Agree or disagree with the following statement.


Trying to get some input on an issue that a few of us are debating.

Statement:

If you have never listened to any particular component, you can't have an opinion on how it sounds.

Answer:

I don't agree with that. Measurements provide a fairly good indication of how something will sound. That's the beauty of science -- it's not necessary to have first hand experience to make reasonable judgments. You likely disagree and that could be a difference in our background and education."

So, the issue at hand is, can tell how a component sounds without listening to it, and just go on specs? Or, do you have to listen to it, as well, because the specs don't tell the whole story?
zd542
Wolf, obviously Lars' system was not revealing enough, you don't follow instructions or you guys had too much to drink. As I said you can throw out the negative results. Furthermore, what with Tesla coils, cryogenics, cream electret, quantum parallel line purifiers, things of that nature, you can't assume by looking at something what it does, or if it's been treated.
Geoffkait...we listened, and we (among many others) decided the Tice Clock was nonsense that time (pun alert) proved...as is the term "throwing out the negative results"...there were no "negative results," there were no results at all. Lars was a serious reviewer with amazing systems on hand to review, we weren't drinking, and your results may have differed but "obviously" you weren't there. Parallel line conditioner...man...
Wolf, here is the pertinent portion of George Tice's letter to Stereophile regarding a angry letter to the magazine from a disgruntled customer. Enjoy.

"Regarding your question "What technology does the Clock offer?": TPT is a material treatment system which, when integrated with other systems—ie, your electrical system—eliminates electron noise caused by the random and chaotic movement of electrons in a conductor. We will have a white paper explaining this process in further detail available by the time you receive this letter.

Regarding your comments on extra circuitry, no extra circuits have been added to the Clock. The Clock is only a carrier of the TPT technology. I realize this is a difficult concept for some people to grasp: the Clock has been treated with the TPT process. This is very much the same idea as cryogenically treating components. Those components are not visually modified or altered, but the treatment changes them on a molecular level. The same is true for our TPT process. As to the Audio Advisor mentioning that an additional chip was added to our TPT Clock, this is incorrect. The Audio Advisor does not send us proofs of their catalogs and advertisements before they go to print. They are in error regarding the chip. We did, of course, advise them as soon as we received our copy of their new catalog."
Also, remember that when the Tice clock came out, AC conditioning was unheard of.

Neither here or there on the clock, but this particular statement is absolutely false. The clock came out about 1993 or so; my first dealership was using power line conditioning in about 1987; that was an older unit made by Superior Electric in the 1950s- it was chock full of oil-filled caps and vacuum tubes and used something called a Saturable Reactor as part of its operating principle). Power line conditioners have been around long enough for them to actually be older than many of the people on this thread. We are refurbishing some Elgar line conditioners in our shop right now that were made in the 1970s (and are still some of the best ever made).
I was a Tice dealer, and, the closer you put the clock to the source, the smoother it all sounded. I had a few customers who heard dramatic differences, others, subtle. I am not saying there isn't snake oil in this industry, nor any other, for that matter. You either hear it, or you don't. I believe acute ears can hear differences, and I believe those same people, will not. The number of tweaks this industry has seen (heard), is amazing. VPI bricks, green markers, tip toe isolation devices, etc., all made differences, to these ears. Should not be debates. Either, yes, it makes a difference, or not. The other point I will make, is, how many people use live, unamplified music, as their reference ? I always have. This is supposed to be a fun and enjoyable industry, as music, and it's reproduction of it, fills the senses, for many of us. MrD.