Should there only be one company making gear?

I think this is a hell of a thread Nrchy.

It is too easy to let somone get you down on something. Alot of the time people seem o think they know what is right and wrong, and do not realize it is only thier opinion, not a fact.

I used to have a surrround set of Deftechs, the mains were 2004tls and the rears were bp6's

i came onto this board thinking i had a pretty decent system, and soon i was doubting my gear and thinking it wasnt nearly as good as i thought. Well, every time i listened to it i sure liked it. And now that i had to sell it all off to pay out a debt forced upon me by a bad roomate decision, i sure do miss em.

it is all about what YOU like, it is YOUR hobby, and what is good for me isnt always what is good for YOU.

There is alot of support in this hobby, but it is also full of elitism... "My gear is better than yours"

People always say stereo gear cannot be a status symbol, but here it sure seems to be sometimes.

I have learned alot about audio gear, i know most of the major manufacturers, i know how all of this stuff works, and ive heared alot of gear.
Ive gotten the impression occassionally that since i have radioshack speakers that some people think my opinion is pretty useless and i dont know what im talking about.

anyways, I getr alot of suggesstions about gear, but in the end, it is what will make ME happy?

Gotta buy it because you like it. Dont buy it because "it is supposed to be good" Buy it because you want it, and if other people get upset about that, well then they can sit there and rant while i enjoy my system. :)

Nrchy,

I didn't think you took offense to what I said, and I appreciate your comments. When it comes to audio, I just happen to have an appreciation for all the brands, simply because I just like jawing about the game.

However, what your clarifying post did alert me to is in the multitude of ways in which I am remarkably intolerant. My response was a case in point. So I thank you. Your post had quite the unexpected effect from a place I don't normally look to find such an education. That's what I meant.

Nrchy, I saw some of the posts that were exchanged before they were deleted. I think I caught a glimpse of what inspired this.

I had the feeling you were trying to prove something, you Ancient Provo Car Door (or something like that).

Marco, very good post.

We are wired to fear anyone different from us. Outside the family, the clan, the tribe. It's a survival trait, and one that we have to consciously aware of, now that our world has expanded beyond a copse of trees or a handful of caves.

The biggest dangers arise when demagogues try to (all too often successfully) to use those tendencies to govern, and give organized focus to such hatreds. So the best way to defend own desire (and in the US, we hold this desire to be a Right, most of the time) to be individuals is to ensure that others have the same privileges.

One of the most powerful expressions of this, in the context of those masters of the divide the different and rule the masses approach, the Nazis:

First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.

Niemoller

I've always appreciated that. I've had the (ahem) privilege of living under both Communist and Fascist regimes. Castro and Franco. They liked to use labels to conveniently dump anyone they felt should be marginalized, and therefore dehumanized. "Contra revolucinario," "revisionista." I see it (on a far less dangerous scale, but there nonetheless) in today's political frolicking. Isolate your enemies, paint them as a minority. Get the masses to see them as a danger to the tribe.

KP

Beautifully put, KP.
When some people start to take their hobbies too seriously they exhibit a primitive tribalism.
Whether the hobby be hifi, attending football matches, golf etc etc. I think that some of it comes from insecurity, which itself is fed by modern society's consumerist rat-race.

No two pieces of my system are made by the same manufacturer, so I'd be a bit stuck if there were only a single manufacturer !