Enough With The Hobby Already

As We See It.

- Jason Victor Serinus

For the longest time, I’ve found the label “hobby” inadequate to describe the audiophile goal of better sound reproduction. Yes, for some, the mechanics of the High End have become an end in themselves—a way to tinker and tweak, build and rebuild in classic hobby faction. But for many others, specifically ear bud listeners, folks with whole-house systems, and those who’d rather push a button on a remote and sit back or dance rather than roll tubes or tinker, the descriptor hobby falls woefully short.

Recent conversations with high-resolution advocate Marc Finer, of the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG, www.degonline.org) and Stream the Studio (www.streamthestudio. news); Meredith Gabor, of cable manufacturer Nordost; and Craig Allison, of retailer Lavish HiFi, in Santa Rosa, California helped clarify my belief that, to the extent our industry continues to cling to the hobby paradigm, we’re hanging a noose around our necks. In an age when the traditional outlets of man-cave tinkerdom are closing down—witness the fate of bankrupt RadioShack—and increasing numbers of women are pursuing quality audio reproduction, retailers and manufacturers who fail to adapt their sales approaches to the tens of millions of people who’ve made new ways of listening to music central to their lives are doomed to failure.

As much as I may cringe at the taints of market manipulation and branding that the word