Do you understand people who don't love music or h.t.

[H.Donald]

Recently my wife and I were invited to a dinner party.The hosts were a rather well to do couple and their brownstone was in the Beacon Hill section of Boston.This is prime real estate with a capital P.Their neighbors include that Kerry/Heinz duo who's been in the news lately.I was not looking forward to going mainly because...well...the term"pig at a tea party"comes to mind.
But my wife was excited..and the things we do for love.[of course I'm thinking if I go to this I'm buying something]
Also I was curious as to what kind of music system they would have given their resources.After we sipped and nibbled on things I could hear faint sounds comming from the dining/kitchen area.It was just a small cd player sitting on a counter with three or four cds next to them.Well,I thought this place has four floors..we'll see.Anyway...we were given a tour of the place,with it's great views overlooking downtown Boston...and nothing!
No big tv,no sound system..nada,zilch,nothing...I felt pity for them.
In a multi-million dollar home they have a 99 dollar stereo.I can understand not having a h.t...but no music?They are in their forties,own an airplane and travel a great deal..so I can understand that they have other intrests...but at some point don't you just want to relax and listen to some nice sounds?And you could make the arguement that one of the reasons they have a fortune is that they don't hang around websites like this one and use their time wisely...to that I say ..phooey...My wife and I in our twenty years together have owned 3 homes...after passing papers on each one the first thing that went up was the stereo system.I guess the point of all this is that I will never understand people who don't have a love of sound no matter what their other hobbies.Anybody else know people like this?I'm sure we are outnumbered but I would'nt have it any other way...Herm

[purplepeople]

Maybe when they feel the need for a Requiem, they hop on the plane and go where some symphony is playing it.

ensen.

[aud19]

:rofl: I think you got it! :lol:

Jason

[David Meek]

Different strokes. . . . I mean, I don't understand people that enjoy bullfighting. I definitely don't understand someone that doesn't enjoy a good book. Someone might not understand my love of going VERY fast on a sport bike, or my love of running in the August afternoon heat in Houston, etc.

Your friends may never have been exposed to a truly fine sound system. They may both be tone-deaf. You just never can tell. It could be that this is a good opportunity for you to expand their horizons by turning them on to a nice 2-channel rig or a nice theater system.

[NMyTree]

Well, some people just don't hear and feel music like others do. Some people don't really enjoy watching movies......either.

To each his own.

As for bullfighting, when I was a little kid I used to love it. Then one summer ( I was around 8-9 years old), we went to visit my grandmother in Portugal. Dad took me to see a bullfight in some really old Coliseum.

There was this little guy who was incredibly acrobatic. While the other bullfighters would do their standard bullfight, the little guy would come out running, hopping, jumping and just bopping all around the bull, to distract him from the other bullfighters. He would literally jump over the bull and even run underneath the bull; under it's belly. It drove the bull nuts.

It was amazing to watch this guy do his thing. He was a local legend amoung the bullfighters and the community.

The guy had never been gored.

Of course, until that day...the day I was there :roll:

On that day he was gored.........a few times. The bull caught him in the thigh during one his leaps. The gore knocked the little guy down and the bull pounched on him. It was a rather bloody scene.

The rest of the Bull fighters came to his rescue, as well as the guy on the horse. But the bull had already gored him a number of times.

If that wasn't bad enough, the bull went completely nuts and jumped over the wall they had, and ended up in the audience. People were freaking out.

It was no where near our section, but dad wasn't taking any chances. He grabbed me and half carried/ half dragged me out of there. People were trying to get out all at once. It was crazy.

Pretty scarey and intense for me, at that age. At any age.

Anyway, the little guy lived. But suffered some major injuries and from what my grandmother said, he was never able to do his thing ever again.

I felt bad for the little guy. I felt equally bad for the bull.

[George Bellefontaine]

There is a bunch of expensive homes in my neighborhood. When I walk in the evening, after dark, you get to see those beautiful huge houses, and there shining brightly through their livingroom window is their 20" color tv. I assume the ones that don't have a tv in their livingrooms have their tv in the family room, and perhaps those folk have a home theater setup. I've been inside a few of these places and those that do have a HT usually have an RPTV and and pretty nice sound system for both movies and music.

OTOH, my house is a small little shoebox and people are surprised when I take them down to this dedicated home theater room in my basement. They are surprised to find a HT in such a smallish house. But there is just the wife and me here, and the home is small because we are retired and don't need something big. Done that.

Thing is, no one in my immediate neighborhood has front projection. A few that have seen my setup are now considering FP, but so far no one has done anything. I've even offered to help set it up for them. Oh, well.

[SpOoNmAn]

George I feel the same way. I dont understand how these people with huge houses and a ton of $$, dont enjoy music or movies. Theyd rather pay their landscaper to cut their grass 3 times a week.

Or worse, they live in a mansion and have a Bose theatre in a box and think because they bought it, and they are loaded, it must be the very best. Hahahahaha

Sad thing is Ive come across many like that. Theyd rather have 12 cars, 10 of them being SUV's, for just themselves, they dont even have kids. Oh well, to each their own and their loss at the end of the day 8)

[Mr. Mxyztplk]

Home theater and stereo (basically derived from movie going and attending music concerts) is pretty much a middle class hobby. Most upscale hobbies or "loves" include horses (I think its called equestrian), sailing, travelling, and attending live performances (more of the opera variety).

However, there are several self made millionaires which who have carried their love of these so called middle class hobbies into extremes with the creation of the audiophile and videophile. Although the true high end systems(like $1 million screening rooms and $500k 2 ch audio systems) may seem appropriate (if not required) for every single wealthy person's home, most super weathly (old money type) people have no appreciation for this as they were not raised watching movies or listening to records.

To support my point:
I met this guy a few years back, older gentleman who had just renovated his condo, spent close to $2 million in the process. As a recent EE grad with a healthy addiction to home theater, I expected to see this amazing home theater setup but found only a RPTV and a CD player (the horror). I looked around the condo and it looked like a museum, what a waste of millions of dollars I thought. How could he spend that much and not have a Theta Digital or Meriidian system somewhere! I would have even settled for McIntosh (not a fan of their product but I know they're pricey)!

[Kingdaddy]

I once read an article about a small percentage of people who have extraordinary taste ability, they called them “Supertasters”, their tongue’s have more then 3 times the taste buds of a normal human. These Supertasters are recruited by many top food company’s like KRAFT and General Foods, their oversensitive tasting abilities are a cornerstone of their R&D. These few can detect the slightest variants of flavors to the scale of milligrams. Maybe those who love music and any audio stimulation are like the Supertasters. Also, Many have other priorities, and many spend little time relaxing and enjoying simple pleasures of the most important sense, Hearing. Of my five senses, hearing is the one I would most miss¸ think about how alone you would be if you could not hear!

[H.Donald]

You all make valid points and observations about this couple and people in general.
They are more aquaintances than friends so I don't think suggesting a good system to them would be welcomed.Either you have a fondness for music or it's not important.I'm also sure they live a far more varied life than I do as they have no children and I still have two at home.I have been in the high-end stores where you can put together a two channel system which cost more than my first house...and visiting the home of someone who could afford that stuff..I was just dissapointed.I'm sure there are people who would think that I'm crazy for spending the money that I have on my Rotel/Paradigm system...others would think that I'm rich.And there are the guys at the bull-fight who probaly would ask..."how can you talk about stereos"?

[hamlyn]

Maybe when they feel the need for a Requiem, they hop on the plane and go where some symphony is playing it.

ensen.

NOT

I think you have it backwards: They stay put and have the entertainment fly over

Also, I don't get people who are into cars: Corvettes, BMWs, Vipers...
What is the big deal. It's like being into shoes...

[H.Donald]

Cars are ok as long as they have a great stereo...I drive a mini van with a crummy stereo...now they should be outlawed...

[Bam!]

...I dunno about all this guys.....

You think if Archie Bunker was exposed to a good stereo....he'd sit and listen to that instead of meathead ?

:unsure: ................ :rofl:

:

[aud19]

Everybody stand back! Steve's in one of his moods :lol:

Jason

[Chris D]

Well, my basic answer to this thread question is NO, I DON'T understand people who don't love music or home theater.

To be clear, the hobby of creating cool home theater setups with groovy equipment and such is something that some people enjoy, some don't. Everybody's got their own thing. (and Hamlyn, I just happen to be one of those people that enjoys both H.T. and sports cars... poor me... literally)

But the love of music and movies I believe is really universal. Everybody has their own tastes in music, but I don't know of anybody that could honestly say, "I don't like music at all". Same thing with movies. So for those people who never listen to music, or watch movies, I don't understand them at all.

[H.Donald]

I could picture Archie Bunker listening to the Glen Miller band or some other tunes from the 40's and 50's.Maybe it would have mellowed him out and made him a nicer person.
My mother-in law is 91,a WWII vet[wac] and likes Diana Krall...of course she's still a grump at times but that's par for the course.

[David Meek]

Hey Herman, at 91 she's earned the ability to be a grump some times! :B

Seriously tho' it's pretty neat that she's still expanding her environment by listening to (and liking) more current music.

[George Bellefontaine]

I feel we all earn the right to be a GRUMP the minute we turn 60...

[H.Donald]

I call her a grump with love and respect..she even warns us at times...
she has allways been a very cool lady and much ahead of her times...she was liberated long before it had a name,had many adventures including being an army nurse in WWII...if I were to make 91, I hope I'll be able like ANYTHING...