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Personal vs. Market Values

Take truffle oil. Or truffles. The mushrooms, not the confection.
Honestly I can’t taste it. I’ve ordered all sorts of dishes with "truffle oil" which commanded a premium and if there is any difference at all in the taste I could not tell you even after being told about it.

The point of this is that truffle oil holds no personal value to me. I’m not trading in it or running a restaurant or buying it in bulk. If I did that I’d feel and be willing to spend quite differently than I do now.

The point to this and how this matters in audio is that you should be true to your own ears. Use friends, reviews (cough) and other sources as guides. You may also evaluate a brand based on re-sale value. That’s reasonable as the resale could have a material impact on you in the future.

But if you can’t hear a difference or prefer a speaker/cable/amp no one else does then serve only yourself and your loved ones. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the market value of a particular product has value for you or that it is a display of relative merit. It may not. Our hobby is filled with charlatans selling invisible clothes.

Those who say they can't taste the truffle oil or see invisible clothes spend less and are far happier I think.

Happy listening,

E
erik_squires

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whart
2,976 posts
 
I have fond memories of a Christmas spent at Columbe d’or in St. Paul de Vence, whose dining room was easy, casual and good on the nights we didn’t feel like "going out" to some of the serious restaurants. Freshly shaved truffles on a tart green salad every night-- I think we stayed for 5 nights before heading north to Paris.
When I got my Amex bill the next month, I realized that each salad was $44 dollars in 2008? money.
Yes, I could taste the truffles. No, I probably wouldn’t spend that for a green salad today.
Morels and sweetbreads are really yummy. Alas, the price of morels is also out of reach for mere mortals. (I think they were upwards of $200/lb at the local gourmet market here in Austin. I asked the storekeep why they were in a bin that anyone could access, having come from NY, where even batteries were under lock and key. He said "if somebody wants to steal fancy mushrooms and put them in their pocket, more power to ’em!" :)
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