The latest flavour of the month speaker

Fear leads to the dark side of audiophile forces.

Fear of cable impurities causing imperfections to the sound, Fear of jitter, Fear of house panel wiring, Fear of interconnects robbing the system of sound, Fear that XYZ is too cheap/low cost to possibly sound good, fear that only gold, silver and diamonds can give a high quality sound, Fear that a tone control destroys the sound, Fear that digital is missing stuff between the bits, and, of course, the Fear of NOT keeping up with the Jones'!!

When you walk into a Hi-Fi store or you start a thread on A'gon with a concern then it is not long before your worst nagging fears of doubt about your system or sound will find reinforcement. Fear is one of the reasons people change.

It is Fear that leads to doubt and doubt ultimately leads to disatisfaction...no matter how great or perfect the sound....once the seeds of doubt have been sown, watered and nutured then it is back on the 'ol merry-go-round...

Are you asking about why so many Harbeth speakers specifically are on the market on this site?

I don't think there is much more too it than that they are high end speakers that bring a good price on the open market and this is a leading high end audio site. Tha's how it works.

Lone wolf. I tend to look at these 'hot' items as faddish. Although, that's not always true, it is more often the case.

As for the never ending trail of cycling through components, it may explain more about one's personality, or one's listening experience than the product's quality. We all need to learn how to listen, what qualities to listen for, and which qualities are most important to us. I put linearity and transparency at the top of my list, with orchestral music as the primary source for revealing those qualities. When that's right, all other types of music and recordings will sound right.

Shadorne,

Your comments regarding fear being an effective motivator is of course so true in general. Much of what any living creature does is unfortunately but of course often dictated by fear. Regarding audio, making decisions based on fears is generally not the happy path to satisfaction.

Much of what any living creature does is unfortunately but of course often dictated by fear.

Yeah, however, most of what a man does seems to be dictated by his wife and mother-in-law.... ;-) We got more brawn but it would seem we get outmanoeuvred by their wits everytime...