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Telling musicians to evaluate and choose their instruments in a “scientific” way?

How do you think this would go over?

“This mass produced guitar measures the same as your vintage Martin on my oscilloscope, so any difference you hear is just expectation bias.” “You need to do a double blind test to prove there’s a difference!” “Rosewood is rosewood, there’s no difference between this Brazilian that’s been seasoned for 20 years and that Indonesian that came off the boat a month ago, you’re being taken in!”

tommylion

Showing 3 responses by tommylion

tommylion OP
874 posts
 

“It's the actual musician that makes an instrument sing, not how exclusive the instrument is. A better sounding instrument will however, inspire the musician to play better.

A good player with a cheap guitar vs a hack with a very nice guitar will always draw more attention.”

Just like the best possible system you could put together with an unlimited budget wouldn’t be very appealing if you didn’t have any good music to play through it.
tommylion OP
874 posts
 
Making great musical instruments involves all kinds of “art”, all kinds of things things that can only be measured by (experienced) ears. The same goes for making great music. Making great “instruments” to reproduce this music in our homes is totally “scientific”, measurable and quantifiable, though🙄 No need to use our ears.
tommylion OP
874 posts
 
For those who don’t get what this is about, I’m trying to point out how ridiculous the things some people keep saying about how we should evaluate our equipment are, when applied to the music we love, and the instruments it is played on/through.

No one questions when a craftsman chooses materials for, and builds, an instrument guided by his ears, or a musician chooses an instrument the same way. Dare to say you build your home music reproduction system this way, though, and you will get all kinds of grief.
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