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Audio & the Emperor’s new clothes.

I have been into audio since the early 70s and once considered myself an "audiophile" - but no longer. At one time being an audiophile meant that you loved music and had a fascination for the gear that reproduced it. But it seems that to be an "audiophile" today means that you are a very specialized acquisitionist; one who pursues yuppie arrogance items of the audio kind and one who - in some cases - simply pursues the Emperor’s new clothes. I still enjoy my music and I do enjoy the equipment and I do have a good ear. I can easily hear the difference between cold equipment and equipment that's been warmed up. I hear differences between cables and - to a lesser extent - interconnects. I have no pretensions of being unique in this ability but I DO hear these kinds of things. I DO know what live music sounds like, having been to many concerts; jazz, rock, classical and opera. I have never heard any audio system, at any price, in any showroom - and I have been to some great ones - that reproduces the so-called "absolute sound" of live music. Listening to live music and listening to reproduced music are entirely different experiences, each having a very unique appeal. I enjoy reproduced music (via a good system) just as much as I enjoy live. But I refuse to be deluded into believing that they sound the same. I know what I hear and am confident enough in my hearing to know what I don't hear, as well, regardless of what the self-proclaimed gurus of high end audio tell me that I ought to hear. What I do NOT hear is that one amplifier or preamplifier "blows another away" in terms of sound quality. There was a time that I did hear significant difference in equipment but I do not hear them any more. And my ears are just fine, thank you. I do not abuse them. The change has come in the audio marketplace. In the early days of solid state, sound quality was regularly sacrificed on the altar of "specsmanship" via abuses of current limiting and negative feedback circuitry, among other things. Only a few manufacturers back then were employing beefy power supplies and direct coupling and other design concepts that are now well known and employed by a large majority of manufacturers. During the 70s, anyone with a decent ear could hear big differences between the average stuff and something really special like the Levinson or Bryston equipment. In the 70s there WERE some big differences in the sound of one component versus another. But even then the differences were not necessarily related to price. I still have my little Advent 300 Receiver. I bought it used when it was about a year old, as part of a package deal ($150.00 for an Advent 300 & Large Advents Speaker pair). Hooked it up and never even THOUGHT of listening to my Pioneer receiver again. Sold the Pioneer for double what the Advent stuff cost and got myself a NICE Thorens 'Table. That Advent based system, of course, is now semi-retired and provides intermitant motivation to lift heavy things in my medium sized exercise room. Does it match the sound quality of my main system? Of course not - my main system employs more recent and more sophisticated engineering than was available in the '70s and has cost me over 10 times what that Advent based system was worth. Sounding better than a sweet sounding little '70s system is what my main system "gets paid for". But does the main system sound 10 times better? You have got to be kidding! It is more articulate, more open, more dynamic and has a sense of presence that the 70s system does not. But either system is sufficiently enjoyable to draw me into the music. And that is what audio is about. Do differences in the sound of various electronics still exist? Of course they do. But I am thinking that the differences have more to do with personal taste than with sound quality. And I suspect that some of the high end amplification equipment is deliberately "voiced" to a particular taste, in the same way speakers are "voiced". But the bottom line - in my opinion - is that the huge differences in sound quality just aren't there anymore. The point of severely diminished returns in terms of sound quality is reached long before you are into the high end stuff. So why all the talk about exquisite differences in high end sound quality?
classicaudio
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,697 posts
 
Hi Classic: Tom really got to you with that dammed Dynaco Stereo 70 (you know, the one that "blows" every modern amp away) didn't he? I checked back and he has been working that amp so hard that he has probably needed to change the tubes twenty times in the past five months. In regard to your question, I believe that there is a larger selection of equipment that sounds vastly different from each other that is available today. And because of this increased variety of flavors there "is" more to talk about today than their was thirty years ago. In addition the talk is more prevalent because of the medium that we are communicating on right this moment. The "talk" has always been around though. I remember "the talk" from as early as 1950 when I was five years old. The "talk" did not sound new then either, there was just less to talk about at that time. Also "sound quality" has always been based upon personal taste once the equipment achieves a minimum level of sound reproduction, which could be as low as the level achieved by a KLH Model Twenty-One table radio playing a strong signal from a jazz station to some (IMO). Equipment that is deemed to be guilty of sub level performance is judged to be so by generally accepted levels of performance that are also based on personal opinion, an opinion that more people share than do not. I feel that this "blowing away" thing is really of a highly personal nature and should probably be kept that way, especially if you are the only sane person that feels the same way about that product. I have to admit that thirty years ago I did get blown away on various occasion, but I think that it had to do more with my level of maturity than the level of performance. That is all.
hdm
1,063 posts
 
Couldn't agree with you more Classic. The law of diminishing returns is at work in a huge way with "high end" audio. In my opinion, one can put together a pretty decent system without blowing your total bank account (or line of credit or whatever). I live with pretty modest equipment and tend not to buy new equipment very often (my speakers, turntable, and amp are all 10 years old) but have given in to purchasing new interconnects and power cord ($150 for used Silver Audio 6.0's and $200 for a used Cardas Golden power cord)in the past year. They were definitely worth buying at those prices. But at what price does this hobby begin to stop making sense? I have about $4000 Cnd. invested in my system and figure it sounds pretty good. I've also listened to a lot of very expensive gear, including the CD 12 and $100,000+ systems. The last really nice system I listened to at the dealer's was about $36K (Cnd) retail, B&W 801's, Sim Audio Moon pre and amp & Sim CD player, all hooked up with exotic wire. Firstly, I don't have a room that would do this system justice. Secondly, if I did, I still wouldn't buy it (unless I had money to absolutely burn!) because, as you say, there's no way it's 10 times better than what I've got in terms of me enjoying the music. The megabuck systems, in my estimation, give you two things: a little bit more information retrieval (tailored to the type of sound you want) and a sense of scale that can't be achieved with a less expensive system. Unless you listen to full scale orchestral works (I don't) or stadium rock at stadium rock levels (I don't) it's really questionable as to whether these megabuck systems offer much more enjoyment. And currently, you have what I call "the technology factor" at work: how often are we, as audiophiles, going to have to upgrade our gear? Right now, do you buy SACD, wait for DVD Audio, go to upsampling, or what, and at what cost? There's a lot of mumbo jumbo out there right now. Just as an aside to my ramble here, I noticed in interest in another thread here (Best CD player under $1000) that the Arcam Alpha 8SE is listed by a couple of people. I had one and thought it was excellent. I ended up selling it because my RCA 5223P DVD player (which I had for 8 months before seriously comparing sound because of my audiophile snobbery and belief that my "high end" Arcam would smoke the RCA) sounds better. You can buy the RCA (last years model) on line for $174!
carl_eber
1,425 posts
 
Classic: You are still an audiophile, and you still enjoy music, so be happy, and don't worry that everyone sees everything exactly the same way as you. They never will, I learned that in the first week that I got acquainted with the "highend". In most cases (and also in my own experience), it is indeed the nature of an audiophile to unconsciously (and sometimes consciously) see a contrary point of view to the one that someone else sees/hears. This could just simply be because of the emotion that comes with the passion of liking music (as a good friend has told me), and the equipment that brings it. It could be that we get into a mindset that accompanies the joy while listening, and whether we consciously put it into words, or not, THE VERY MINUTE someone else voices sentiments that seem opposed (or even mutually exclusive) to our own ideas/experiences/feelings, we let ourselves get bent out of shape about it. Not all of us are this way, but in my own experience, most of us are. It's like several salesmen have told me over the years "everybody has their favorite (system)". MY ANSWER TO THE QUESTION, "WHY CAN'T AUDIOPHILES AGREE", IS: Because they don't have to agree............................Listen, and be happy. Don't try to convince someone else that they didn't hear something a certain way (assuming they have actually heard it), and perhaps they'll show you the same courtesy. It is definitely a fool's errand, to attempt to convince someone that they didn't hear what they say they heard, when they really feel strongly about it. Perhaps this has happened to you too often lately, and you are letting it get to you. Don't, and as the 11th comandment says, "it's about the music"....(I love to rub that in somebody's face when they get uptight about audio, because it's been done to me like a billion times over!!).
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