The Absurdity of it All


50-60-70 year old ears stating with certainty that what they hear is proof positive of the efficacy of analog, uber-cables, tweaks...name your favorite latest and greatest audio "advancement." How many rock concerts under the bridge? Did we ever wear ear protection with our chain saws? Believe what you will, but hearing degrades with age and use and abuse. To pontificate authority while relying on damaged goods is akin to the 65 year old golfer believing his new $300 putter is going to improve his game. And his game MAY get better, but it is the belief that matters. Everything matters, but the brain matters the most.
jpwarren58
perkri...
Try running a 60hz tone through the set up. Sit where you sit and listen to the timber of the bass. Then walk around the room. It will at some point become a droning mess, at other points it will almost vanish.
Very true.  It was eye opening to me when I actually heard cancellations occur as I walked around the room when setting up twin subwoofers. I found that not only location of subs and the location of the sitting position was important but using the phase adjustments made enormous differences. At 60 hz I can flip one switch on one of the subwoofers 180 degrees out of phase and create a null where you can't hear anything. Dead sound occurring at 60hz in my listening position. Move my head 3 feet forward out of the null and bingo there's the sound again. It also has a big impact on the lower 30hz region. Flipping the switch on the phase was like turning on and off the light. Huge differences in timber and output were achieved.

The important lesson is that bass needs to be focused on the seating position and can have negative interaction with the main speakers that can be phase corrected. This is a critical experiment that can yield a huge difference and it's free!!

Mahgister, can you show us a picture of your mechanical equalizer? I am not sure what you mean by "tight pressure zone" comparing it to strings on a violin. Maybe you mean tight tension?

kevn, all you describe are aberrations of frequency response. I can make any female voice sibilant by boosting frequencies between 3 and 5 kHz just 2-3 dB. I can remove sibilance just by dropping the same frequencies 2-3 dB  Frequencies between 3 and 8 kHz are responsible for the "brightness" of the sound. This is frequently and incorrectly associated with detail or lack there of. If I were to give two very different speakers, say a Klipsch Cornwall and a Magneplanar 3.7i the exact same frequency response curve they will still sound very different. Even though their tonality is identical their timbre is not. It is in this domain where the best speakers excel. The problem for loudspeakers is that they have to mimic the timbre of a vast array of instruments that make sounds by a vast array of mechanisms. The speakers that are best at it seem to disappear leaving individual instruments hanging in space, 3 dimensions. I remember vividly the first time I heard a loudspeaker system do this. It was Dick Sequerra's Pyramid Metronome 2+2W+Ti system driven by Threshold electronics. The owner was heavily into jazz. I had him put on Waltz for Debby and a holographic image of the Bill Evans trio appeared in space. I was not even stoned at the time. Needless to say my satisfaction with my own system dropped to all time lows. There was no way I could afford equipment like that at the time but it gave me a target to shoot at. I can count the systems on one hand that reached that level of performance in my experience. 
Mahgister, can you show us a picture of your mechanical equalizer? I am not sure what you mean by "tight pressure zone" comparing it to strings on a violin. Maybe you mean tight tension?
There exist no photography of pressure zones in a room only diagram...

Pick any acoustical article they will show you ...

anyway thanks for your interest....

Any room is not only walls waiting from the waves to bounce back and beign reflected, absorbed or diffused...

Any room is when sound come from the speaker a multiple pressure zones created by the meeting of waves and their resonance...

I say that these pressure zone are tight like strings of a violin because of the speed of sound the waves croos my room near 80 times in one second...

The brain decision threshold treat the incoming frontwaves is 80 millisecond if i remember well...

Then i compared the new pressure zones introduced by 32 fine tuned tubes and pipes to a a violin string optimally tight for producing the right tone....i use my equalizer to modify the equilibrium between the distributed pressure zones and the ratio between the timing of direct and reflected waves...

The metaphor comes from the fact that before my ears qualify the sound quality, the waves had cross my room and ears a great number of times...

A slight modification like the fleeting of a tight string produce a note...A SINGLE STRAW constituting the neck of only one of my 32 tubes or pipes of few inches could destruct completely the sound timbre, or modify radically the soundstage or the listener envelopment.... A single straw has more qualitative audible effect than some upgrade in gear...


That illustrate how powerful acoustical settings are...

They are more details in my thread....

Thanks for your interest....





   I’m a 64 year old road cyclist and my $2K Zipp carbon wheels shod with Michelin GP 5000’s II’s gave me a noticeable improvement  .    My $400 Loomis GLX rods gave me a noticeable improvement over my IMX rods . And 80 mg sildenafil gave me a noticeable improvement, in my depth of soundstage .  Am I Pontificating ? No , the facts Man, just the Facts. BTW my first big concert was Rory Gallagher , Fleetwood Mac , and Deep Purple . 
"And 80 mg sildenafil gave me a noticeable improvement..."


Easier breathing?
To quote Japanese wisdom:

If dancing makes us foolish, does watching make us wise?  Since we are all both wise and foolish... What a pity not to dance!

Love the hobby! Love the music!
It's a dance between the rational and irrational... to give me a smile.

I started building gear around 60+ years ago, built PA systems for pro use before they became commonly available... Electrovoice LR7's were thought to be a reasonable set up... Then came the VOX Churchill and the Super Beatle amps... Lots of stories there...

I worked in the pro and home audio profession for years... paid my way through school, owned my own custom installation business...  Played in various musical groups from marching bands to Rock and Reggae...  I used hearing protection on and off when needed, still do, ear plugs almost always in my pocket... and yes my hearing has taken a beating, no question about it.  

Do I love this hobby?  YES!  Do I still love music? YES!  
Do I still upgrade my system with various tubes and tweaks?  YES!  

Are there various remedies and tweaks to preserve and improve my hearing? YES!  I just happen to need them more now than ever before.
Do Keep a smile on...

Me thinks Life is too short for much other than learning gratitude.
Sure everything wears with age. Genetics come into play how resilient ones ears compared to anothers the same age. Usually high frequency is lost unless you have been too close to a sub woofer too often.  Just build speakers to suit your ears or buy some that compensate for what you lack. Good headphones may be the answer.
“@kevn  - I have a couple of tracks I listen to for mids....” - perkri

Thanks so much for your reply, perkri : ) 

miijostyn, I didn’t actually describe anything, but was just asking perkri for a few more tracks he uses for his critical listening moments to determine for himself when he detects change and difference in sound quality - his reference to sibilance by way of recordings of Nina Simone was simply my way in to inquire further about other specific tracks of specific singers, you see.

However, you have raised an interesting issue for me, for which I am grateful. Of course I understand the difference between natural sibilance, recording sibilance, and sibilance due to distortion from volume control or equipment. I believe it was the very point that perkri was making in his reference to Nina Simone’s voice and the recorded voicing of it. It is these very nuances that help me understand how to listen better, and to know if what i am hearing is imagined or real, and detailed or distorted. But the more important issue of interest to me was your mention of timbre. I believe that everything that we are in dispute over regarding sound differences and the abilities of the ageing human ear to pick up nuance, has to do with our abilities to distinguish timbre. While it is considerably more obvious when played back sound is artificially sibilant, it is a lot more subtle if the sound being heard has more ‘air’ around it, more lifelike, and more right there. The lightness and ‘weight’ in the flux of the tiniest vibrations and variations in timbre is what determines the subtlest differences and improvements we hear; pure tonal frequencies, brand of speaker, cost of power cable, and indeed, almost surely even type of speaker, be damned. All that minute information can come by way of wholesale or part change of equipment, and by extension, the smallest changes of tweaks, in room and all else that connects the signal path. And as the sensitive instrument the entire human body is, I do not believe it is only the eardrum that collects this infinite amount of timbral information. Are there some aspects of sound that cannot be measured definitely, but can be experienced? I am not able to say one way or another. But I do know my ears, body, and mind are still good enough to learn how to understand listening better ; )

In friendship - kevin


Very good post thanks...

Human voice timbre is the most well known and perceived musical and sound object...

It is the only way to fine tuned a system....Using it....
Back when I was 18 a concert wasn't good until I couldn't hear,a sound concert, then riding the NYC subway home....well now I have ,I'm told hearing loss.....what ,no way.....
Everyones ears are including ones  left and Right are Different
All Audio Judgement is based on What your ears can actually Hear, Training and Knowledge.
I am a 66 year old Musician and Audio enthusiast.
I have well worn and Trained ears.
I have worked at Playing Live and in Studio.
I worked with Live and Studio sound and worked at a Hi End Home speaker manufacturer.
I judge but what my Ears Like to Hear.


Post removed 
Spoken like a young fella!  Full of wrong science.  On average we lose the edge with time, but there are those who hear perfectly well into very old age.  Just as some are deaf from birth, some are spared. 

The second important feature mentioned earlier is the brain.  Studies in dementia as related to age and Altzheimers find that as the brain losses it's functions the centers that process hearing and MUSIC are the very last to go.  I saw Chris Christopherson in concert on stage by himself for 2 hours with a short break.  He said hello and went on from song to song.  It was a perfect one man show.  I noticed at the brief break a stage person came out and escorted him off stage and then back on again.  The music continued without a stitch out of place.  One month later they announced that he was retired and suffering with advancing Altzheimers. 

He may not know his name or who his closest family members were but could pick up a guitar and sing for hours.  It was also noted that his final concerts began with the first song he wrote as a child and that every song that night was in the exact order he wrote them over a lifetime.  So, ya, there is the brain and a perfect set of youthful ears matched to a fine stereo system blasting away with some Kiss or Lead Zepplin may help kill some brain cells.  Then to shut up long enough to listen to George Shearing and Mel Torme... well, I know that is not apt to happen.  

You can drop a needle on vinyl and I can tell the 1950s & 60s 'Decca' recordings from RCA's.  I can tell when 'mono' became 'High Fidelity" from a vinyl 'Stereo' that followed.  The highest qualtiy recordings are still fantastic and the market was filled with some real cheap products.  I can hear that.  I can really appreciate putting a 180gm record on a $2,000 Rega turntable with a $500 cartidge and fine valved pre-amp.  

It reminds me of being a kid in the 1950s.  My dad taught school and with 5 kids there was little extravagance.  Eating shrimp was one of them.  At an early age I looked at cocktail shrimp and asked, "What is that?"  I had a naked shrimp shaken in my face and asked if I want one.  Hell no!  It was on food on my plate that I was not expected to finish.  My mom and dad got all the shrimp and they gave me my wish, Spaghette-Os.  

After 70 some years I love to eat shrimp while listening to the wide range of music that I also love.  I hear some much more than a bowl full of Spaghetti-Os.  If you need some help with that get back to me.


This is THE answer (seriously):

Physical hearing parameters of a person that a machine can measure - tell you next to nothing of importance. 

It's discernment which is all. The ability to ascertain nuance that younger minds & personalities have not the intuition to perceive. It's a matter of maturity & wisdom.  If you've bothered to cultivate them you reap the fruits. Even if you haven't you usually to some degree have some extra measure of them, unavoidably.
It's not completely different (although more so in audio) from tastebuds being able to technically discern less as you age - yet if you've matured well & with some effort kept yourself perceptive & open-minded - the amount of nuance you can spot in food is far higher - even if the splashy extremes of spicy/sweet/tart, etc aren't so vivid. With your ears you don't need to concentrate to that degree, the cues are manifold & the lifetime of learning & practice amplify all the good things that more aggressively presented themselves when you were younger. Subtleties are hardly passive, inert things when you know their significance & how to let them register & trigger a depth of emotion - that was far more two-dimensional once.  You hear more of significance - not less then.
Thank you @bstbomber & @rcronk for those well reasoned thoughts.
One can't forget that in addition to our unique set of ears that they've been working in concert with our unique brain and continue to do so.

Our ears don't operate in a vacuum. Cherry picking them out of that equation and then breaking out that hoary meme of what we can't hear past a certain age ignores the rest that we can hear, or it's hoped that we overlook it and fall for it.

All the best,
Nonoise
If it sounds good to the listener, or better after experimentation, who cares how it measure or what anyone else hears? Extended listening vs. short blasts of A:B, a good discussion for a new thread perhaps. 
So I’m 51, and had my hearing tested a couple of years ago. I asked if my score was a pass for a 49 year old, and he said that my score would have been acceptable if I was eight. That said, I know I have lost some ability, and gained a little more background noise. Not horrible, but it’s there.

I was making a decision on a new piece of gear last week that I was auditioning - an EMM Labs NS1 streamer, and comparing it with my tried and true Bluesound Node 2i. I was always under the impression that the streamer really didn’t matter as long as all the bits were there. The magic really happens in the DAC, which in my case is also an EMM Labs. Much to my chagrin, I heard some very large differences between streamers both going into the same DAC. Was it a bias? Is my hearing even good enough to hear the differences?

i enlisted the help of my 14 year old freshman daughter. She loves music, but has no interest in high fi. I promised her a simple A/B off four tracks, one of which she knows very well from her iPhone and Beats. Surprisingly, she listened to A (Bluesound) and then sat up straighter when I switched to the NS1. She had no idea of what I was switching, by the way...I was able to leave everything connected and A/B with the remote. I switched the order up on track 2, left the same order for 3, and then back to the original order on track 4. I didn’t even tell her what to listen for. She picked out almost everything that I picked out in every track. The sound of actual air coming from a saxophone. The clarity in background farming parts. One guitar turning out to be three, sequenced over each other. The familiar track was Taylor Swift’s August, and she was like, I have never heard this song sound like this. So, my findings verified, I bought the NS1. My stayed in the room and listened for another two hours to so music of her choosing. (Priceless to me.)
Thank you @bstbomber & @rcronk for those well reasoned thoughts.
I approve and thanks you for the read......
@drew_k 

Jealous!

Cant get my 14yr old daughter to pay attention to anything that has to do with my stereo. She lives for music too!

Guess I’m going to have to endure her tracks if I want her to listen...

Built her some speakers and got her a small amp for her room. 
She managed to pay attention long enough to decide which one of the three sets on offer she wanted. Picked the one with the most bass of course...
Unlike my father, I used ear protection when he was using chain saws, drills, impact hammers, etc.   Unlike my wife, I use ear protection at rock concerts.   My hearing is good to 16 kHz when tested.  Probably better.  I'm 65 and have excellent hearing.  My father's hearing substantially deteriorated in his early 80s.  My wife can't stand piccolos, flutes and percussive piano sounds.   My mother, who like me, protected her hearing all her life, also has excellent hearing at age 87.  So, protect your hearing and you probably won't lose it, unless bad genetics are involved.
@rkronk

   Kris Kristofferson was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's. He actually had Lyme disease. He recovered from Lyme disease and continued performing. 
   The most irritating aspect of posting meaningful tweaks on this forum is  the knuckleheads here automatically accuse you of shilling for the manufacturer. What it reveals is that they don't have acute hearing by claiming that sonic improvements are imaginary and audio products are snake oil. It also reveals that the systems they listen to don't allow discernment of improvement because they're listening to crappy gear.   
Or it means you have never done bias free listening.  Some people are far more susceptible to suggestion. Reading what tweakers right, it is pretty obvious.
It doesn't get much more pretentious than this. Insinuating the people that choose to buy less expensive, higher value gear can't hear the differences is ridiculous. I had some some high end speakers displayed in my showroom back in the 1990s...that had a patent on the cabinet design...which placed the most lifelike image of live musicians into the room that I have ever experienced, and have not experienced since. I demoed them to a prospective customer that absolutely loved them. I asked the gentleman that referred him to me what the prospects thoughts were. Answer: Not expensive enough. Most people buy equipment based on what they can hear. Some people buy equipment because the price is higher, regardless if it actually sounds better. 

A $500 interconnect will not make a $500 amplifier present a better image in the room...and spending that kind of money expecting that result because someone simply said it would...makes no sense to me. 

bartholomew
46 posts
04-24-2021 4:28pm
@rkronk

   Kris Kristofferson was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's. He actually had Lyme disease. He recovered from Lyme disease and continued performing.
   The most irritating aspect of posting meaningful tweaks on this forum is the knuckleheads here automatically accuse you of shilling for the manufacturer. What it reveals is that they don't have acute hearing by claiming that sonic improvements are imaginary and audio products are snake oil. It also reveals that the systems they listen to don't allow discernment of improvement because they're listening to crappy gear.  
It doesn’t get much more pretentious than this. Insinuating the people that choose to buy less expensive, higher value gear can’t hear the differences is ridiculous.
You are right...

And no one need to pay to buy acoustic or psychoacoustic law.... they cost nothing to apply and make a difference bigger than ANY upgrade...

Relating price and S.Q. exceeding  a certain boundary quality is no more possible....And this boundary is way more low than what most audiophiles think....
Who said anything about price? A crappy system can cost a little or a lot. Learn to read before you spout. If you can’t hear improvements between one interconnect and another, or between tubes, or power cables, I suspect that you lack the capacity to comment credibly. And dletch2, the word is "write". Illiteracy may also play a part.

bartholomew
47 posts04-24-2021 5:47pmWho said anything about price? A crappy system can cost a little or a lot. Learn to read before you spout. If you can’t hear improvements between one interconnect and another, or between tubes, or power cables, I suspect that you lack the capacity to comment credibly. And dletch2, the word is "write". Illiteracy may also play a part.
It’s obvious that you don’t understand the context of what you wrote...in this here forum and thread. So yeah....literacy matters.
Seriously? I am 60. Yup always used earplugs with chainsaws or gas blowers (but better to pay someone else wearing earplugs/protection to do it). Always wear earplugs riding motorcycles, racing motorcycles. But webt to a lot of rock concerts all my life before COVID and right, never wore them. But my bearing's been tested and it's still quite good. It's just like not smoking, or wearing a helmet, or any other prophylaxis, makes you healthier longer. 
@edgewound
I don't understand the context of what I wrote? Do you even know the appropriate application of the word "context"? "In this here forum and thread" as you put it- like a hillbilly.
Since you don't understand context with regards to this forum, here's a nice defintition for you...
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context




bartholomew
48 posts
04-24-2021 7:36pm
@edgewound
I don't understand the context of what I wrote? Do you even know the appropriate application of the word "context"? "In this here forum and thread" as you put it- like a hillbilly.


I'm a 60 year old gay guy. I am a club DJ audio/visual engineer. I was always aware of loud music and concerts when it came to my hearing. I rarely do a rave or dance party now and my hearing range is 40 Hz to about 14 KHz. I made my own split use headphone kit so that my ears were always covered if the dance floor was near the speakers and I used a stereo amp to split cue so my left ear was cue, my right ear dance floor and I used the balance control so that the stereo image was the same. My ears ring a bit but other DJs I have to scream at to be heard. My 14 year old nephew had a hearing test and his scope was up to about 16 KHz. My point is simple. Short of becoming Borg Drones on Star Trek, we all hear sound differently. The last concert I went to was Queen. I thought the sound was perfect after all these years and it was loud but not deafening. I'm using 8 gauge speaker cable in my bedroom and if it can handle 240 volts without dying on me, it can handle 100 watts a side. I wired a 200 watt globe and used speaker cable to connect it to the mains. The cable was stone cold after about 5 hours so who's right here. I use 4 gauge cable for my two main L and R speakers on my 7.1 surround system and 8 gauge for the other 5 speakers and it all kicks serious arse. I am, however dead against engineers who roll off their EQ at 20KHz. We might not be able to hear it but why do it and I don't want to start drama about it. My whole body has aged but my hearing is, overall to me anyway, excellent. I love playing my vinyl but love CDs and other digital formats....especially Blu-ray. Opinions? 
@edgewound
If you were trying to say that my comments were irrelevant to the topic of this thread, then you’ve taken my comments out of context. This thread is about hearing loss, and my point is that there are other forms of handicapped hearing, as in those who can’t hear the qualitative improvements of tweaks.
On the subject of irrelevance, do you think anyone cares about your long-winded diatribe about a woman who turned down an item twenty-five years ago? You’re suffering from diarrhea of the keyboard.

bartholomew
49 posts
04-25-2021 6:27am
@edgewound
If you were trying to say that my comments were irrelevant to the topic of this thread, then you’ve taken my comments out of context. This thread is about hearing loss, and my point is that there are other forms of handicapped hearing, as in those who can’t hear the qualitative improvements of tweaks.
On the subject of irrelevance, do you think anyone cares about your long-winded diatribe about a woman who turned down an item twenty-five years ago? You’re suffering from diarrhea of the keyboard.

It wasn't a woman. Your reading comprehension isn't very good, either. 
Post removed 

to paraphrase Jerry, 'if it sounds good it'll sound better loud..'

smoking some of your favorite strain also helps
  No since in you getting new glasses  the pair you have is good enough  
  basically that's what you said   
 let's get that right 
This platform seems to have been taken over by those feeling the need for self-aggrandizement rather than providing sought after help. A person should be made to feel comfortable asking a difficult or complex question and not humiliated simply because they do not ask a question correctly, phrase it properly or just do not know how to articulate their issue.
 
Making this a professional and courteous platform by reaching out to others with civility and sensitivity instead of making a person who is asking for information feel feel discredited or ridiculed. There is a lot of talent here. It would be great if we could actually help each other instead of using this medium for jabs, cutesy comments or to elevate our own self-worth.
Hearing varies from person to person. Thats a given. My hearing, like my sense of smell, taste, vision, touch they all vary day to day. Does your morning coffee/tea/vodka taste the same every day?

I maintain a fairly regular and stable diet. Don't drink or partake in the MJ. Some days, my set up sounds absolutely amazing.

Other days, I wonder what the hell am I doing with this stuff, it sucks! Its dull, lifeless, zero depth. Everything has to go. Gotta start from scratch.

Then, after I remove the IEM's I forgot about, everything is right in the world again :)

We are organic, not digital or analog. Our senses are not constants in the universe, they vary.

Perhaps, tweaks/adjustments/components should only be critically listened to on the days when our hearing is at its best. But I suspect its like a leaky roof. Not going out there in the rain to fix it, and when it's sunny, who wants to fix the roof when you can just bask in the sunlight.

Or great sound....
If anyone relies on anyone on this thread about what sounds best, you are a fool. You lack the spine to think for yourself. Most people who throw many years about how long they have been listening or, buying music is just their own opinion in what they hear. It doesn’t mean that they are right or wrong. It’s typically a generational gap. As time changes, so does music. If you don’t think so, then you are a bigger fool than I thought. Your arrogance is truly  noted. You can educate without being arrogant. I’m sure it’s hard for some to do but if you truly care about what we call a hobby or an enthusiast, try harder to be understanding because what you listen to 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years ago was produced for those years and definitely sound different. I myself listen to all types of music without any stereotypes because I truly understand how and why music was produced back then as well as now. During those times, it was known that the musicians would go for a specific type of sound and of course audio equipment was geared towards the type of sound during those generations. I definitely don’t pass judgment in regards to what type of music sounds better. That is so arrogant and quiet frankly self centered with the lack of ability to be a sprung. Do you honestly think that the teenager or that young adolescent is listening to you? Trust me they are not and it is due to how you speak with them. At the end of the day buy the gear that sounds best to you with the type of music you prefer to listen to. Don’t be suckered based on what people say. I’ve been to some of the well noted HiFi stores and shows across the world. I probably represent the 5-10% that has done that, and no, I’m not an editor for some magazine. I’m just a person who truly enjoys music weather it is a live concert, studio master recordings, DJ, or digitally synthesis. These stores use the same old pitch that what they sell is the best, lol. Apparently they all went to the same school of thought for how to sell a hi-end product, and yes most of them are of middle to late in age. Last advice, let your ears be your voice on what you hear, like or dislike not the folks including myself on this site. What you will get from me at the end of the day is truth and painful honesty, not forced down your throat opinions. 
Enjoy the music o your system and let it moves your soul as mine does!
These stores use the same old pitch that what they sell is the best, lol.


I always love the ones that try to convince you that they or you can pick out the sonic character of a source or amp or preamp in their store, in their room, and not with your speakers. Priceless.
i think what the OP is saying is that all of this comes down to what you hear or interpret in the music based on the condition of your hearing. How it brings back your aural memories of the live performances or simply past days of listening.   Quality of  sound reproduction is critical no matter where you are in life but the individuals experience is what matters most and that varies from indivdual to individual.  That said at 68 I have yet to reach audiophile Nirvana, but I do have a couple damn good systems, at least to these well aged ears, could and will eachsystem  get better, of course.  We are all addicts to some degree.
"Making this a professional and courteous platform..."

I think this is primarily meant to be a platform (forum) for hobbyists, not professionals.
For those who contend that we only need to rely on our ears - If that is the case, why would we need Audiogon or any other hobbyists forum.  We need it as a source of information or to validate our own thinking.  What we don't need is someone preaching to us or trying to make us look foolish in front of those we look to for help.
@johnspain  Agreed. Hard for some to accept, but what we perceive is something developed with others. Sure, we taste things or hear or see things with our particular apparatuses, but interpretation is a socially mediated ability, like language. That’s why people take wine tasting or art appreciation classes. The notion that hearing-with interpretation is an individual-only ability is an anachronistic idea. It is, in a word, silly. 

For those who contend that we only need to rely on our ears - If that is the case, why would we need Audiogon or any other hobbyists forum. We need it as a source of information or to validate our own thinking. What we don’t need is someone preaching to us or trying to make us look foolish in front of those we look to for help.


Hearing is not only an inherited ability(perfect pitch individual) but it is a learned habit we develop in many ways...

I come here for information and discoveries...

But i started to progress the day i decide to trust my own hearing biases and let them flourished or be replaced by others one...I begin by trusting what i listen to trying to understand why the sound is such and not such and how could i modify it for my own liking....

I did that because when you dont have the luxury of money if you want to live an audiophile experience there is only one way: listening experiments with low cost devices of your own...

I am glad to this day that trusting my own wishes and hearing possibilities i reach my goal....

Then the first thing to learn is knowing that our ears are the seat of the experience not the gear....How we embed it is more important than any upgrade...

And acoustic is the master of all in audio...Not the gear...

Called that preaching if you want...

But it is the most important fact i learned the hard way....

It dont lack of people here to inform us how to spend our money with various branded names.... I prefer to explain how to spare it, if my experience can help a little in this way....

Acoustic and psychoacoustic for example give to us the law with which we can create our own timbre experience, soundstage, imaging, listener envelopment (LEV) and that with very simple principle....

The relatively good gear we own in most case is enough for this explorations and experiences...

This is my "preaching"...

By the way there is many other people here very competent for all other necessary very technical answers.... It is a very good forum....

The worst thing here would be NOT trusting our own hearing experience and learning , trusting mainly the words of praise of others about costly gear.... This is the upgrade pit....Few comes over it and at the end the cost is heavy...








😊😊😊😊😊


I'm giving up. Other HELP forums have not digress to this communications style. I leave you with it.
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