Personal vs. Market Values


Take truffle oil. Or truffles. The mushrooms, not the confection.
Honestly I can’t taste it. I’ve ordered all sorts of dishes with "truffle oil" which commanded a premium and if there is any difference at all in the taste I could not tell you even after being told about it.

The point of this is that truffle oil holds no personal value to me. I’m not trading in it or running a restaurant or buying it in bulk. If I did that I’d feel and be willing to spend quite differently than I do now.

The point to this and how this matters in audio is that you should be true to your own ears. Use friends, reviews (cough) and other sources as guides. You may also evaluate a brand based on re-sale value. That’s reasonable as the resale could have a material impact on you in the future.

But if you can’t hear a difference or prefer a speaker/cable/amp no one else does then serve only yourself and your loved ones. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the market value of a particular product has value for you or that it is a display of relative merit. It may not. Our hobby is filled with charlatans selling invisible clothes.

Those who say they can't taste the truffle oil or see invisible clothes spend less and are far happier I think.

Happy listening,

E
erik_squires
Yes, there probably are supertasters in audiophile land, but what good are we? :)
I mean, if we could discern between 20 different amplifiers, are you enjoying music more, or did you just train some set of neurons to discriminate without an end goal?

Get some truffle potato chips or almonds from Trader Joe’s and compare them to regular. I would be very surprised if you did not notice a difference.
Erik - Do you see what you're started here? If you keep this up you might turn this into TrufflegoN(TM)...


The post betrays an underling feeling of insecurity: “I can’t tell the difference, what’s wrong with me?”

If telling people to just trust their ears was an effective strategy, wouldn’t it all be so simple.  In actuality, it’s anything but..
I love good music and quality audio.  I have no place in my pantry for Truffle anything.