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In the Forum: Audio For Dummies ™
In the Thread: The audiophile’s stupid sport: what is the best syndrome.
Post Subject: Calling a spade a spadePosted by jessie.dazzle on: 6/1/2010
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Romy wrote:
"...The “competition for the best” syndrome is something that retarded reviewers brought into audio. This “frustration for the best” is the only crap they are able to sell and the only think how they meant understand audio. Unfortunately the Audio Morons, means you, fully embrace this “frustration for the best” without understanding what is going on..."
The term "Audio Moron" though correct in the absolute, is something like telling a quadriplegic he is a vegetable.
I therefore propose redefining what is meant by the term "audiophile".
To be thought of as an "audiophile" has always made me cringe, as I consider the term's Latin/Greek origins to now be completely corrupt (audio is Latin for "I hear", philos is Greek for "loving").
In the purest form of its corrupt, or shall we say new meaning, the term describes a condition where an individual is obsessed with hardware.
Since the word "hardware" is used by the Greeks (there is no translation, they just say hardware with a Greek accent), we can't come up with an elegant-sounding translation for "hardwarephile"... Instead I propose we call a spade a spade, and recognize what the term "audiophile" has come to mean.
According to this new meaning, an audiophile would be a person who uses hardware as a vehicle to facilitate the expression of obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Music enters the picture only as a justification for the hardware, and because of its relationship to mathematics, the true mother tongue of the obsessive-compulsive.
The extent to which one is afflicted with obsessive–compulsive tendencies is the extent to which he is susceptible to becoming an "audiophile".
The term would therefore be descriptive of a sub-category of obsessive-compulsive disorder, a condition which, when present to the point of impairing normal life, is recognized as a form of mental illness.
Strictly interpreted, "Audiophilia" could be considered a form of mental illness; like all illnesses, it caries a component of dependency. Since dependency = market, like all dependencies, it has spawned suppliers, collectively known as the High-end Audio industry. Seen in this light, it is not difficult to imagine audio hardware bearing the labels Pfizer, Merck and AstraZeneca.
The term in its new definition could in fact be applied to anyone having an obsession with any sort of hardware, regardless of whether or not that hardware was intended to produce sound. The term "audiophile" would therefore rightfully be divorced from any relationship with sound.
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