Yes hifi is different.
But hifi is not different from pro audio in the nature of it's technology.
The really important difference is how it is marketed - hifi is based on being "talked up", i.e. generating pre-disposed concepts about what you should perceive when you listen.
This, combined with the human auditory system being very sensitive to suggestion, creates the wide variety of impossibly priced yet technologically pathetic units in the hifi market. Impressive pricing being among the best motivators for wanting to hear certain suggested details, it goes without saying that you'll soon have an inverse way of setting prices.
The thing that makes this so complicated to discuss is that the effect is not a vague "wanna-believe" placebo - but originating in the so sensitive auditory system it is often taking the form of near-hallucinations. The mechanics depends on the elaborate "fill out missing information" in auditory system. Think of the intrinsic auditory suggestibility as closer related to hypnosis than to persuasion - and the guy claiming to be able to easily hear the difference between standard and expensive speaker cables does not lie to you - or even to himself (!) - and the discussion naturally gets emotional and heated if it involves someone questioning the validity of your perception. There has been fMRi studies that show traces of "real" perception at brain neuronal level correlating with believed stimuli (I think it was "direction" of cables), but, alas, not correlating with reality.
This is also the mechanism you experience when you do that complex mix with the whole band sitting there suggesting and stressing you - once in a while you grab the EQ and turn it until it does what you want, then move on with the mix. Only later to discover that the "in"-button wasn't pressed... you'd have sworn that it reacted like it should. This is the stuff that hifi is built of.
And then there's the whole taxonomy of the hifi community - that (when you look closely) does not seem to be about classifying and conveying information, but rather about building consensus to support suggested perceptions. Not too dissimilar from astrology actually
All this brings me to a question I've been meaning to ask in this group for a while:
"How do you perceive the ethics of selling hifi-type gear? Can it be done right? How?"
Looking at the market, I see that there is probably consumer room for e.g. my linear tilting way of doing tone controls - but at the same time I fear being sucked into dishonesty when describing such a unit in terms that resonate with the right audience.
A friend of mine (who shall remain unnamed) that runs both a pro-audio and a hifi brand tells me about how he always worries about doing exhibitions on the hifi shows - because there will be people coming up constantly, almost literally, begging him to come up with complex lies about his (very decent) products, never, ever, being satisfied with the simple truth. Says it's a relief to be attending pro audio shows in contrast. Unfortunately, he says, the hifi brings in so much more money than the pro audio that he literally feels caught in there, and end up supporting the paradigme..
Let's not make a flame war out of this but:
Your thoughts?
/Jakob E.