Are women tone deaf?

[goraman]

Oh that's a fact. My missus can tell from the bedroom whether I have put my cup in the dishwasher or on the sink.

If you drop a dish onto a tile floor and it smashes would she be able to tell you if it was her fine china or the daily table ware, now there's a double blind test!

[Audio Advent]

Oh that's a fact. My missus can tell from the bedroom whether I have put my cup in the dishwasher or on the sink.

I'd hope so! Those are completely different sounds...

[Audio Advent]

Seems I have rarely met a women with a very nice audio system, or few that could care a rats butt what it sounds like for that matter.
The hifi industry it's self seems to be as male driven as Hot Rodding and shooting sports , I don't think there are many lady's who could tell the difference between MP3 and a first class vinyl rig.
Most would ask why a pair of Tannoy Westminster Royal SE when you could have a Bose wave radio?

OK, let the hate and feminist whining commence, but I am seriously asking the question, How come the same woman that can pick a single red from 300 shades of red nail polish or smell a perfume from across the room and know it's name and price per ounce can't seem to appreciate a nice stereo kit?

Maybe your observations are true but your conclusions from it are.... well lets say, coloured by some kind of ingrained cultural prejudice.


The fact is that MOST people don't care, most people will question why Tannoy Westminsters when you can have a nice Bose Wave (which is cheaper and takes up a lot less room and says "Bose" on it). So, that covers most of the female population as well as most of the male population - odds are, you ask anyone and they will say that.

You've no control population to test your theory. I bet you are basing your conclusions on the people you've known closely (guessing you're straight). Women you've known closely, you'll get to know what they really do or don't care about and whether they really can hear the differences. Men you think you know closely as friends you will assume they have good ears because they talk the talk! They might go on about music and all the details of someone's playing and then again talk the talk of how they love vinyl etc. BUT you have absolutely know idea if they hear any difference between things because you've never got to know them with their guard down, when they're not talking the talk.

In people who do care about sound, I put the real difference purely down to pragmatism versus typical male obsession. I think men will more likely get into the gear-obsessed world of hifi and sonics and therefore pay more attention to it. Women will be more practical about the whole thing in the grand scheme of their lives!

In my experience it's about the same. I'm constantly surprised by male friends who are so into music and talk the talk, simply don't care about sound quality, happy with speakers from midi systems etc or iphone with some heavily branded headphones (wow, if you've bought some Beat heaphones, you must really be an audiophile! ). Many women I know or have known, once they find out me or a friend is into hifi they will ask some advice and might say what they want it to look like, e.g. a vintage amp, but then stress "prioritise the sound though". Once they've started focusing on the sound, they begin to want something better - exactly the same as it was with me.

I think any differences are about exposure. Gear-obsessed males are more likely to get the exposure to good sounding hifi on an obsessive chase for manly-looking equipment which leads them to then chasing the sound, whilst women in general won't enter that world at all because they've more realistically important stuff to get on with. Again, all generalisation - there's a wide spectrum of male-ness and female-ness which spans across us all in both directions.

I just think you've been hanging out with the wrong people - need to mix in more arty and creative crowds

[Andrei]

If you drop a dish onto a tile floor and it smashes would she be able to tell you if it was her fine china or the daily table ware, now there's a double blind test!

In our case that would easy: the choice would be plastic or glass.

[Gordon Steadman]

The guy I bought the €40 Sony 8 piece hi-fi from now listens to an iPod dock and a sound bar - whatever that is! He reckoned that he just couldn't put up with all the clutter and inconvenience any more.

"but what about the sound?" I asked. "its OK" was all he said. I assume he bought the Sony because of its macho appeal, stacked up, it must be as tall as I am. Half of it looks as though its never been touched. Only the amp and CD player have any wear marks on the facias.

So I too, think it is more of a person thing than the male/female divide

[Audio Al]

I think most ladies just see it as music , be it radio TV or HIFI

My trained daughter however does know the difference

On her weekly visit she gets 2 sit in my listening chair and hear my track of the day

Lorraine appreciates quality sound

[Tim]

Sam has summed it up nicely, it's not gender specific, most people just don't care, it's not necessarily women. The number of people who are really 'into' music is a small section of society, the number of those who are 'into' HiFi as well, is an even smaller number and to be 'into' anything you normally need to be a geek or slightly nerdy and most of those geek/nerdy people are men, because of the way our brains are wired - it's now been scientifically shown that male and female brains process information in a different way. It's quite simple really and IMO has nothing at all to do with hearing - it's not something most people care about, but we probably use the people we know best in our lives as a yardstick and that's our partners.

Generalising I know, but that's how I see it. I know many people who are really 'into' music, including a lot of musicians. Some of those have decent sound systems but not many, but none of them post on HiFi forums - I'm the only one out of countless people I know that care about music. We are the odd ones out guys

[Macca]

- I'm the only one out of countless people I know that care about music. We are the odd ones out guys

I think we are the odd ones out but only because we post on hi-fi forums. There is more than likely an unheard majority who love music have good systems but would not dream of visiting an internet forum. Or they are unaware that such things exist.

I've been into hi-fi since 1987 it never occurred to me that there was any such thing as a hi-fi forum until 2009
Females are a lot less likely to post on a hi-fi forum because they have different priorities.

WE are hard-wired to enjoy music in the same way as we are hard wired to enjoy food. It's everyone, we are not special.

But as Sam says it is exposure. If you hear a decent system, and I don't mean a dealer demo or at a show, I mean over time in the comfort of a home, then, IME there are very few people who do not get swayed. Their benchmark gets moved and they find they can no longer live with their Amstrad midi system or portable cd player.

[struth]

Yup. i know a few folk that are into music but wouldnt dream of going on a forum about it. they will of course use facebook etc and think i am odd that i dont or should i say WONT.
So it is horses for courses and as Macca says proper exposure will sway many although the majority really couldnt care less and are happy with what comes out of their phone,telly or mini bose system type thing. I dont think everyone who is into hifi is a geek though...some are though

[Marco]

Lorraine appreciates quality sound

Is that what you're calling the doll this month?

Marco.