2. misc-audio
  3. 139318-20253

Personal vs. Market Values

Take truffle oil. Or truffles. The mushrooms, not the confection.
Honestly I can’t taste it. I’ve ordered all sorts of dishes with "truffle oil" which commanded a premium and if there is any difference at all in the taste I could not tell you even after being told about it.

The point of this is that truffle oil holds no personal value to me. I’m not trading in it or running a restaurant or buying it in bulk. If I did that I’d feel and be willing to spend quite differently than I do now.

The point to this and how this matters in audio is that you should be true to your own ears. Use friends, reviews (cough) and other sources as guides. You may also evaluate a brand based on re-sale value. That’s reasonable as the resale could have a material impact on you in the future.

But if you can’t hear a difference or prefer a speaker/cable/amp no one else does then serve only yourself and your loved ones. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the market value of a particular product has value for you or that it is a display of relative merit. It may not. Our hobby is filled with charlatans selling invisible clothes.

Those who say they can't taste the truffle oil or see invisible clothes spend less and are far happier I think.

Happy listening,

E
erik_squires
n80
2,116 posts
 
He said it was a mistake so he wasn't assuming liberties. If it was a driver's license or an airline ticket, that's another story. This is an entertainment forum. I don't really care how someone spells my name here.
Post removed 
john1
113 posts
 
In point of fact, it was 12 characters making the mistake far easier to make. The concentration on only 4 of those characters, the depth of sensitivity to them, the extreme reluctance to put them into any kind of context & then again confirmed by not addressing my explanation other posters agreed with, the then sudden disinterest in the original question governing this thread & then the supplementary question asked about it in great detail & answered in great detail, make a splendid segway to my original point made in the answer to the original question.

Namely, sellers & others on AG have immense & intense emotional motivations they act on (the personal values inquired about) in often unpredictable ways. These affect all perception of market values which is in turn affected by them. The subjectivity of them can easily cause the abandonment of positions they strongly held previously, often in knowing ways. It makes al negotiation far more difficult of course, but also extends to any communication taking place. The personal (old, unresolved unconscious hurts) & the business at hand (or the market) get all mixed up & the audio being discussed too often gets distorted/left behind. It bleeds over into every area & only gets resolved to the extent that we become eager & courageous enough to own our deepest stuff & positively act on it.

The reasonableness pleaded for in the original question becomes something else as the subjectivity also bemoaned takes center stage.
erik_squires OP
16,041 posts
 
No real worries.

Instead of talking about truffle oil as a metaphor maybe I should have used gin.


Post removed 
More to discover