2. misc-audio
  3. 148299-127647

The JC Whitney syndrome

Those of you that have tinkered with cars as a hobby probably remember the JC Whitney catalogue. This was a mail order catalogue that offered various performance upgrades that could be installed on your car. What always amused me were the claims made by each product. There were literally hundreds of add on products, each claiming to "increase HP by x amount" and/or "improve gas mileage by y MPG". I used to joke that if you installed all the accessories being offered, you would be able to add thousands of horsepower while getting over 100 MPG.  This is not to say that each product taken on its own wouldn't have some merit, but the improvements are not necessarily cumulative.

Same goes for audio. Every product (I'm referring mainly to "tweeks" here) claims to offer "tighter and more extended base, clearer highs, better transparency, freedom from coloration, less listening fatigue, greater detail, etc., etc. The benefits (real or imagined) of audiophile wall sockets, power conditioners and chords, cables, vibration pods and spikes, equipment racks, cable supporters, binding posts and terminations made of unobtainium, etc. etc. are typically not cumulative. While any of the aforementioned items may provide a sonic benefit on its own, that benefit may be lost or diminished by the addition of additional tweeks. In such cases, 1 + 1 often equals something less than 2. Your system may have reached a point where the addition of a normally beneficial tweak provides no audible benefit at all. 

Don't fall victim to the JC Whitney syndrome.

J.Chip
128x128jchiappinelli

Showing 1 response by michaelgreenaudio

michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Hi J.Chip

I wanted to come up earlier but needed to get caught up with clients "Tuning" no less, which is why I’m coming up now. One of the reasons HEA audiophiles get stuck in their tweaking efforts is because they have no method of listening. Tweaking to them is a very random sport or they get heading in a direction that ultimately they have to stop when they realize they are actually loosing audio signal information, and turn around and head the other way again to see where they messed up. This happens mostly with people who dampen and shield products or add too much mass. The word "overdone" is something HEA has fooled themselves into and they end up not being able to play as many recordings as they should be able to.

The audio signal is vibratory and as such variably tunable, too much is most times worst than too little when we are talking about preserving the audio signal through the audio chain. For a long time this industry has been way over doing things and ending up squeezing the heck out of the recordings. There’s a chapter of audiophiles who instead of killing the sound preserve it, that’s the chapter I belong to. We use the "method of tuning" to keep our systems and recordings in balance giving us a higher level of performance plus the ability to make sonic changes at will. This is where HEA will end up as the overbuilt days continue to die off. Not more or less tweaks just a clear method in how to tune the sound in.

Sad you’ve been bashed your first thread here, but now you have an idea for how unsuccessful listeners can’t stand when someone comes up with something sensible to talk about. You’ve heard the phrase "misery loves company", well so do unsuccessful listeners. Many of these folks have spent way to much money chasing things that they haven’t really studied, explored deep enough or had someone show them the ropes. They’re like touching the wrong end of the torch because it looks bright, only to have found out they’ve been burnt. Fact is the reviewers should have practiced their art before talking so much and only desiring to sell expensive components that don’t do nearly as much as they should. A good method of listening will provide excellent sound and cost little as compare to component collecting and plug & play.

Michael Green

http://www.michaelgreenaudio.net/

More to discover