Face it folks, most people think we are out of our minds, and that anyone who buys anything more expensive or esoteric than an ipod is a an elitist snob, hopeless sucker for scam artists or a candidate for institutionalization. Rather than using my audiophilia as a boastful show of ostentation, I furtively practice my fetish behind closed doors, like someone who derives erotic pleasure from watching film of women crushing insects beneath their high heels. I specify that my purchases from Audiogon be delivered in unmarked boxes or better yet, labeled with something more societally acceptable like "Exploding Koran". I never visit my local hi-fi emporia without my London Fog raincoat, snap-brim hat pulled over my eyes and Groucho-style fake mustache and glasses hiding my face.
Like the Christians under Pilate, we suffer for our beliefs, but I remain unswayed.
Conspicuous consumption, my ass. Unless your dealing with someone who bears the tell-tell signs of the affliction - the look of constant distraction from listening to the music in their head, the chronic tinnitus, the careless insertion of phrases like "soundstaging" or "pace, rhythm and timing" into conversations - keep your proclivities under your hat. Ignore this advice at your peril.
Like the Christians under Pilate, we suffer for our beliefs, but I remain unswayed.
Conspicuous consumption, my ass. Unless your dealing with someone who bears the tell-tell signs of the affliction - the look of constant distraction from listening to the music in their head, the chronic tinnitus, the careless insertion of phrases like "soundstaging" or "pace, rhythm and timing" into conversations - keep your proclivities under your hat. Ignore this advice at your peril.