Douglas Adams Continuum (DAC)

An audiophile is someone obessed with music. Drawn in by it. They carry it everywhere. In their I-Pods, their Nomads, their Xcelfs, their H-100s and 300s. They will goff at you if you wearing a band shirt they don't like, but they have thier music so loud they can't hear your witty retort. They know what Ogg Vorbis is, and they know how to use it. They have spent more money on headphones then you have on clothes.

They are people like me.

Let me give you an example. I was ripping 10 CDs to Ogg Vorbis, and when I went to listen to them they all had half a second cut off the end because of the settings I used. It took me about 3 hours to rip all these CD's. Do I live with the half second? Hell no. I did it again.

Here is a simple quiz to see if you qualify as one of us.

Post your answers and I will give you a verdict.

1. Do you have a harddrive based MP3 player?

2. How much did you spend on said player?

3. How many gigabytes is said player?

4. How much have you spend on accesories for your player? (Cases, docks, FM transmitters, things of that nature).

5. How often do you listen to your player?

6. How often do you have your player with you?

7. How many pairs of headphones do you own?

8. If the answer to 7 is more then one, do you own more then one style.

9. If the answer to number 8 is yes, did you buy that headphone for a specific style of music?

10. How much have you spent in total on headphones?

11. How much have you spent on a single pair.

12. Do you know the difference between noise cancelling and noise isolating?

13. What is Ogg Vorbis?

14. Do you use Ogg Vorbis?

15. Are I-Pods the anti-christ?

As for me...

1. Do you have a harddrive based MP3 player?

Yep, DMC Xcelf-500.

2. How much did you spend on said player?

$350.

3. How many gigabytes is said player?

80GB.

4. How much have you spend on accesories for your player? (Cases, docks, FM transmitters, things of that nature).

It doesn't really need any.

5. How often do you listen to your player?

Hours a day. Before school, passing periods in school, in study hall, at home.

6. How often do you have your player with you?

Always, it is attached to my hip.

7. How many pairs of headphones do you own?

Three.

8. If the answer to 7 is more then one, do you own more then one style.

Yes, one folding travel, one hi-fi, and one set of noise isolating earbuds.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Sennheiser_PX10 ... 35779.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/Sennheiser_HD_2 ... 35462.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/Shure_E3c/4505- ... 12174.html

9. If the answer to number 8 is yes, did you buy that headphone for a specific style of music?

No I use them for different things though.

10. How much have you spent in total on headphones?

$350

11. How much have you spent on a single pair.

$150

12. Do you know the difference between noise cancelling and noise isolating?

Sure do. Cancelling sucks, isolating rules.

13. What is Ogg Vorbis?

A substitute to the inferior MP3 Codec. And it doesn't work in Ipods :).

14. Do you use Ogg Vorbis?

Sure do

15. Are I-Pods the anti-christ?

Indeed.

Two of them, plus a flash-based player. All iPods, of course.


About $1150 total for all three.


30-gig and 40-gig HD based, 1-gig flash memory. And I'm jonesing for the 60-gig iPod photo but holding out for the rumored 80-gig. When I walk into the Apple store and see all those beautiful iPods just waiting to be caressed, I salivate like Michael Jackson at a Boy Scout jamboree.

My wish list, in order of priority:

1. iPod cell phone
2. world peace
3. 80-gig iPod with built-in Sirius satellite radio receiver
4. Date with Zooey Deschanel
5. Led Zeppelin reunion


Probably about $200. And I'll pay top dollar to anyone who can install an auxillary audio-in jack in my car's head unit so I can stop using the damn cassette adapter.


Anywhere from 4 to 16 hours per day.


It completes me.


Eh, two or three. I'm no connoisseur. I've had tinnitus for 15 years thanks to my misspent youth, so I prefer to play my iPod through my stereo. Hence, I'm skipping the next five headphone questions.


Sounds like a Douglas Adams character. Eccentrica Gallumbits's madam, perhaps?


If she's pretty, you bet I would.


May you burn in hell for suggesting that. The iPod is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. Rumor has it Steve Jobs is on the short list of Pope candidates.

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"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused." — Elvis Costello

That's an impressive list, for sure. You are, without a doubt, an audiophile.
I find one subject missing from the list of questions, however.

Music.

I think the love of music, the need for music in one's life, the knowledge of music in all it's forms
is what makes one an audiophile more so than the dollar value of the equipment used to listen to it.

I come from a different school of thought, of course. I listen to a lot of low-fi stuff, DIY punk,
people unashamed to still be doing analog recording, making their own sleeves for 7" records,
cassette trading. Bands more interested in distortion than clarity. The finest mp3 player
on earth cannot rival the simple, warm snap and crackle of old vinyl on your turntable.

And of course, music is also about experience. What do I value more? The 40 odd Boyracer recordings
that I own (even the limited, hand numbered editions) or that night at The Druid (irish pub in Cambridge)
when, soaking, sodden and legless, I stood with 19 of my closest anonymous friends and
watched Stewart and his mates set up in a small corner of the pub (my knee was actually resting
on his guitar amp) and played the most glorious, blissful set of marbles-in-a-blender, punked out
noisepop songs ever heard on planet earth.

That's music to me. That dreamy feeling of wandering out of a truly wonderful show, happy-drunk,
ears ringing for hours, smiling like a fool, lost in a sea of sound.

_________________
Steal Compass. Drive North. Disappear.

twitter: @kensocrates

Well said, Ken. I agree: it's really about your connection to the music more than the technology end of it. Gadgets are a means to an end, not the end in itself.

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"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused." — Elvis Costello

Actually an Audiophile is someone who is an avid collector or connoisseur of stereo or hi-fidelity sound reproduction equipment, whether it be for music or movie playback.

And Audiophile is likely to be someone obsessed with music, but not necessarily.

Sir, you are correct.



It seems I am something entirely other than else, then. I don't mind a poor recording all that
much as long as it's got the emotional power to move me. A lot of the music I listen to is buried
in distortion, experimental sound, found sound, improv recordings in abandoned warehouses, etc...
The quality of the equipment would add little to the experience. And the live aspect is truly about
the moment, the people, the emotion of that very night. I'd rather be in a dirty little pub than an
acoustically perfect theater every time.

Check out John Cusack's character in High Fidelity and you'd have an idea where I come from.
I've lost track of the actual number of cd's and records that I own but I estimate in the area
of 4-5 thousand.

So what's the proper term for an obsessive collector of music, not music equipment, specifically vinyl
records? Stereophile, perhaps?

_________________
Steal Compass. Drive North. Disappear.

twitter: @kensocrates

Ken, I think you're a vinyl junkie. Me an audiophile? I listen to most of my (fairly large) music collection in the car so I'm more of an Autoaudiophile. I've also converted most of my collection to MP3 which I listen to on a micro system (with DAB radio, anyone else got DAB?) in the kitchen. I worked as a sound engineer for 15 years and like a car mechanic who always drives around in a wreck my Hi-Fi has never been that Hi. I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on guitars and guitar related gear over the years though.

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Her mouth opened, her eyes patients, the variety of age and constitution as a pullets egg, with some gobbits of fat, and the heavy sand.

(... don't piss us off)

Heh, I like that, even if it sounds vaguely dirty. The time constraints of modern life have
most definately forced me into a similar position. I need to have a cd copy (thank goodness
for my p2p and burner) of much of my vinyl collection simply because the car has become my one
refuge, the only place where I can find some quiet, alone-time to listen to music.

Ever find yourself taking a rather circuitous route home, or not minding when you hit a few extra
stop lights because it means a few more moments of listening pleasure? A couple extra seconds
to lose oneself in the rise and fall of some 3 minute slice of bliss?

Perhaps, however, this is simply another indication that I am badly in need of a vacation.

_________________
Steal Compass. Drive North. Disappear.

twitter: @kensocrates

Absolutely, I sometimes slow down before traffic lights hoping that they change to red so I have time to change CDs. I also sit in the car outside the house on returning from work just so I can hear then end of a track I'm particularily enjoying. I'm listen to a lot of 60's stuff at the moment, Fleetwood Mac, Spencer Davies Group etc. And even thought I haven't got a brilliant system in my car they still sound better than they did when I originally heard them on the budget system I had in my youth.

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Her mouth opened, her eyes patients, the variety of age and constitution as a pullets egg, with some gobbits of fat, and the heavy sand.

(... don't piss us off)

Yes, an Archos AV440


499 Euros

40GB

Doesn't need any, really


All of the time. On trains, buses, walking home, while working etc etc

All of the time.

Two

One headphone, one earphone

Nope.

Not much - about...30/40 quid

20 ish

One cancels out surrounding noise, and the other makes a specific one louder...maybe.

It's a type of music codec, like mp3. Named after a Pratchett character, don'tcha know (the vorbis part is, but not the Ogg, oddly enough)

Nope, Not everything supports it, so why would I bother? Just stick to mp3, so my music will work everywhere

Not the anti-christ, but just over-rated. Take my player there. that can do everything an ipod can, plus show movies, record from tv etc. not that much more expensive. Ipods now are where arcos where three years ago.


And as for the re-ripping the cd's because of the missed seconds at the end....I agree entirely. That would annoy the crap outta me.

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A student riding in a train looks up and sees Einstein sitting next to him. Excited he asks, "Excuse me, professor. Does Boston stop at this train?"

Ah good point about the music thing kenny. But I thought that went without saying...

Another strong point about the Headphones/speakers defining an Audiophile. I still may qualify here. I just picked up my 4th pair of head phones.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Grado_SR325/450 ... 18202.html

My first pait of Grado's :). With amp of course.

She's a he (actually Thor (as is Vorbis, chief exquisitor))

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Mooned on my first and 1000th post.

I measure someone's musical taste and lifestyle by how much they depend on music. I don't think I'm an audiophile if to be one you have to spend money on hi-tech stuff to play the music rather than on the music itself. When I'm sad, I'll listen to music to make me feel happier. When I am tired, I listen to music to wake me up and energize me. I live for music. If it weren't for mus-

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Personally, I believe joblessness is one of the core prerequisites for creativity. - OZ

Ah. Well, in that case, I'll pass.

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"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused." — Elvis Costello

I am just curious... are you one of the Apple people that somehow think they are fighting "the power" by using a Mac? If you were really serious about the fighting the power, you would use a free OS, like Fedora or some other Linux based OS.


I

When I hear "audiophile" I think of people who rant about the inferiority of 192 kbps mp3s and freak out whenever bootlegs are traded online in any format other than shn. God that annoys me.

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"Reality is the illusion created by an art deficiency."

Hardly. I'm... (dramatic pause)... a Republican.* I just love Apple because they make innovative, reliable products that actually work sensibly, unlike those sods in Redmond. Tell me, Wintel people, do you guys still have to click on "start" to shut off your computer? A minor thing, true, but one sign that the lights are on but no one's home at Microsoft.


(* Not one of the bible-toting wackos, though, I swear. Just a greedy capitalist with a strong libertarian bent, that's all.)

_________________
"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused." — Elvis Costello

well.. first of all i don't shut off my computer (don't need to). but if i wanted to i'd just push the power button and it powers down properly. (and it works this way for around 10 years now...)

do you mac people still have to use the mouse to open the dvd drive's tray? we have a button for that on the drive...

now for the test:
1. Do you have a harddrive based MP3 player? - nope, just a flashmem-based one.
2. How much did you spend on said player? - $0, got it for christmas (costs around $130 in the store)
3. How many gigabytes is said player? - 0.7
4. How much have you spend on accesories for your player? (Cases, docks, FM transmitters, things of that nature). - $0, everything included
5. How often do you listen to your player? - every day
6. How often do you have your player with you? - any moment i leave home
7. How many pairs of headphones do you own? - 2 (3 actually, but the third isn't used for the player)
10. How much have you spent in total on headphones? - negligible
11. How much have you spent on a single pair. - $20
12. Do you know the difference between noise cancelling and noise isolating? - nope
13. What is Ogg Vorbis? - a free sound format trying to fight the other ones - no real chance.
14. Do you use Ogg Vorbis? - no need
15. Are I-Pods the anti-christ? - nope, they're just music players which look nice, are waay overpriced and created a fashion.

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I dont agree with this really. I think much aspects are missing, like how many speakers you have, and how much equipment you have. And how much you paid in reference to your income, and how often you have opened you equipment and fiddled with it to get better results....

Lets see I bought a Yama S1000 cd-burner for 120 swedish kronor (great price yeah), rebuild some speakers and stuff, oh and grove up in an shop that sold make your own audio unitkits....

But back to the questions:

1. Yes and no. Fixed so all computers works like one.

2. Don´t know acctually.

3. about 40 (if it counts)

4. se above

5. 4-5 hours aday

6. always

7. Err about ten

8. Yupp

9. Kind of, at least to diffrent purposes.

10. Oh about 2000 swedish kronor (look I dont have an factual valuecourse in front of me)

11. 550 Swedish kronor

12. Yupp

13. fileformat and all that. (look I use Linux, of course I know)

14. Yes

15. probably or maybe not.

Mac people have a button on the keyboard for that now.

_________________
"Reality is the illusion created by an art deficiency."

Then join the mother loving Libertarian Party. I was a republican, but I can't stand being seen around GW Bush, Tom DeLay, or Rumsfeld, I just love the whole small government and capitalism thing. The republican party has changed for the worst. We have gone from wanting to shrink the national government and stay out of peoples lives, to wanting to restrict what people do in their own home behind closed doors.

I agree completely, but the Libertarian Party has as much chance at the polls as I do with the newly-single Jennifer Aniston. I'd rather stay in the GOP and try to push it toward the middle than leave it victim to the far-right fanatics.

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"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused." — Elvis Costello

They can bloody well have it. Once they take it, people (hopefully) will see them for the nutt balls they are and the republican party will fragment.

nice idea :) still you have to find/use other devices and AFTER that go to the drive and change discs... (as for putting useless buttons on keyboards (and mice) - i've found some incredibly stupid ideas in both mac and pc area)

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