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Where do you draw the line???

There are many interesting threads here about innumerable topics where people share many different opinions. If the truth be known I think many of us are still open to suggestion or opposing points of view regarding most things, but there must be some issues about which we are unwilling to budge.

In your own mind what is the concession you are unwilling to make?

For example; many people feel tubes are superior to solid state equipment. I have owned tube gear, and have several friends who I respect that still own tube gear, but I will not concede that solid state equipment is inferior to tubes.

Another concession I cannot make is the superiority of CDs to vinyl. I have a good CDP and have listened to better than my own, and in my experience LPs still are the hands-down winner for sound quality.

I have and like Krell equipment, and have been taken to task because of it. I'm still not selling it to buy another brand.

The question is: Regardless of the opinion of others what views or opinions are you unwilling to change???

Lets not fight! This is supposed to be fun!!!
128x128nrchy
63 responses Add your response
danner
202 posts
 
Sorry, some of us are professional magicians.
danner
202 posts
 
Stereo is an auditory illusion and we are all amateur magicians.
kublakhan
717 posts
 
ELCO cables are a disgustingly obvious SCAM.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!

I'm astonished audiogon allows this crap to continue.
vikkysingh
154 posts
 
There is no such thing as a neutral component.

Statements that claim one piece is neutral are basing neutrality on some idea in their head which is therfore biased and not nuetral. Instruments sound different depending on whether you are sitting front row, back row, above or below the source. I used to sit under my mom's piano when she'd play and when I got up I would always notice how different the instrument sounded. Mic placement is never the same in a studio.
If you are trying to create what happened in the studio and think that is neutral good luck. You are still guessing what the studio sounded like. Most likely you were not in the studio and if you were the so called neutral sytem you develop to create that sound will be non-neutral for other cd's/sources. That is unless all your cd/LPs are recorded by the same engineer in the same studio using the same techniques. Neutrality is bunk! Buy a system that makes your favorite music sound the way you think it should sound. You may think my system is colored, maybe it is, but I'm damn happy with it!
1markr
594 posts
 
Where do I draw the line?? At buying brand spanking new equipment. Why should I, when there is such an abundance of awesome used stuff here at Audiogon!! So much gear, so little time and $$.
newbee
4,767 posts
 
The only beliefs that I hold dear are that (1) most of the folks who want to talk endlessly about what equipment sounds best have never optomized what they have by setting it up properly in a good listening environment and (2) its only the music that really counts!
ozfly
887 posts
 
1) I believe that every component matters significantly enough that no one component is the most important
2) While cables are not components per se, they generally help make or break a system
3) There are lots of fine business/marketing/economic reasons for cable pricing, but the pricing is bordering on obscenity
4) Very expensive turntable systems will outperform cd systems (that is different than saying all or most turntable systems will beat all cd systems)
5) Tubes are not inherently superior to solid state
6) Acoustics do matter, but the human brain can also do a pretty good job compensating in most real life environments
7) Isolation matters for source systems (e.g., cd, tt)
8) Everyone's ear is different and preferences are different -- there is no best for everyone.
9) There will always be great music and great musicians
10) The music companies will be better served by lowering their prices.

Great thread!
rockvirgo
587 posts
 
People who need to draw the line seldom convince me of anything, except that they seek validation, which makes them even less convincing.

Tubes and the way they sound fascinate me but no way will I ever put a time bomb into my system just because it sounds good.
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,769 posts
 
Nate ... great idea for a thread.

1. I will not accept that LP's are worth the bother. I spent too many years in the 70's & 80's making cassette tape copies of LP's, because LP's were so easily scratched up.
2. I will not accept that there is not a market for audiophile quality stereo receivers.
3. I believe that pop music peaked somewhere between 1966 & 1968. It doesn't get much better than Gary Puckett & the Union Gap's "Woman, Woman."
Post removed 
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
1) I will never believe that speaker cables can ever be directional. It's AC .. I don't care about crystalline structure of the metal ... it's AC.
2) That rap is music, or some sort of legitimate art form. No it isn't, it's noise. :-)
3) SACD is about sound quality ... no it isn't .. it's about making you buy all of your albums all over again.

I think I'm open to persuasion in most other areas.
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
SACD is "probably" only superior to CD when replayed by equipment at the very top end.
I can't hear it at the moderate end and since I haven't heard the top players I can't deny it's true....yet.
twl
3,251 posts
 
Hi Nate. My position is that I will use whatever is possible to get the best sound I can find. Yes, I am very opinionated as to what sounds best to me, but if there was something on the other side of the fence that sounded better, then you can bet I'd go right after it.

That being said, analog and tubes is where it's at for me, until something shows itself to be better.
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