Why Are People So Concerned About How Others Spend Their Money?

It’s not the amount that people spend that I have any problem with.

Why should I?

It’s their money and their choice, and if it brings them happiness, then that can only be good.

However, what I do find disagreeable is the commonly propagated notion that spending more money always brings sonic improvements.

We’ve all repeatedly heard such terms as ’night and day’, ’jaw dropping’, ’beyond recognition’, ’gobsmacked’ (might be a British one) etc only to later discover for ourselves that no such differences ever existed.

Therefore it’s important that there are people who can point out such inconsistencies to at least give the inexperienced a fighting chance to get some value for money in an industry that often seems bedevilled by sharks, starry eyed cable enthusiasts and the dreaded snake oil purveyors.

It doesn’t matter how much money we may or may not have, we all want value for money, don’t we?

Thankfully, as reviewer Ken Kessler loves to point out, it’s never been as easy to get so much for so less.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/international/soundstage-uk/1639-ken-kesslers-new-stereo-system-part-seven

@sns ,

"Money is often conflated as measure of happiness and worth. Money is how we keep score and value other's purchases, this is perhaps the one objective critique we have available to us."

Money is perhaps the easiest to understand yardstick we have by which to measure performance.

Unfortunately, although there is no doubt a loose correlation with between price and performance, it's not always an accurate one.

Even more unfortunately, all of the other yardsticks necessarily require considerably more thought and time.

Scanning technical data and deciphering complicated graphs which bring back unpleasant memories of high school mathematics is certainly not for everyone.

As we have seen over the past 18 months, there's an awful lot of people don't like to think. Research, for some is almost a dirty word.

So, as things stand, we should not be surprised to find that money/price remains the most commonly used yardstick for some time to come.

No doubt one that many purveyor of dubious goods will continue to seek to exploit.

That alone is a good enough reason for debate to flourish in forums such as this one.

@kahlenz 

"In a double-blind A/B test at normal listening levels most people would have a hard time distinguishing between LS50s and speakers that cost 100x as much.  They would, however, immediately be able to tell the difference between the LS50s and  laptop computer speakers."

Agreed. 

Although I suspect you wouldn't even need a pair of LS50s for your words to be true. Friends and family reactions have demonstrated this apparent anomaly over time after time.

However, we are not most people. We crave improvements wherever and whenever, irregardless. This is particularly problematic when there is no metric accurate enough by which can compare precise performance.

This is not F1 where they have 400 sensors on board the cars and precision timing mechanisms.

@dadork 

If you are on this forum you have bought various pieces of equipment. You and you alone made the decision to buy what you did.

Quite rightly so.

Despite the neverending exhortations of reviewers suggesting a neverending stream of improved versions (flavours of the month) there is no audio mandate.

The choice remains with the individual. The consumer is free to visit forums such as this and make up their own mind.

The key word is free.