Rockwell: audiophile term "just like a pedophile"

I think that your out of context quote in the header casts more heat than light. The certain mark of a troll.

Nowhere does Rockwell say that audiophiles are pedophiles, what he says is that the unnatural attraction to gear is, in his opinion, like the unnatural attractions of a pedophile to their victims. Still a polarizing statement, no doubt.

But lets not focus on the hyperbole and the trolling and look at the sentiment involved. And here, Mr. Rockwell hits a bit closer to home. We can admit it or not, but those of us involved in the hobby for many years, who have belonged to clubs and audio societies, know people in the audiophile communitiy that are exactly as described by Mr. Rockwell. And I would be surprised if one does not see a bit of himself or herself in the description as well.

IMHO, Mr. Rockwell's sentiment is more correct than not. Too bad he had to couch it in such polarizing terms. And it surprises me not one whit that the reaction on an audiophile forum will be less than charitable.

Agree with Viridian.
Audiophiles in most cases only think that they love music but in reality, please refer to Mr Rockwell and re-think.
You can also do quantitative analysis. Math makes life slimpler than science:
Equipment investment vs. music investment(you can count purchased live concert tickets as well)
Time spent listening to the reference recording, tube-rolling, cable swaps and other 'fetish' mentioned by Mr Rockwell vs. time spent listening to the new music or attending live concert
Make conclusion based on that.

That word has no place on Audiogon!!!

OK, lots of good comments above from members, a certain amount of introspection is a good thing. And for the life of me, I cannot imagine spending hours and hours listening for differences in good power cords. But after drilling a little deeper into his site, I found the following statement:

As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof.

which is not only churlish and pathetic but totally, totally wrong. Making a copy for personal, non-commercial use is pretty much what the fair use concept is all about. According to the US Copyright Office:
[quote] Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.
1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

So if you are printing pages from his website for your own education/research or the education of others then that's fair use. Since the content is available for free on the web to anyone who wants to view it, making a copy so that you can see the content w/o having to boot up your computer and load the page is also fair use. Remember, I'm not a lawyer but I play one on TV ;-)

Anyway, in my personal, non-legal, opinion, the guy is a a$$hole. He publishes reviews of audio equipment and then rags on audiophiles. He says that you had to design and build your own to get good sound before the 1970s. He apparently never heard (or heard of) the great Saul Marantz-produced Models 7 and 8 pre-amps and amps of the 50s and 60s, the Dynaco ST-70 (1959) or the McIntosh amps of the 50s and 60s. He's got the longest "About" page I've ever seen. Correction, narcissistic a$$hole. Rant over. Spock out.

Mr,Rockwell makes assumptions based on his thoughts and beliefs as to an audiophile. Dr. Freud reborn ?
He also states that amps make no difference. Mr.Hirsch reborn ?
He also asks for donations.Mr.Barnum reborn ?
Mr Rockwells remarks are not new, It has often been stated ,here and in other forums that Audiophiles (what ever that word means) dont enjoy music. Can it be the opposite.Possibly that they enjoy music so much that they are willing to spend $$$ on components that will make music burst forth with all the emotion that it was intended bring.