Too good a post to waste
As worthwhile as an objective/numbers assessment might be, you're looking for emotional satisfaction from audio playback Exactly. The emotional connection becomes greater with each layer of haze that is removed. I don't hallucinate like I don't imagine what I'm hearing... Although taking acid is another story... |
fuzztone, +1 *L* Indeed.... I was a fan of Audio. I own a soldering pencil, the old Weller died awhile ago. Audio systems vs. cars? Your system, despite enthusiasm, won't kill or maim you or anyone else. Make you tone deaf, perhaps....at least to 'opposing opinions'. Despite glowing reviews, your wetware between the ears will always be the final opinion that rules. A lot of the SOTA offerings still strike this cynic as 'sonic jewelry'; the cost of the physical object d'art outweighs the normally unseen circuitry. (If it looks good, it must sound good as well, Right?). I've more heretical (mho) things to 'voice', but I need to go sharpen my keyboard.... 'Ciao *S* |
"Who Do you think makes more money, Ford or Ferrari?"Ferrari has much higher profit margin. As of the beginning of this year, Ford was not doing that well financially. Ferrari was fine. It might have changed since then. https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto/news/ferrari-earns-as-much-profit-selling-one-car-that-ford-doe... |
No concrete wire is only a designed abstract wire, particular audio environment exist coupled to different ears... A wire exist only "connected" to a particular audio system for some peculiar ears... But why so much thread about wire and nothing about the more fundamental question linked to the basic multidimensional problem :HOW to embed an audio system? Half of the thread are about cables, and their directionality.... It is like a thread about cars speaking half the time about plugs..... :) I apologize to millercarbon for my post.....And to all others.... My best to all.... |
Yes, it is fairly easy to hear differences - if you actually try and hear the differences. That's the problem with people like Hirsch. They put themselves up as authoritative. Some fall for it. I did. Well I was young and a nerd into science and it seemed to make sense that all you needed from wire was that it be thick enough. It didn't help that in 1975 Puyallup, WA there really was nothing to choose from but gauge. By the 1990's though this had changed and the first time I compared my old patch cords with entry level Wireworld the improvement was obvious, and I mean immediately. Heard it even before I made it back to the chair. |
mijostyn As always the answer lies somewhere in the middle. The reason there are so many manufacturers of cables is quite simple. HUGE profit margin. >>>>>I have a feeling that statement, a favorite of the pseudo skeptic crowd, is probably not true. In reality, you can make more money selling inexpensive cables, you know like Monster Cable or say, Anti Cables. Do the math. Multiply the number of cables sold by the price per cable. Who Do you think makes more money, Ford or Ferrari? Hel-loo! |
Ya, reading them listening to and selling gear in 1979 based on Dr Matti Otolla research And the brilliant Jim Thiel wired with as I recall Fulton Brown.. Vandersteen since 1977..... before that Bozak and McIntosh... the legendary concert grands, 240 MX-110Z ( 1965 ) also had good fortune to meet Karl Neiring of Sensible Sound about that time a big Proponent of Dynaco / Hafler / ModificationS, etc.. no list of publications complete without a mention of Dick Hardesty ( of Havens and Hardesty ) |
TAS started in 1972! The Audio Critic in 1977 along with IAR (International Audio Review). Both were run by Peters (Aczel and Moncrieff, respectively). StereOpus and Bound For Sound (Martin DeWolf) appeared around that time. A bit later was Sensible Sound. Followed by Art Dudley's Listener. And from 1956 (!) John Crabbe's HiFi News & Record Review was the best (and still is) of the British HiFi press. So from the early Seventies there was a variety of publications for English-speaking audiophiles other than Stereo Review and High Fidelity. And Audio (RIP) which straddled the line between the underground press and the mainstream. Brilliant! Now were you around and reading all those at the time? |
As always the answer lies somewhere in the middle. The reason there are so many manufacturers of cables is quite simple. HUGE profit margin. The problem for most audiophiles is the visual component. If it looks good it must sound better. Turntables are extremely imbued with this characteristic. So are cables. To my own way of thinking you always want the shortest cable possible in all circumstances but particularly for speakers. The only way to do this is by making your own. All the very best wire and terminations are available for a fraction of the cost of the manufacture stuff. Learn to use a soldering iron and be proud of your own work and beautiful and neat wiring. Any other approach is an extreme waste of money. I would rather buy music:) |
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TAS started in 1972! The Audio Critic in 1977 along with IAR (International Audio Review). Both were run by Peters (Aczel and Moncrieff, respectively). StereOpus and Bound For Sound (Martin DeWolf) appeared around that time. A bit later was Sensible Sound. Followed by Art Dudley's Listener. And from 1956 (!) John Crabbe's HiFi News & Record Review was the best (and still is) of the British HiFi press. So from the early Seventies there was a variety of publications for English-speaking audiophiles other than Stereo Review and High Fidelity. And Audio (RIP) which straddled the line between the underground press and the mainstream. |
I guess there will always be wars between those who prefer to hew to what the numbers say and those who prefer to believe what their ears say. To me, though, you're not buying stereo gear to better perform heart surgery. As worthwhile as an objective/numbers assessment might be, you're looking for emotional satisfaction from audio playback and thus it's a reviewer's subjective analysis that should rule the roost. Should a movie reviewer only talk about a film's color balance, or should they be delving into such esoterics as whether the actors convincingly flesh out their characters...and whether those characters are worth spending time with in the first place? Audio gear may be the work of scientists but it exists to exalt the work of artists. Finally, yes, Audio was marginally more subjective in their judgments than was Stereo Review, but TAS and Stereophile were/are in an entirely 'nother league. |
Science and belief systems progress, one funeral at a time. Or, to quote Plank fairly: A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”We are simply arguing with the old guard over something that will become conventional wisdom itself, and in turn and it time, will be tossed aside as well. 😄 All the best, Nonoise |
