The Audio Critic

The hostility towards Pete is based on ONE issue. Has
nothing to do with reviews or company ownership. He has to
be trashed because his truths, and his courage to state them,
threaten the entire con.

He didn't play right, so he has to be expelled from the
sandbox. If he was not a man of integrity, he could have
been one of the most celebrated gurus at any of the 'high-
end' rags. All he had to do was say, I can hear WIRE, and
All amps have their own unique sound, and humans can hear
that uniqueness.

I am not an 'audiophile' nor an engineer. I have normal
human hearing. My thoughts and questions are as follows:

Wire is the simplest of electrical components. IF, a person
can hear the differences between Wire, shouldn't that
person be able to hear the difference between something
loaded with devices and as complex as an audio amp? of
course they would be able to do that.

THEN, If you can hear wire, shouldn't you be able to hear
the difference between the two channels in a stereo amp?
Lot more stuff there to affect sound than found in wire.
Surely you would be able to hear the difference between
mono blocks. What about amps on the same assembly line,
serial # 1 vs Amp serial #2 ?? The differences there are
surely greater than between two pieces of wire.

My point is, if you can hear wire, you should be able to hear
EVERYTHING!!

Of course you can't. It's called self-delusion. But, you can
make some quick cash, one million, by demonstrating that you
can hear amps and wire. That money has been of the table
forever.

BTW, if you know of someone who has demonstrated he can
hear wire and amps, inform us please. The statement "I
can hear a difference" don't count.

But the reason I even bother is that, I just hate to see a
bunch of loud mouthed know-nothings trash the founders of
this hobby. They were there when it was a real hobby. Guys
built their systems. Ordering a ready made mega buck
stereo component, is not a hobby.

Cheers

It must be quite the burden being the only sane person in a world full of delusional people. I must I have deluded myself into thinking that the ethical lapse of Mr.Aczel mattered; I was really against the religion he preached.

It is amazing that he continued to publish so long given that the only message was that it really did not matter and one is wasting money when buying anything but the cheapest stuff out there--that should have been a one-issue publication (the notable exception would be stuff that he has a vested interest in--with that stuff one could really hear the difference).

The arguments you make are what are referred to as Strawman Arguments, I.e., logical fallacies. For example, if a person can hear the differences in cable or the directionality of wire and someone else can't, the explanation is very simple - there are reasons why a person sometimes can't hear differences. You do realize that many audiophiles DO hear differences in wire, no? The person that can't hear differences either (1) has a problem with his system, (2) has a problem with his hearing, (3) lacks experience in what differences to listen for, or (4) his system is fine but not revealing enough for him to discern the differences. The same argument can be made for just about anything in audio, from CD treatments to Mpingo discs to the Tice Clock to tiny little bowl resonators to the differences between tube amps and solid state amps, you name it.

"I have normal human hearing." Everyone's hearing acuity varies, just as every other of the senses. ie: The palette & tongue must be trained to discern in what region of the World a certain wine's grape was grown. Yet(even if trained); some have a sense of taste, more acute than others. A good man understands his own limitations. Only a fool thinks everyone else is thus limited. One of the most ludicrous statements, in the History of Audio HAS to be, "In controlled double-blind listening tests, no one has ever (yes, "EVER") heard a difference between two amplifiers with high input impedance, low output impedance, flat response, low distortion, and low noise."(YEP: he said that) I say, "One of the most ludicrous," because I still remember Julian Hirsch stating, in Stereo Pee-yoo, "I never listen to live music, but- I have a pretty good idea what it sounds like." Aczel was NOT one of, "the founders of this hobby." He was a speaker builder, a critic and utterly disregardable.

GEoff what you just said is logically consistent but logic alone achieves nothing without facts.

The fact would be that there are differences possible and that any individual may or may not hear it in any particular case. One case means nothing other than two different outcomes with two different people.

Now expand the scope to consider many similar cases, and then at least statistically there is a basis perhaps to draw some conclusion. Still does not prove anything though about any particular case. Only that something expected might be likely or not.