Use Your Own Ears

Is it possible that the room the new system is in is better? I've heard very modest systems in very good rooms sound remarkable. I've also heard the opposite more times than you can imagine.

I am way to insecure to trust my own judgement. I need the goners to confirm my listening experiences as well as affirm my choices.

But thanks for expressing your opinion.

Shakeydeal,

"You make it sound as though one is chopped liver and the other is prime rib." No, I made the statement to say, I've owned different types of dynamic speakers, horn vs cone. I could have said, I've owned DeVore, Mirage, B&W, Artemis EOS, Wilson Sophia 2s, 3s, and Audio Physics, and a couple more. My point was I've owned many speakers and for some reason one of the least expensive speakers has provided the most joy.

Audiodude1aol,

I moved them to the same room.

When a friend asks your opinion about their labor of love, how do you tell them politely without insulting, or ticking them off?

Excellent question and one that requires knowing your friend and having the emotional intelligence to find a way to express that in a positive manner that he/she will respond to in a positive manner. In order to do that, I simply ask my wife ;-) Women, in general, are often better at that kind of task (as long as it's not their husband...rim shot!) No really, they are. After 40 years, some of her knowledge and skill in that area are beginning to rub off on me.

There is a general trend here that I see. Some people (like me) are what I call gestalt listeners. They don't focus on the individual elements but rather the overall result in terms of the way that they respond to it. I know I can tell you which (insert component or system here) I enjoy more, but it's often hard for me to nail it down as to why. Some people are very analytical listeners or perhaps what I would call splitters (whereas I would consider myself a lumper). They can easily tease out the individual elements that make them prefer one sound over another. Taken further, they may not be able to enjoy something if one individual element to which they are sensitive is not exactly to their liking.

Whatever floats your boat. And maybe that is the way to approach the question of making constructive comments to a friend. Ask them what they particularly like about component X or system Y, agree w that, and then discuss the things that are important to you that you might find a little lacking.

Getting good sound need not be particularly hard nor costly these days. There is still a lot of junk out there but good sound is just not as hard to come by these days. The key is to know what you like when you hear it and have realistic expectations. Perfect sound always is not realistic. Good sound most of the time is. Throwing money at the problem alone is not a good strategy.