This debate, although at times provocative and occasionally interesting, is a silly mery go round where each side is totally missing the point. Having worked in the audio business and met many of the scummy snake oil reps and voodoo practitioners that undoubtedly exist, I agree that insanity exists in the world of our hobby. I am also self confident enought to admit that I would probably fail double blind tests in attempts to identify differences in components whose quality I have coveted and promoted. Nonetheless, I vigorously defend every free person's right to stick weird dots on their equipment, color the edges of their CDS, reposition AC cords in astral shapes, perch their components on exotic materials even when -- in fact ESPECIALLY when under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Why?! Because the point of owning fine audio equipment and listening to music is PLEASURE, CONTEMPLATION, FUN AND THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC. Have any of you engineering Audio Critic subscribing geniuses ever heard of PLACEBO effect? If you think alternative medicine makes you feel better, guess what? YOU DO FEEL BETTER! If you think organic peanut butter and mixed berry yoghurt smeared on the underside of your Rockport Reference turntable improves the sound -- IT DOES SOUND BETTER!!!!!!!!!! The E.E. Phd perfect sound forever crowd could better spend their time arguing that the USDA beef at McDonalds is just as good as Peter Luger's or that skid pad figures for the Corvette prove its superiority to Ferrari Maranellos. I bet you buy 100% silk ties from the Tie Rack at your local mall, drink the finest wine from screw top containers, wear cheap suits and have bad haircuts. You probably have great difficulty understanding the Swiss watch industry because quartz keeps better time for less money. Why don't you take your big brains and go cure cancer or eradicate world hunger or something. As for the subjectivists, don't be so paranoid and insecure. Relax, enjoy the music and and have fun. Who cares if you can "prove" it sounds better or not. It's just a hobby. Long live artists and audiophiles. Secret Geek Long live artists and audiophiles
"The Audio Critic" B.S. or what?
Has anyone ever heard of this magazine? In a nutshell, their premise is that audiophiles are ridiculous. They claim that all high-end equipment is marketed to audio magazines and their foolish readers. One particular area they sounded off about was cable and interconnect theory. They claim that spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars for cables is a joke and is a total waste of money. They claim that companies like Kimber are selling us a bunch of "snake oil." I just breezed through a copy and now it's got me wondering if we audiophiles are just masturbating each other with our concepts and discussion of "high-end" equipment and cables. Please tell me this is a bunch of sh*t. I'd like to think that we're getting at least a bit of "high-end" for our hard-earned $$$$