Some here might consider shifting to decaf. Life isn’t nearly as miserable and desolate as you seem to believe….except for those who think it is.
Chi-Fi in the Time of Self-Righteous Indignation.
I have to say the timing of the folks over at eacoustics in impeccable.
So Kevin Deal at Upscale release his Video on Raven Audio giving us something to chew on in this forum and W. Jennings gives us this.
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It's a lot easier to stick your head in the sand, until it's not. Ignorance is Bliss, maybe....maybe not. Time will tell. @oldhvymec Salt n pepper goes with everything 🤣
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Right there with you on that Global warming nonsense 👍
PS: I knew this old guy, he worked in the merchant navy in Europe in the late 1930’s. He saw Germany and the Brits getting ready for war, weapons being shipped all across Europe, tanks etc etc. He tried telling his family that war was coming and of course they thought he was out of his effin mind. Long story short, his entire family died in the conflict, and he was the only survivor. Doom and gloom predictions are by nature, very doomy and very gloomy, they are not fun ✌
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A good place to start would be asking our politicians to change labeling laws. As an example, here in Canada, an item can be labeled "Product of Canada" so long as 51% of the manufacturing cost is spent in Canada. So tomatoes grown in the US or Mexico, but processed and canned in Canada, can end of on the store shelf proudly labeled Product of Canada!!! 100% legal and 100% deceptive. I can only assume the same nonsense goes on everywhere and in all kinds of products we buy. Is it too much to ask to be told the truth about where things come from? |
Blame and recrimination, culture wars, politicizing everything=USA
Executing plan for global economic hegemony=China
America living in era of culture of complaint, getting nothing done is intention of many gvt. officials, millions of people have bought into this terrible idea.
China has big ideas, and the people follow, country of single minded intention, tell me who's going to win? |
I wouldn't worry about it specifically. Global trade is the only thing that helps keep this world together. Better to get with the times and ride the wave rather than build more barriers. If you don't like China or any other country for whatever reason you are free to not partake. It's a personal decision like pretty much everything else in life. |
@yuviarora I’m not saying that we should ignore irrefutable evidence of impending disaster…like tornados in Kentucky in December and January for instance. Your friend saw facts…Kristallnacht should have also been a bit of a canary in the coalmine as well. The west built a great many factories in China, consulted on a great many more.
In one system I have a streamer-server from Portugal feeding a Swiss dac (very neutral LOL) feeding a Japanese preamp feeding a Japenese amplifier feeding British designed/Austrian built speakers. Cables are from Serbia, Germany and Japan. Music is streamed from France I guess or from music I have burned. The moral to the story is the USA has been at war with some of the aforementioned countries or defended some others, in the past for various rational or irrational reasons. China has never invaded us, they just reject many of the things the west holds dear. I find the hypocrisy thick with irony that it was ok for the west to do business with the far east when it fit the narrative 40 or 50 plus years ago but not today? There was a great deal of western resentment toward the east when their cars were kicking Detroit where it hurt. They then built factories in the west and it became obvious they could in many cases build a generally better and more desirable car on our soil than we could. The same could be said for European based car companies. Less blowback there though because the Euros “look” western. Geez.
So, there is this apparent dilemma today that China manufactures some high quality goods and the west purchases it. Do you have more or less outrage if it is branded as that of a western company? Your iphone, your computer, your television? Its terrible what is happening to the Uyghers…its terrible what happened in Tulsa or Tuskeegee. Human beings do bad shyt to one another.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, China is building some great products. The west sells gear to them, the west buys gear from them. The world turns, the universe continues evolving…
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@mapman +1 |
Yes personally I prefer to buy US but have no qualms about buying any product from anywhere if it makes sense to do it, often for value reasons. Check out my system(s). My hifi stuff is mostly from US companies. I’m sure parts and other elements of product delivery occur overseas in some cases. Good for them! I trust vendors I trust to make good decisions about those things. Not my problem. Pretty sure my smartphone is made in China. TV in Japan. I have a DAC from Taiwan I believe and some British speakers. I ended up getting my daughter a 2019 Hyandai Elantra for school commuting, etc. Goddam what a well thought out, functional and affordable vehicle! Not a sports or luxury car but it does everything very well, is quite roomy, (I am 6’2" tall), loaded with useful features, amazingly fuel efficient, and is still an absolute pleasure to drive! Seats might be made a tad more comfy perhaps. Made in S. Korea I think. Bravo!!! We will see how long it lasts compared to a Toyota or Ford or Chevy, none of which are 100% US made anymore either I suspect. Just be real folks and get with the times. They are always a changin.... |
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What you or I or anyone might find offensive has nothing to do with what others do. How about we all just treat each other civilly? That’s part of being "civilized" as opposed to the alternative.
civil [ˈsiv(ə)l] ADJECTIVE
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Couldn't agree more. Never heard anyone use the term French-Fi, Pol-Fi, Ger-Fi, Ital-Fi, etc. Just because it's considered common usage in some circles doesn't make it acceptable. All the best, |
@nonoise You are the last person on this forum that should even begin to talk about civil discourse. The worst offender, and the most caustic personality......here to enforce "Political Correctness". I needed that laugh, thank you 😁 |
Consistent with my rant about signal theory on the previous page here, yes. Its a label. A phrase (or word) describing a characteristic of something, which conveys some intrinsic and valuable information. What else can it be? And it rhymes, and that’s pretty cool. |
Are most Chinese actually offended by the term "Chi-fi"? Or is this a case of bored whytes being offended on behalf of how they think other people should respond. In any case, there is still a lot of junk and cheap knock-offs being produced in China, with little to no oversight, and it’s not unreasonable to tag it appropriately. "Chi-fi" seems appropriate, as China is uniquely capable of swamping a market with such goods. There’s also some really nice stuff being made in China, and I have no problem considering it for purchase. What do Chinese audiophiles think of "Chi-fi"? And do we need to draw the line to demarcate "Chi-fi" versus "hi-fi, made in China" - or is it already incredibly apparent (e.g. a $500 tube amp on Amazon versus Line Magnetic)? And as pointed out, a lot of true high-end gear is already a hybrid manufacture, with parts and/or processing sourced in China. That doesn't fall under the "Chi-fi" label either, IMO. |
@yuviarora , of course you'd say something as inane as that. Worse offender? Don't make me laugh. As for being PC, far from it. Just calling a spade a spade. When did it become normal to whine about PC when someone is just pointing out the obvious? You guys cry wolf way too often. All the best, |
I don’t see @nonoise or many others objecting to either the concept or practice of being civil to others. That says a lot. Being spirited and vocal in one’s beliefs is a good thing. You can’t control others, only try and set a good example. Sometimes we all fail. Try try again.... |
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The Chinese have a word for the whyte Liberals...."Baizou". Very appropriate.
What is baizuo?Baizuo whose rough translation from Mandarin is “White Liberal”, is “a Chinese neologism and a political epithet pejoratively used by the Chinese to refer to western leftist ideologies primarily espoused by white leftists.”
Although the emphasis varies, baizuo is used generally to describe those who “only care about topics such as immigration, minorities, LGBT and the environment” and “have no sense of real problems in the real world”; they are hypocritical humanitarians who advocate for peace and equality only to “satisfy their own feeling of moral superiority”; they are “obsessed with political correctness” to the extent that they “tolerate backwards Islamic values for the sake of multiculturalism”; they believe in the welfare state that “benefits only the idle and the free riders”; they are the “ignorant and arrogant westerners” who “pity the rest of the world and think they are saviours”. |
Last comment on this: Being civil is an ethical thing. Should not be politicized. Run the other way from anyone who justifies not being civil, regardless of political affiliation. If you can't turn a cold shoulder for some reason, then defend yourself, in the interest of a more civil world perhaps. The force will be with you. |
one way to frame the question might be "in a niche hobby, is it better to use terms that may offend/alienate some people who share that hobby, or find other terms?" anyway it’s kind of funny to watch hifi become another front in the tedious and seemingly endless american culture wars. if chinese people are offended then everyone should stop using it. if they aren’t then who cares. either way the stakes are so incredibly low here, and some people appear committed to pretending they aren't. this thing is supposed to be fun, remember 😂 |
@yuviarora we agree they are not the same. I stated it above initially. One must decide which is which and not allow disdain for Political Correctness to affect their judgement when it comes to civility and how what one says or does is likely to affect others. Often not an easy task. Best to think before one talks. If one aspires to be civil...... |
Japan climbed up the manufacturing ladder after World War Two - from tiny toy cars to Toyotas that beat Detroit. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the country has a long tradition of craft skills. |
@mapman I agree with you 100%. Discussion, especially between opposing views should be civil. There is always something to learn from people that disagree with you 🙏
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Anyone with an open mind might do well to read The Reckoning by Halberstam, Factory Man by Beth Macy, and Boom, Bust Exodus by Chad Broughton. Finally if reading is a struggle, check out the documentary The Last Truck. I have worked all over the globe including starting plant in China, moving work around for various reasons and creating American jobs at the largest exporter. I don’t claim to know everything except that a simpleton racist view isn’t going to serve you well in competition. Acquire skills and a deep understanding of quality and productivity improvement tools… those will always help you. Jim |
@yuviarora , is this what the world you live on looks like?
What I write is not what you refer to. It loses something in translation from my way of thinking plainly to whatever it is that passes for your way of thinking. And as for your accusation and feigned concern of my Russophobia, give me break, comrade. I have nothing against the people of Russia. It's their leaders who hate democracy so much, thinking that it will creep and gain hold in their country, that they openly seek out those here who'll aid them in discrediting it here. Wouldn't you? All the best, |
Just a word to say that China like Japan copy-cat Occidental technology to leapfrog their way toward contemporary tech level in the last century... But remember that BEFORE the 16Th century ( the kick modern start of technology in europe will be the the 12th nominalism revolution), China invented and created BEFORE "barbarians" europeans almost all basic technology...The list is so huge it is imposible to list it out of a book... Thanks to the spirit of the greek engineers and mathematicians and philosophers, transmitted to the barbarians inhabiting the declining roman empire in large part by Islamic scholars to restart the rational greek revolution after Roman empire erasing power... Nominalism+Plato and Aristotle rediscovery= new technology and new science, undreamed of by the ancient chineese who always lived more in a balanced participation with nature than the 17 century London who quit nature for global slavery and mechanical and coal and steam engine power... The actual chineese direction come not from the chineese people but from the CCP... The actual occidental course of events comes not from democracy but is caused by the transhumanist ideology and a new kind of financial criminal capitalism...Any countries democratic stance is a theater move...The actual crisis reveal the ideology behind the puppets... This not so much complotism facts than a TRANCE LIKE MASS HYPNOSIS EXPERIMENT by those who are in the more deepest sleepwallking trance ever because they really think that what they do is for the better for all mankind...This is not complots this is mass hypnosis basic science...The origin is in part in the Bernard Mandeville forgotten economico-sociologico-psychological works on mass controls because Mandeville is the first before Darwin around 1700 to study the behavior of men like a workable animals...
The goal of my post is to reveal the hidden simplistic "political" ideological stances and rant of some here, of rightwing egg or leftwing egg Swiftian ridiculous debates oblivious of all history... .... Great posts!
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