Woof. Okay, let’s kick a couple hornets’ nests, I guess.

“Audiophile” is a dirty word in some most circles. It conjures images of 60 year old lawyers with more money than should be allowed, swirling whiskey in a glass, babbling about how their new speaker cables– more expensive than any car you or I will ever own, combined— leverage inverse reactive current for use in unilateral phase detractors, swearing how they can “hear the smoke in the room it was recorded in” as the blandest and most toothless fucking music spins nearby on a turntable so overdesigned one could mistake for a weather satellite.

That shit sucks. I seriously think we music lovers need to reclaim the the “hi-fi stereo system” from old white men and embrace loving jamming out with a good sound system. Stereos are for the people. More on that later.

All that being said, would I consider myself an audiophile? I shudder as I realize that, yeah, I think I would. I’ve spent more money than is responsible building and rebuilding a home 2.1 stereo system to play records, CDs, and tapes, and I use it nearly every day. I don’t know if I would be considered a “good” or “bad” audiophile (if that delineation even exists), but I know one thing for sure:

I love music that sounds like shit.

I’m talking death metal rehearsal demos from a sweat-logged Floridian garage in 1987, goregrind that sounds like someone loaded bones into your washing machine and ran a spin cycle, black metal. If it sounds like ass and has been pressed on plastic, I’m pumping it through my Monitor Audio speakers.

So, I’m taking it upon myself to be a voice in the audiophile community for the heshers and headbangers. Likewise, I’m hoping to help bring back down to earth the world of audio reproduction and to make a case for the metal maniacs who might have previously written it off as snobbery.

I’m thinking of making this a running series, each entry covering a specific aspect of my intersecting loves of metal music and stereo gear. I don’t know exactly how this will all pan out, but my gut is telling me to aim for at least the following general sections:

• Part 1, an introduction to this whole affair (you are here)
• Part 2, why hi-fi and poorly recorded music are compatible
• Part 3, why I hate audiophiles
• Part 4, how to actually build a damn stereo that you like

And who knows where we’ll go from there, if anywhere else. I just hope you enjoy the ride.

I, Audiophile

I’ve been collecting physical media for most of my life at this point, starting with CDs in the 2000s and branched out to vinyl when the repopularization of the format happened in the 2010s. Cassettes came much later for me– the deluge of Maggot Stomp released demos and EPs got me excited for a format I wasn’t even nostalgic for.

Through all this, I acquired or was given the necessary equipment to playback my physical media. I won’t bore you by going through every piece of gear I’ve ever owned, but I’ve seen a lot of entry-to-mid level gear in my time. I’ve gone from a tiny CD player with speakers built in, to the workhorse entry level AT LP60 turntable plugged (incorrectly) into my housemate’s father’s old AV receiver, to a hot-rodded Rega Planar 3 and (mostly) separates system I built by trolling kijiji and Facebook marketplace over the years. At one point I modified speakers I owned to try and tune them to my tastes. Hell, there was even a time when I didn’t own any gear and I sold off most of my CDs to pay rent– my only way to listen to music being in my 2011 Hyundai Accent, the dozen-or-so remaining jewel cases in my possession rattling in my door storage as Cannibal Corpse‘s Torture spewed out of straining speakers at maximum volume.

Point is, I love metal music. It’s been foundational to my life, just like it has been for many others. Having it on the go by streaming from my NAS or passing the aux around in the tour van is one way I get to appreciate this incredible art form, but when I have the moments to spare to sit in the big comfy chair in my basement and throw something heavy on my stereo is when I can elevate my experience with music to a whole other level. Again, I want to break from the negative image of an audiophile obsessed with their gear more than the music. “Elevate” can just as much mean sitting in a dim basement, listening critically as it can throwing back beers and pumping my fist on a Friday night as Ratt LPs spin round and round on the other side of the room. Both rule.

The goal here is not to get you to run out and buy thousands of dollars worth of gear, nor to attempt to claim a “correct” or “best” way to listen to music. I just want to get folks thinking about how they play back their favourite music and make the intimidating world of hi-fi a bit more accessible to regular folks like you and me.

I also want to take a brief moment and mention that building a stereo for digital playback is also cool if that’s your bag. Using streaming services or a digital library/ home server is a totally valid (and cheaper/ more convenient!) format, though I personally have just built my stereo system to play physical media only so most of these posts will be focused on that medium.

So What’s Next?

Metal and hi-fi audio are sometimes kept at odds in metalheads’ minds. Sure, there has been immaculately produced metal in the past decade or so, but I’m talking about the grimier, grungier stuff. A good stereo can be seen as superfluous to metal-listeners, simply not worth it for the cost– after all, why bother with the money and effort to put together a system if you’re just going to spin Bathory‘s self-titled debut on it? What could you possibly be getting out of it compared to listening by any other means?

That’s exactly what I’ll be diving into in my next entry in this series:

How To Be An Audiophile When You Like Music That Sounds Like Shit | Part 2: The Bathory Problem