[Oregonian Haruspex]

On 2013-12-02 19:26:26 +0000, said:

This weeks stereophile has this:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/snob-appeal-0

I think he doth protest too much and builds a strawman against which to
tilt. It appears to me he first offers the observation of someone who
declares that "audiophiles" are indeed snobs and otherwise, and then
demonstrates the very thing in himself while claiming to run through the
strawman.

Audiophiles as snobs, this is hardly a new idea. In every hobby there
are people who simply enjoy what they are doing, whether they use basic
instruments or equipment, and then there are those who obsess over
their equipment to the point that its ownership, care, maintenance, and
showing it off may perhaps exceed actually using it to listen to music,
take photographs, etc.

If you feel the need to enumerate the brand name of your gear, point
out the metallic content of your cables, talk about "jitter" outside of
your job as an engineer, sure, you're an audiophile snob. If you just
happen to own some nice equipment with which you enjoy music, you're
probably a music lover.

So, to reiterate, if you tend to like to talk about your gear, you're
an "audiophile" (ie snob, gearhead) and if you like to talk about music
then you're a music lover.