almarg6,477 posts06-20-2016 4:13pm....... identifying the root cause (or causes) of a sonic shortcoming can often be sufficiently difficult to make adhering to those philosophies problematical. To a greater or lesser degree, of course, depending on the particular issue and the particular audiophile.
That difficulty can also be compounded in many cases by unavailability of meaningful technical information about the products that are involved.
I agree completely. Complex root cause analysis, particularly when void of relevant third party data, is often even more complex than the initial design, but that can also be the fun part. What drives me crazy is when a component choice (like a cable for instance) is made without regard to best practices regarding system design and then a conclusion is drawn about that particular component in a vacuum.
It is like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks and then blaming the spaghetti for bad behavior.
Finally, while as I say I completely agree with your philosophy, it’s interesting to consider that it would seem likely in a lot of situations to come into conflict with the "trust your ears" mantra that many and probably most high end audiophiles seem to subscribe to.
A conflict indeed. I say engineer first to give the system as a whole its best chance to excel, then trust your ears. Otherwise your ears can draw the wrong conclusion about any particular component if the system makeup is not logical (ergo my example about the coat hanger sounding better than the Nordost interconnect between components approaching a parity impedance match). This approach does NOT mean trust measurements over your ears. Use your brain first to give your ears the best view of the system (or component’s) true capability.
Regarding the mention of voltage drops in one of your prior posts, I would not discount the possibility that there may be a goodly number of circumstances in which a slightly larger voltage drop in the house wiring may produce results that are preferable to a slightly smaller voltage drop.
Interesting point that I will do some additional thinking about. I have typically not been concerned about anything beyond the +/- 5 volts my Torus automatically regulates. I run pretty consistently between 120 and 123 and my Soulution amps seem to behave well at this level but I definitely take your point.
Thanks for your thoughts.
