Women and hifi

thewinelake.

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Is there a more male-dominated pastime than hifi enthusiasm?

Just listening to people talking about uxorial constraints and my own experiences suggest that women are often found to be killjoys when it comes to getting the best out of a home audio system, with some notable exceptions where they tolerate it.

Why might this be, other than that women are generally less geeky than men.
 

drummerman

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Different set of priorities, less selfishness and aesthetics probably. When I see these Hifi shrines in lounges with 20 different boxes and worst of all, a TV in the middle the hairs on the back of my neck stand up too on occasions.

Can't blame them but you're right, Hifi is a predominantly male thing.

Most women happily sing along to a tune coming from the TV.
 

insider9

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Interesting subject... Might that be as simple as that they're more visual than auditory than men?

I don't know about others but my wife loves reading. At uni she would learn best when reading. I was the opposite, yes taking notes and reading up on things would help but I had to listen to lectures to best understand.
 

insider9

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Men are considered practical hence the attitude "I'm not bothered how it looks, as long as it does the job well"

Women want things to look good even if if it meant the primary function of such object is flawed.

Could/should both of these cases be explained with how important the visual cues are for women and how little important they are for men?
 

MajorFubar

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Most people don't care what it sounds like so long as it's recognisable. The only difference is, of the few who do care, far less of them are women. Whatever the reason, it will also be why I can't name even five famous female record producers. In fact if you made me exclude those women who only produced or co-produced their own records, I can't even name one.
 

pauln

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To go back to the often used car analogy; when I asked my wife what sort of car she wanted, the answer was "a dark green one" the reason being that it would better match the hedge when parked on the drive. Couldn't stretch to a British Racing Green Aston Martin or F Type so ended up with a silver Audi. Marriage is about compromise.
 

Andrewjvt

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drummerman said:
Different set of priorities, less selfishness and aesthetics probably. When I see these Hifi shrines in lounges with 20 different boxes and worst of all, a TV in the middle the hairs on the back of my neck stand up too on occasions.

Can't blame them but you're right, Hifi is a predominantly male thing.

Most women happily sing along to a tune coming from the TV.

I know what you mean but how to you incorporate your home cinema with the stereo?

I personally hate the look of a hifi shop in the house but i also have to have nice sound on music and movies.

If i had a large mansion id def have seperate listening room
 

Pedro2

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MajorFubar said:
Most people don't care what it sounds like so long as it's recognisable. The only difference is, of the few who do care, far less of them are women. Whatever the reason, it will also be why I can't name even five famous female record producers. In fact if you made me exclude those women who only produced or co-produced their own records, I can't even name one.

Good point about female producers. There's no shortage of female performers though. So it's down to the hardware side of music that separates male and female. Why? Difficult to answer as we're into the nature/nurture debate and this is even more controversial than cables! All I know is that I'm lucky; my better half is very keen on music and also has a passing interest in music reproduction. She isn't too fussy about how equipment looks and would probably be happy to live with a pair of studio monitors in the room as long as they sounded good. Don't think this is the norm, though.
 

Native_bon

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MajorFubar said:
Most people don't care what it sounds like so long as it's recognisable. The only difference is, of the few who do care, far less of them are women. Whatever the reason, it will also be why I can't name even five famous female record producers. In fact if you made me exclude those women who only produced or co-produced their own records, I can't even name one.
When in my teens never really cared how the music sounded, but still enjoyed the music. Not untill I went to one of my of cousin's place. She had a JVC system with cassette, turntable, & amp with large VU displays and two sets of speakers. Listening to music on her system changed the way I wanted to listen to music for ever.

Even back then in the early 80's she was obsessed with music systems. I use to just rejoice ever time when we went to her house. Till date only female I know of who really really cared how it sounded.

I suppose hearing of men has evolved more cause we did the hunting when we still lived in caves and developed our hearing skills for that purpose. Who knows.
 

bluedroog

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I know plenty of woman who appreciate a good Hi-Fi, they just wouldn't waste their time talking about it on the internet. Mind you, I'm not adverse to sucking on a teat but you'll not find me on Mumsnet talking breast pumps.
 

chebby

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muljao

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Probably for the same reason most men don't own more than a couple of pairs of shoes.

Nature makes men and woman different, only political correctness and equality tries take us the same.
 

Native_bon

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chebby said:
bluedroog said:
I know plenty of woman who appreciate a good Hi-Fi, they just wouldn't waste their time talking about it on the internet. Mind you, I'm not adverse to sucking on a teat but you'll not find me on Mumsnet talking breast pumps. 

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1054568-to-want-to-bin-his-hifi

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1449571-House-falling-apart-DH-spends-1700-on-new-stereo
Thanx for the links made my day. Actually really funny.
 

Gazzip

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drummerman said:
Different set of priorities, less selfishness and aesthetics probably. When I see these Hifi shrines in lounges with 20 different boxes and worst of all, a TV in the middle the hairs on the back of my neck stand up too on occasions.

Can't blame them but you're right, Hifi is a predominantly male thing.

Most women happily sing along to a tune coming from the TV.

Probably the most annoying thing that my wife does is to sing along to my music. I'm trying to pick out micro-dynamics and listen to the "inky blackness" between notes while she mumbles and drones over what I have paid many £K to achieve.

Perhaps that says more about my saddness than it says about her...
 

insider9

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chebby said:
bluedroog said:
I know plenty of woman who appreciate a good Hi-Fi, they just wouldn't waste their time talking about it on the internet. Mind you, I'm not adverse to sucking on a teat but you'll not find me on Mumsnet talking breast pumps. 

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1054568-to-want-to-bin-his-hifi

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1449571-House-falling-apart-DH-spends-1700-on-new-stereo
Hahaha, even cable threads here don't deteriorate to this level...

Thank you for sharing brilliant
 
Oh god, guys please stick to talking about hifi's, which you are all great at. Anything else and it shows that most of you have been locked in a dark room since the 70s listening to prog and reading sticky hifi mags :p

from what i've seen of Whathifi employees thay have a few woman reviewers and writers, which is great! the more the merrier!

probably the main reason why its only a few is that men get paid more then women, so generally have more money to waste on luxuries. its not because their ovaries hurt when they see a expensive speaker.

if anyone’s interested in reading a good book about science between genders read delusions of gender by Cordelia Fine, it might educate you guys a bit :)
 

drummerman

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Gazzip said:
drummerman said:
Different set of priorities, less selfishness and aesthetics probably. When I see these Hifi shrines in lounges with 20 different boxes and worst of all, a TV in the middle the hairs on the back of my neck stand up too on occasions.

Can't blame them but you're right, Hifi is a predominantly male thing.

Most women happily sing along to a tune coming from the TV.

Probably the most annoying thing that my wife does is to sing along to my music. I'm trying to pick out micro-dynamics and listen to the "inky blackness" between notes while she mumbles and drones over what I have paid many £K to achieve.

Perhaps that says more about my saddness than it says about her...

:)
 

drummerman

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Elliott Leishman said:
Oh god, guys please stick to ys a bit :)

 

That book was written by a women. Emotions must have diluted all reason and it can't therefore possibly be accurate.

I'd stick to cable threads.
 

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