What are we objectivists missing?


I have been following (with much amusement) various threads about cables and tweaks where some claim "game changing improvements" and other claim "no difference".  My take is that if you can hear a difference, there must be some difference.  If a device or cable or whatever measures exactly the same it should sound exactly the same.  So what are your opinions on what those differences might be and what are we NOT measuring that would define those differences?

jtucker

Wow. Two shoutouts for Ayn Rand who did not write about respecting other humans. She was the forerunner of Gordon Gecko (greed is good) and promoted selfishness above all else.

She admired serial killer Willian Edward Hickman so much that she modeled her protagonists in her books after him. She saw him as above all others and not tied down to societies laws and precepts. A superman, as she said.

All the best,
Nonoise

For many things, subjective impressions are share-able -- if you see me accidentally stab my hand with a fork, you’ll probably say "ow" at nearly the same instant I do. We overlap so much for our experiences because we share a very similar physiology.

Measuring is useful when we are beyond the easy cases. Then, it can help a lot. But so can training of listening (or other senses). A chemistry kit can educe a chemical element that might not be immediately apparent. A training in tasting can help make apparent what was not, before.

It’s not "subjective" vs. "objective," as I see it. It’s how to make something apparent and also definite, qualitatively.

Perhaps we’re coming from different perspectives. To me subjective and objective could be described thus;

Subjective observation is centered on a person’s own mind and perspectives, as opposed to being general, universal, or scientific. In this way, describing an observation as subjective often implies that it comes with (or is based on) personal biases.

Objective;

Objective most commonly means not influenced by an individual’s personal viewpoint—unbiased (or at least attempting to be unbiased). It’s often used to describe things like observations, decisions, or reports that are based on an unbiased analysis.

Let’s say you’re a restaurant critic. There may be certain foods that you subjectively dislike—ones that are just not to your taste. But when critiquing dishes, you must leave your subjective tastes aside and be objective about what you eat—making objective judgments about things like how it’s cooked and seasoned and how the ingredients work together. Even if you’re served a dish that you subjectively don’t like, it’s your job to objectively assess its quality.

In a scientific experiment, your hypothesis might be based—at least in part—on your subjective opinion about what the results will be. But science is about being completely objective by gathering data and making conclusions based on the data.

In everyday life, your objective opinion is the one that sets aside your subjective preferences or feelings about something and instead assesses it based on facts and reality.

Dictionary dot com

Personally I dislike tube amps, inefficient, to much trouble to maintain, but there are tube amps that are well made, do a competent job within their specs and if someone likes them it’s none of my business. I've heard tube amp I couldn't tell from Solid state it's just my personal bias. Different strokes for different folks. If they start claiming they are superior to Solid State and sound better then I need more than their subjective opinion. How are they superior and have you compared tube amps to solid state in a blind listening test and pick tube amps better than chance.

I'm totally for people sharing their subjective preferences. I take them seriously and accept that they really do prefer the equipment they say they do under the conditions they are using it. If they don't care about how measurements might correlate to sound preferences that's perfectly ok. No need to do blind testing if you're not interested.