@ghdprentice - I don't drink, but am fascinated with the concept that there are wines that people think smell like cat urine and still drink it. If I needed to give a gift to a wine drinker...
Why Are We Breaking Our Brains?
A master sommelier takes a sip of red wine, swishes it around a bit, pauses, ponders, and then announces: “…. It’s from a mountainous region … probably Argentina … Catena Zapata Argentina Malbec 2020.” Another sommelier at a fine eating establishment in a major city is asked: “What would you pair with shrimp?” The sommelier hesitates for a moment then asks the diners: “What shrimp dish are you ordering?” The sommelier knows the pairing depends on whether the shrimp is briny, crisp, sweet, or meaty. Or some other “house specialty” not mentioned here. The sommelier can probably give good examples of $10 wines and bad examples of $100 wines. And why a good $100 wine is worth … one hundred dollars.
Sommeliers do not have a master’s degree in biochemistry. And no one from the scientific world is attempting to humiliate them in public forums for “claiming to know more than a little bit about wines” with no scientific basis to back them up. No one is shouting “confirmation bias” when the “somm” claims that high end wines are better than cheap wines, and well worth the money.
Yet, guys and gals with decades of involvement in high performance audio who claim to “hear differences” in various elements introduced into audio chain are pulled thru a gauntlet of scientific scrutiny, often with a great deal of fanfare and personal invalidation. Why is there not a process for “musical discovery” for seasoned audiophiles, and a certification process? Evaluator: “Okay, I’m going to change something in the system. Tell me what you hear. The options are interconnect upgrade, anti-skate calibration, removal of acoustical materials, or change in bitrate. Choose one.”
How can those with pretty “sensitive antennas” and years of hands (and, ears) on good gear convince the technical world that they are actually qualified to hear what they are hearing?
Why is it viewed as an inferior process for seasoned professionals to just listen, "swish" it around in their brains for a bit, and comment?
Showing 4 responses by mceljo
As others have mentioned, the wine industry isn't without it's conspiracy theories. I'm fairly certain that professional "tasters" and "smellers" can be tested to on some level (i.e. at what concentration can they identify a known taste or smell) but I don't know if this is done. I'm not into it at all, but I think the wine industry is based primarily on subjective evaluations of the taste along with how exclusive the product is. The audiophile world is certainly similar in a lot of ways. I think the controversies come from a couple of different directions. One is that because audiophile equipment is, in theory, and engineered product there's an expectation that measurements on meaningful. Another is that the placebo effect is absolutely (in my mind) in play for a lot of audiophile while there are a few with truly golden ears that detect differences that most simply cannot. Another is that most audiophiles are influenced by expectation bias when it comes to hearing what are only differences. Probably the biggest aspect, in my mind, is that so much of the industry relies on pseudoscience that many that have some understanding of the related physical and engineering simply lose all confidence. I think that a lot of companies "design" by trial and error using their ears and then try to explain the differences scientifically. I try to keep an open mind that there are systems and ears that transcend mine and my experience is very limited. I have heard differences that I did not expect and in some cases don't understand how someone else might not hear the difference. What really bugs me is when people compare two products that have little beyond the product type in common and then attribute the differences that they hear to a cherry picked attribute and then that experience becomes evidence for another audiophile. |
@jond - "Conspiracy Theory" is probably too strong of a word. I was just referring to the classic debate on how much the price of a given wine impacts the experience. Can most people really tell the difference between different wines that cost orders of magnitude different? I should test my brother-in-law sometime. He and my sister actually named my niece after a favorite wine. I could track down someone that could recommend the most similar inexpensive wine and see if I could get my sister to pour him a glass of it on the down low and see if he would recognize that something was off. |
@thyname - "Tricking" would be a fair assessment. I think he would see the humor in it or I wouldn't do it. |