The Absurdity of it All

i think what the OP is saying is that all of this comes down to what you hear or interpret in the music based on the condition of your hearing. How it brings back your aural memories of the live performances or simply past days of listening.   Quality of  sound reproduction is critical no matter where you are in life but the individuals experience is what matters most and that varies from indivdual to individual.  That said at 68 I have yet to reach audiophile Nirvana, but I do have a couple damn good systems, at least to these well aged ears, could and will eachsystem  get better, of course.  We are all addicts to some degree.

"Making this a professional and courteous platform..."

I think this is primarily meant to be a platform (forum) for hobbyists, not professionals.

For those who contend that we only need to rely on our ears - If that is the case, why would we need Audiogon or any other hobbyists forum.  We need it as a source of information or to validate our own thinking.  What we don't need is someone preaching to us or trying to make us look foolish in front of those we look to for help.

@johnspain  Agreed. Hard for some to accept, but what we perceive is something developed with others. Sure, we taste things or hear or see things with our particular apparatuses, but interpretation is a socially mediated ability, like language. That’s why people take wine tasting or art appreciation classes. The notion that hearing-with interpretation is an individual-only ability is an anachronistic idea. It is, in a word, silly. 

For those who contend that we only need to rely on our ears - If that is the case, why would we need Audiogon or any other hobbyists forum. We need it as a source of information or to validate our own thinking. What we don’t need is someone preaching to us or trying to make us look foolish in front of those we look to for help.

Hearing is not only an inherited ability(perfect pitch individual) but it is a learned habit we develop in many ways...

I come here for information and discoveries...

But i started to progress the day i decide to trust my own hearing biases and let them flourished or be replaced by others one...I begin by trusting what i listen to trying to understand why the sound is such and not such and how could i modify it for my own liking....

I did that because when you dont have the luxury of money if you want to live an audiophile experience there is only one way: listening experiments with low cost devices of your own...

I am glad to this day that trusting my own wishes and hearing possibilities i reach my goal....

Then the first thing to learn is knowing that our ears are the seat of the experience not the gear....How we embed it is more important than any upgrade...

And acoustic is the master of all in audio...Not the gear...

Called that preaching if you want...

But it is the most important fact i learned the hard way....

It dont lack of people here to inform us how to spend our money with various branded names.... I prefer to explain how to spare it, if my experience can help a little in this way....

Acoustic and psychoacoustic for example give to us the law with which we can create our own timbre experience, soundstage, imaging, listener envelopment (LEV) and that with very simple principle....

The relatively good gear we own in most case is enough for this explorations and experiences...

This is my "preaching"...

By the way there is many other people here very competent for all other necessary very technical answers.... It is a very good forum....

The worst thing here would be NOT trusting our own hearing experience and learning , trusting mainly the words of praise of others about costly gear.... This is the upgrade pit....Few comes over it and at the end the cost is heavy...








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