Too Many Forums asking about how to improve ones system, etc.


I have been reading so many forum posts lately that are asking for advice on improving ones system.  They ask about amps, preamps, speakers, cables, etc., but the person asking for information does not state what improvements they are looking for.  Recently one person said he did not hear a difference with a particular product but others did.  Well that seems useless to me as I don't know what the other people were hearing with a product that I am familiar with to know how to provide advice.  There are many ways to improve ones system but we need more information to narrow down the advice otherwise you will get too many suggestions from cabling to amps, preamps, etc.  You can improve a component by replacing a few resistors but each of those has a sound so I cannot recommend something if I don't know what exactly you are looking to improve.

Thoughts????
bigkidz
I asked for advice on getting started with a turntable setup, and advice on power conditioning. Got a lot of useful opinions and was able to move up the learning curve much more quickly. Ended up going with setups I had never heard of before. And glad of it. Also saved a bunch of money by avoiding my previous costly trial and error method. There are a number of guys on this forum who are knowledgeable and don't mind sharing their wisdom. If you can't ask for advice on this forum than what is the point?
Oh dear it was I who asked that question. Of course I may not be the only criminal here. Wait. I thought that's what these forums are for... sharing experience. 
Ok why did I ask? My system was at a certain point of development and I was receiving advice that two channel was a much better path for development than my multi channel pre/pro could muster. So I was exploring. Is that ok with everyone? Too bad anyway really. I was doing it and I confess. I must say not a lot of useful info came back to me. But I did find one Audiogon post listing so many great brands this guy was trying out. Brands like Classe and Pass that with this one post of five pages or so I had hit the mother load. So given that I reside in Saudi Arabia, yes really why not?, and there's only 2-3 Ac stores in the capital and no clubs ( I am thinking of starting one, I started a movie club already) its only through vicarious means that I can learn more. No I could go to AXPONA or Munich Hi-Fi shows but instead I come back here to Australia for my vacations. So next time you're  frustrated that we seem to ask dumb questions have a little thought that something real lies behind such questions. They may not be coming from a place you know. Have a little patience they are points of inquiry and opportunity to share knowledge and experience 🤓Many posters here report such valuable experiences. I certainly enjoy sharing with others across the globe here.



That's because there is no standard terminology. Even in the ridiculousness of wine tasting there are charts to describe the flavors, but audio has vague terms like veiled, dark, crisp, shrill, dynamic, boomy. The inexperienced don't know any of this or what it means. And the experienced just take a guess.

When I was TV shopping I could say about Panasonics "the greens aren't realistic" and people would easily know what I was talking about. Audio needs to be defined the same way. For instance, "male voices sound chesty" to account for a particular flaw at a particular frequency in speaker design.

As far as electronics, cabling and whatnot, well having been through blind tests, I don't believe there is a difference in sound (given the standard spiel about used within specifications), so I can't help you there. I just refer them to Roger Russell's chart for speaker cables and stay out of the other debates.
I am not saying there are dumb questions only that they are usually not specific enough to really help someone.  I guess I personally are a little more advanced than most people are since I live in an area that I can go to multiple audio clubs to gain experience, gain knowledge form people more experienced than I am, get equipment from other people to hear in my system, etc.  I jumped the gun in thinking most Audiogon members had a specific level of experience but no I think that I was completely wrong in my thought process.  So to correct myself, keep the questions coming and I will do my best to understand the questions and make helpful recommendations / suggestions.

Happy Listening.
The point you make about being able to listen to other systems and other components in your own system is the key to understanding a upgrade path . I recently heard a system using distributed bass . I hooked up 4 subs in my room all I can say is wow now I have even bass response . If I had not heard it at another audiophiles home I would not have followed this upgrade path .