Hall of Shame

"All high performance cables.." this would include the Kimber pbj at $72 a pair, not hard to fit into a budget system. I assume you have auditioned these and found them to be a poor value or of no use at all? This would also include the Custom Power Cord Co. $129 "High Value" power cord. You might have to skip meals or panhandle to fit this one into your budget, but alas you have tried this too and found it to be "very little bang for the buck" or worse yet a rip off.
"All vibration control devices.." again this would include the $6 Vibrapod, which are very helpful under CD players or speakers, again not a megabuck item. It would also include Audio Research tube damper rings which are also quite inexpensive but can improve the performance of almost any tube component for about $20(I forgot,"most" all tube designs are worthy of scorn anyway), again I will asume that you have tried these products and found them of no benifit? I know of people who squander lots of cash upgrading components that say "cables make no difference" only to find out that their new(fill in the blank) sounds just as bad as the old one did,i.e. too bright, or too harsh,or whatever the complaint was. This is because the brightness,harshness, or hardness, or whatever came from their cables and not the component. The system does not have to cost a fortune to be able to hear very real improvments from items like these.
all 1 the whole quantity, substance, duration, amount,or degree of;2 collectivley, the whole amount or number of, as of individuals or particulars............... Opinions are like,hummmmmmmm? what was that?........everyone has one.

Maxgain, my friend, have a nice, tall iced latte and relax a bit. This is a hobby, not a quest for revealed divine truth. Esmeralda is just as entitled to strong opinions as you are and ought not become the target of your wrath for expressing them. It is sufficient to say that you disagree and let it go at that.

When I said that Esmy had the courage to say what many people feel, I was not expressing agreement with what was said. I meant--and I believe--that many a'philes have opinions concerning the worth of (you-fill-in) that they are reluctant to express openly. Why? Because people like you blast them off the face of the earth just for saying what they believe. Yet you reserve the right to say what YOU believe, and woe betide anyone who dares to disagree.

Do what works for you. Evaluate the way you want to evaluate. Buy what you want to buy. Don't worry so much about the minds of young listeners being polluted by opinions with which you disagree. Most newbies are quite capable of making their own decisions about what is wheat and what is chaff.

Virtually all of us who have been in this game for a long time have valuable expertise to share. That our opinions vary--even radically--is only to be expected. After all, if we all agreed on everything, 99.999% of vendors would go out of business....

I prescribe a good recording of the Barber Adagio for Strings. It has a marvelous calming effect.

Will

Will,This remindes me of the scene from Monty Python's "The Holy Grail", where the English knight comes upon the castle enhabited by the French. Well, Will, "I already got one". And this might be the point in the scene where I dump crap on "you English bed wetting types". "Now go away or I will taunt you a second time".

will, ya have a point... *EXCEPT* for the small fact that ezmeralda rejects out of hand almost "ALL" of what the hi-end is all about. what's the point of that? what's he wasting his time (and ours?) here for?

ie: another big hobby of mine is cars. but, i don't like american ones. so, i do *not* frequent any american car sites, or participate in any forums about them. instead, i spend time on the alfa digest, & the pantera digest... sure, the subject of american (and other) cars comes up once in a while, but it's not the main scope of the forum. and very few folks are presumptuous enough to make blanket statements that they're *ALL* bad... and, if/when it (rarely) happens, even all us italian-car lovers give 'em a boatload of you-know-what, too. cuz there's room for everyone at the party. but does *everyone* mean also room for those like esmeralda, who seems to want to *stop* the party?

ymmv, doug s.

Will, well said. Doug, are you saying there's no room here for audiophiles who agree with what Ezmeralda said? Taking a line from one of Maxgain's posts above, there are some "very bright and serious people out there who are innovators in this industry and dealers who care about their clientle" AND agree with almost everything Ezmeralda said. Designers/manufactureres of inefficient speakers who think tubes have no advantage over solid state amplifiers. Designers of amps and speakers who agree about the high-end wire point and isolation devices and tweaks, etc. Apparently some designers of Class A solid state amplifiers who agree about that point.

I have no opinion on most of those things, I just like what I have and lots of other stuff I don't have. But I do think that an argument can be made in support of everything Ezmeralda said, and that post did not warrant what has come after.

I don't see how anyone could think anything in this thread qualifies as "advice." Everything mentioned as overhyped overpriced or bad sounding has its fans. I wouldnt mention a single thing without fear of offending someone. What's the point?