comes to audio and many other things, ignorance does tend to be cheaper!

alittlebird · « **Reply #18 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 12:24 am »

There are lots of young audio enthusiasts who could potentially become audiophiles at some point. For a number of reasons, less and less of them are becoming audiophiles.

- some are turned off by the smug condescension many audiophiles have towards them

- Some with a technical or engineering background maybe be turned off by the amount of tweako nonsense that gets bandied around by many audiophiles

- Still others of limited means are scared off when they see some audiophiles discussing $600 interconnects, and other audiophiles agonizing over endless upgrades in the search for synergy

- Finally, many of them probably don't find it too inviting when audiophiles bash their musical tastes. Not everyone finds the music they like on Chesky or Telarc

For those who would like to see more young audiophiles - the best thing you can do is introduce some young people to audio, on a simple level, show them how it can enhance the music they like at a reasonable budget (note, a reasonable system budget for a young person is almost always less that $1k).

I was lucky enough to meet some people at a relatively young age, who showed me that audio can be fun and rewarding. They weren't experts, and had modest systems, but they were happy with them, and spent more time enjoying them than tweaking them. These people got me hooked.

If I had instead met some smug 'audiophile' who lectured me on classical and jazz being the only genres worth listening too, and pointed out the flaws and lack of synergy in all but the best systems we listened to, I would likely have never given audio a second look. Unfortunately we tend to see a lot of the online sometimes. Which is a real shame, because I don't want to be part of the last generation of audiophiles (a term I hesitate to self-apply).

Danberg · « **Reply #19 on:** 28 Jul 2005, 04:41 am »

I certainly did'nt consider myself an audiophile when I bought my 1st system at 18 (in 1969), just interested in having rock music at home sound like it did in the band(s) I played.

Those of you my age know that stereo home set-ups sounded really awful back then! Any kind of volume only produced VERY DISTORTED sonics. Forget any kind of bass.

Poll

What is your age ?

Where are all the young(er) audiophiles ;-) ?