shaolin hifi

in the good old days of hifi, the master-pupil relationship was very prevalent amongst asian audiophiles, notably in hongkong. aspiring audiophiles actually learn the art of hifi from their "sifu" (cantonese for master or mentor). it is a common practice for veteran, established and respectable audiophiles to adopt pupil(s) who believe in their school of thoughts and "specialization", and want to learn the skills from these masters. by "specialization", i mean there would be a sifu for planar speaker (there is such a person in real life! in fact, he is still very much alive in the hongkong hifi circle today), a sifu for 300B, a sifu for LS3/5a, the list goes on. each of this specialization is not unlike your chinese kungfu clans, i.e. you get the shaolin, wu tang, er mei etc etc. or course, there are also sifu who are not specialists but generalists who are just as willing to impart their skills to their pupils.

in any hifi demos or home visits where the sifu brings his entourage, he is always given the privilege to sit in the sweet spot before anyone else. and everyone in the room will be waiting anxiously for the sifu's comments as his words are sacred and have far-reaching impact to the ego of the system's owner. i remember being in such scene many years ago. it can get very tense. and the sifu in particular is a very critical audiophile, who more often than not, dishes out harsh criticism rather than praises.

a sifu is someone authoritative and influential. whatever hifi gear he buys, his pupils would follow suit. if he says MIT cables give the best separation of images then his pupils would take his words as bible and stick to MIT. if he says AQ cables are crap, none of his pupils would argue with him. whatever LP or CD titles that the sifu says is good, his pupils have to get it. a sifu has to be a generous person as he would foot the bills after lunches and dinners with his pupils. failing to do so and you would not be deemed as a generous leader.

the sifu is also respected by hifi dealers. he is often offered new high-end gear to try out. once he says something is good, the word will spread and chances are, the thing will sell by itself. on the other hand, if he gives thumbs-down, that piece of gear would have difficulty getting sold. as a result, some mischievous dealers would try to butter him up in the hope of getting some good reviews.

interestingly, the characteristics of his pupils' hifi systems always have some shadow of resemblance to the master's system, since they are using almost the same brands of amplifier, cable and tweaks.

when the pupils mature and build their own following, they can in turn adopt pupils. the master-pupil relationship is a sacred one and the hierarchy can go many levels much like in a shaolin clan.

i have come across cases where the pupil fell out with his master and they turned nasty and became enemies ever after. normally it is caused by the deviation of their beliefs and when there is no longer a meeting of minds.

sadly, this interesting master-pupil culture has largely vanished among today's audiophiles in malaysia. i am not sure what's the main reason.

audiophiles from the west or other parts of the world, would you like to enlighten us if such culture exists in the west?