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High End Myth Glossary.

Disclaimer:
Many of the glossary terms bellow are entered with little or no comments. Large comments might require large space and time investment. If anyone reading this glossary is offended, than I'll keep you a company as well. Every myth-paragraph bellow adds a price to the audiocomponent only without substantial improvements and "upgrades" to your system.

Feel free to add to the list bellow:

1. Cables' price should be arround 10...20% of the whole system i.e if the system costs $100k than $10...20k should be for interconnects and speaker cables.

2. Directional signal cables.

3. Zero Negative Feedback.

4. $10k 10Wpc amps.

5. No need for larger output power. Place compact system speaker into the plywood horn enclosure and use SET 1W/ch.

6. Tube watts v.s. SS watts.

7. CD-players or digital separates over $1.5k(Analogue sources stay somewhere next to but not to the same degree for example $10k cartridges)

8. Audiable differences in .3dB or in .5%THD v.s. .001%THD.

9. Auditioning of audio furniture.

10. Stereophile or other oriented magazines one-person "expert reviews"

11. $5000 Mark Levinson amp looks like it should sound excellent...

12. $12k CD-player reads CD with greater precision.

13. tubes $900/matched pr

14. amp stands $600/pr.

15. microphonic-free chasis, power interconnects and speaker wires. tubes and transistors can certainly be added as well.

16. wire reactance influence on audio freequencies.

17. Nirvana speaker wire has substantially less reactance than Home Depot.

18. S/N ratings of CD-player(larger than CD's dynamic range 16bit = only 60dB!)

P.S. I would be also glad to see Worst-of section in forums here.
128x128marakanetz
twl
3,251 posts
 
Personally, I feel that numbers 1-6 are not myths.

#1 Paying 10% for cables may seem outrageous for a $100k system, but what about a $10k system? I'll bet most of you out there who have $10k systems have at least $1k(total) in cables, including power cables, right? Not a myth.

#2 Directionality of signal cables - debatable. I think it makes a difference in some cables.

#3 Zero negative feedback - preferable over virtually all types of negative feedback. Not a myth.

#4 What's wrong with $10k 10watt amps? You may think it exorbitant, but listening to one on a suitable speaker system may make you think otherwise. That is only $1k per watt, and I paid $2k per watt for my amp. Wanna see if a Pass or Halcro can beat it out on efficient speakers? Bring your crying towel! Not a myth. Watts cannot be equated with good sound.

#5 Must have higher power? Speaker efficiency doesn't matter? See above. Bring your crying towel. Not a myth.

#6 Like it or not, tubes will provide more "listenable" volume for the same power rating as SS, unless driving low impedance speakers. Make up your own reasons, they just do. Not a myth.

Proposed #19 - everybody knows what I think about that.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz OP
5,473 posts
 
Tom,

with all due respect to you I can tell that I'm different from the one who would bring "crying towel" and despite your wide thick and big experience selling audio equipment, I have placed a large number of scientific and budget measurements onto every paragraph mentioned, but I don't specify reasons on purpose since they require knowlege of electronics and mentioned negative feedback in particular. I simply let everyone here think about that including dealers as well(that unfortunately in largest scale were "infected" by new-era high-end mythical plug to be able to infect buyers).

Marty,
as you can see I enjoy being "attacked"!
mscommerce
21 posts
 
Here are some:

Cables are as important as circuit design.

You really don't need to understand a whit about circuit design or electrical engineering to intelligently evaluate different approaches by the various designers.

You can walk into an audition room and focus on the effect of one component alone, such as an amplifier, in a chain of many, and walk in to the same store another day, and focus on the effect of a different component, say a speaker, in the same chain of components.

Tone controls and room equalization can be made irrelevant by carefully choosing the right components.

Your ears and hearing are objective and stable listening devices.

"Burn-in" has nothing to do with your hearing and brain getting accustomed to a system, and everything to do with physical changes in components.

Live sound is better than home audio.

Home audio is a more essential experience than going to concerts.

That some speakers can blend with your furniture or are elegant furniture.

That WAF does not matter.
albertporter's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Here are my Myth's to add to the Glossary.

Audio Asylum is as good as Audiogon.

No one at Audiogon ever "trolls" by posting controversial topics.

Bose makes the ultimate speaker.
sean
6,231 posts
 
Albert wins hands down : )

Mscommerce's comments are WAY too serious for this type of thread. Very good, but WAY too serious : ) Sean
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