Biggest audio hoaxes

I think it is difficult to label anything a “hoax” because there are always those who will claim the thing worked for them.  In the circles, like Audiogon, that insist that the differences cannot be delineated or refuted with scientific measurement, all we are really left with is each individual’s personal experience.  Who can refute that?  Who can deny that someone who claims the sound is better when they hold their leg a certain way isn’t experiencing something valid, for them?

It reminds me of a conversation I had this week, in which I observed that various ways of cutting and preparing potatoes results in different tastes, even though the potatoes are cooked in the same way. For example, why do straight cut french fries taste different than crinkle cut fries, that taste different from curly cut fries?  All fried, but the cut seems to make difference, even from the same restaurant. I think audio is like that — you can take the same components and make devices that measure the same but sound different to people.

Great post.....

Being wise seems easy to you....

my deepest regards....

If all it takes is one person’s experience to disprove something that everyone else testifies (with evidence) is a hoax, that really opens up the marketplace!

But seriously, taste is not that subjective. That’s why words like "peppery" or "bitter" or "goopy," etc. are understood. We share a biology, we share cultural norms and history, and we share language. Not exactly, of course, but enough to make judgements about taste or hoaxes with sufficient objectivity for them to be understood as binding. Are there lots of debates at the margins? Sure. But the fact that there are fuzzy sections along a line of discrimination doesn't eradicate clear demarcators.

So, the question as to whether there are "hoaxes" can, at least sometimes, be resolved. If you disagree, the next time your mechanic tells you that he chased gremlins out of your engine and charged you an extra $500 for that, you’ll have to pay him. Because if you cry "hoax" and all he has to do is testify that he saw them, you’ll lose the argument and be out $500.

Gremlin chasers are a bread unto themselves.

Sometime they are HEROS. A hero is a guy that MAKES a problem so he or she can be the hero and FIX the problem.  

A real Gremlin, can't find it.. BUT it'd always simple physics. Water cannot flow up hill in a river, but it can in a tunnel. :-)

Master M how's things going?.. All well I hope... Teach um!!