Are you more an Audiophile or Videophile??

[DanaC]

Depends on the context really. I'll happily sit through a film with horribly low resolution, or grainy as fuck from old footage, if the sound is decent. If it looks gorgeous but the sound is too far off I won't get drawn in the same.

I probably am a bit of an audiophile inasmuch as I get very frustrated by sound that is off kilter. I drive mum, and also J mad when we watch stuff, because I am fiddling about with the sound for the first few minutes oif anything we watch - and I will, if the sound is too thin, or too flat, switch it off and go find another version ...

On the other hand, I wll happily geek out on lighting and camera angles, and stuff like the 'shaky cam' on Evil Dead - so I do like it to look sharp.

It depends why I am watching - or what I am watching. If the visuals aren't very sharp on a standard procedural cop show, then that generally doesn't matter. On the other hand, a horror movie can lose a lot of its bite if you are just looking at a dark and grainy screen, without being able to see what is going on.

One of the main things I pick up on though in tv, movies and games is the soundscape. How the music is used and the sound effects both fascinate me. You can sell a lot with the right sound. And you can rob what might have worked well visually, of a lot of its power with the wrong sound.

In terms of quality of sound - I can't afford to be a geek about equipment. My days of spending £100+ on headphones are long gone. I make do with pretty basic stuff. It's good enough. As long as there's a decent depth of sound I'm happy. I have thrown away perfectly functional headphones and speakers that have sounded too thin and insubstantial.

I have no real preference for analogue or digital beyond the fact that digital is easy to get and doesn't require boxes or shelves.