To clarify- my question was whether Amir changed your opinion about anything at all. Not whether Amir is wrong or whatever. So from the above, I guess your answer is “No- Amir hasn’t changed my opinion about anything.” Fine. But maybe others feel differently.
Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?
It’s easy to make snide remarks like “yes- I do the opposite of what he says.” And in some respects I agree, but if you do that, this is just going to be taken down. So I’m asking a serious question. Has ASR actually changed your opinion on anything? For me, I would say 2 things. I am a conservatory-trained musician and I do trust my ears. But ASR has reminded me to double check my opinions on a piece of gear to make sure I’m not imagining improvements. Not to get into double blind testing, but just to keep in mind that the brain can be fooled and make doubly sure that I’m hearing what I think I’m hearing. The second is power conditioning. I went from an expensive box back to my wiremold and I really don’t think I can hear a difference. I think that now that I understand the engineering behind AC use in an audio component, I am not convinced that power conditioning affects the component output. I think.
So please resist the urge to pile on. I think this could be a worthwhile discussion if that’s possible anymore. I hope it is.
Showing 5 responses by chayro
Making one’s writing perfectly clear is not an easy thing. Most people here are subjectivists - if it sounds good, it is good. I include myself firmly in that camp. But was there not a sliver of information at ASR you found valuable or at least interesting that made you question the way you view any aspect of audio? Maybe not. |
@mahgister- your writing is dense and somewhat difficult to understand sometimes, but I think I have an idea based on my past experience. When I started playing in the studios in the 70’s, I thought I played pretty well, which I guess is why. I got hired. But I was shocked when I heard that my first playbacks sounded significantly different from what I thought I played. In other words- I was hearing what I thought I played, not what I actually played. It was only after many sessions I was able to train my ears/brain to hear what I was actually playing and make it sound identical to the taped playback. |
I think that Amir, in a round about way, reminds us of how powerful our biases are. My friend’s 28 year old daughter loves sneakers. She will see someone wearing a certain pair and salivate over them because she knows the back story. I don’t know the back story, so i just I just see an another pair of sneakers. It just reminds me of how much our brain affects what we believe is important. I don’t know if it’s possible to separate them. |