When I was a kid working in the amusement park I would sometimes work the Carny side of things. You quickly learned who was savvy and who was a mark. Some of the marks knew they were but played along because they were only throwing away peanuts. Some had no clue.
When I had the stripper living with me I saw the same effect. When I took my friends to her shows for free we would always be treated like marks when we walked in. After we let out that we knew somebody in the show we were treated like family instead of schmucks. The deal was that we weren't stupid enough to actually pay money for the show. We were alright.
Think audio is any different?
Really, do you?
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cd318---Interesting take. I think a lot of the defenders of the absolute lunatic fringe bonkers tweaks that you see in the forums are like my old card playing buddies.
Back in the day when I had the, uh, exotic dancer living at my place, I had a lot of card playing friends. When they would come over and we'd sit around the table, she would wander around in her, uh, work clothes. Oh Honey, can I freshen your drink? Things like that. She knew what she was doing. They knew what she was doing.
I was looking at the cards. They were looking at something else. I won a lot. They really did not care. They were very happy to come over and not look at their cards.
It's the same way with the denizens of tweak city here. Most know better. They want to play and to dream and the Hell with anybody that says different.
That's fine for what it's worth. If anybody wants to play pretend that way, go right ahead. I used to read Erich Von Daniken and Charles Fort for fun myself.
Can't say I believed it though.
Ahem.
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I left out the great
Immanuel Velikovsky
in my last post. Legendary, wonderfully entertaining read. Like a lot of the ads for cables and fuses and tweaks I see, great stuff and deeply amusing.
You just have to realize that you're in the fiction section. If you forget that and take the wrong things as reality, you may get people laughing at you.
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I understand rabbits are directional. You might check that.
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While I do have to offer my compliments to the original poster for a fun idea, it was inevitable that the thread would descend into argument. Why? Well, speaking as someone who has been involved in the hobby for over 40 years, I've watched the lunatic fringe rise from Auntie Enid and Peter Beltto, to well what it has become.
Why would the eye bulging types invade the thread to defend that tweaks and gizmos and Audio Jewelry are the bee's knees? What do they need to defend? Can't skeptics ridicule the craziness that inhabits audio in peace?
Well of course not. If you have something invested in that sort of thing, ridicule is not what you savor. Common sense is the last thing that you want to see.
Consider though, as audio as we know it shrinks as a hobby and home theater and smart speakers dominate, think about the case we make to the public at large and the younger generation for the survival of the hobby.
We have a good sized and mobile group, intolerant of dissent, that posits the most outrageous and laughable positions imaginable. It's bad enough that current hobbyists find the positions untenable, think about how that group looks to people considering the hobby.
Inviting to newbies? I think not.
Wonder why the hobby is shrinking? Who wants to be part of a group that people make jokes about? Who wants to be part of a group that people laugh at?
My compliments again to the original poster for a fun idea. I'm off to finish my cold fusion reactor.
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Geoff,
As usual, we disagree. At least you like the Ramones.There may still be hope.
Lance
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mahgister,
Don't think for a moment that I discourage playing about with the system. This should be fun. I go back to say 1963 when I was rewinding my slot car motors with #32 wire, balancing, polishing, and upgrading my Mabuchi's to beat the expensive Mura brand name motors. I got pretty good at it. I built my own frames from scratch as well just as I build amplifiers now.
The idea I wanted to express was not that you should not experiment. I applaud your initiative. That's a sane way to approach things, experiment and verify results.
What I did want to put on the table was the note that the original poster asked a fun question about the most ridiculous, bizarre, and laughable aspects of our hobby, a subject that should have been greeted with mirth, and while many joined in with the fun, a number of purveyors of the ridiculous, bizarre, and laughable descended on the tableau to let us know that the loony way is the way of the wise. The cabal of the crazy could not restrain themselves from educating us away from our transgressions.
Please, those of us who, dare I say it, have been doing this for over 40 years, yes I said it again, have had time and experience to sort the wheat from the chaff.
There are plenty of people still angry about Copernicus. There are Alchemists about still. Listen to them if you like. That's fine. Still, as I asked before, why do those revisionists who refuse to let skeptics think like skeptics insist so assuredly of promulgating the absurd as Gospel so vociferously that a fun thread becomes, well becomes what a lot of threads become.
Keep experimenting. Keep thinking. Keep having fun. That's exactly what you should do.
Listening to the eye bulging Gurus?
Not so much.
Cheers,
Lance
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Pardon me, I'm going to go cryo my rabbit to see if it becomes less directional...
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It's easy to think that because one thinks in a certain fashion that others do as well. That's not how it works necessarily. Some may think as you do. Some will not.
Consider the quote
"Anyone who thinks audio is a plug-and-play hobby doesn’t understand the problem.
"
For most, audio IS a plug and play hobby. Most prefer to purchase a completed and well thought out product, plug it in, and be done with it.
Most normal people anyway.
I remember when I had Marantz 8b's and for a time 5's. There was all that nervous fiddling about with the bias, it was such a bother going back and forth and knowing that even though I had set it yesterday it had moved and that it was wrong now and I had to get up and set it again.
Who needs that?
When I started making my own amplifiers, and I've made hundreds by hand from scratch, I vowed to make them all with cathode bias. Nothing to adjust. No nervous fiddling about. No fuss. No bother.
It wasn't only the old adage that if you give the customer something to adjust, you can count on it being adjusted incorrectly, it was that I could not stand the bother that the other method caused.
I've never had a complaint from a customer that making things easier for them was an issue. Never.
Now some live to fuss and fiddle. That's fine for them. To project their psychosis onto others such that plug and play is some sort of problem is seriously misguided. Not all audiophiles need to tweak and twerk and fuss and fiddle like whirling dervishes. Some of us prefer the ease and restful repose that listening to music can provide without the frenetic jumping about that constantly twiddling entails.
Is the point of the hobby listening and enjoying or is it in fussing and perhaps pestering others endlessly such that they must listen to one's misguided viewpoint? Why would one spend quite so much time and effort constantly badgering others that there is a "problem" when in fact the problem is the badgering, not that others disagree?
Why are others not allowed to disagree?
Honestly, those that can't sit down because they have ants in their pants have my permission to do so. Be as you are. Enjoy yourself. We're all different. Variety is the spice of life and all that.
Do not however, attempt to presume that your way is the only way or even the way of the majority of audiophiles. Most really do not care about obsessions of that type. It would be better if there were a bit of grace and acceptance of the fact that there is push back when one's ideas are not roundly accepted as Gospel.
Ever deal with a pushy salesman that would not shut up? Ever know somebody that, when they finally leave a group, everybody was leaping to make comments about? Ever know somebody like that?
I'm just sayin'
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Mahgister,
You're having fun and not pressuring anybody.
Good for you.
Lance
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They're not?
Well, there you have it. A happy home for the abnormal it is.
Sounds more than a trifle delusional and self serving there.
I say again,
"Anyone who thinks audio is a plug-and-play hobby doesn’t understand the problem. " misstates the issue. There is no "problem"unless one creates it in their own mind. For most, plug and play is desirable. Most do not consider the purchase of a pricey component the starting point for anything but enjoyment. If that enjoyment is effected by the application of juju, that's fine for yourself.
To then posit that all High enders are likewise aberrant is silly.Tweakers are and have always been in the minority. Big deal.
It's not the tweaking that's the issue at all.
It's the incessant noise about it.
Got it?
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hard, cold physics is then replaced by mythology?
Hey, that Alan Shaw from Harbeth sounds like a "normal person"! |
