WHY DO SOME AUDIOPHILES TRY TO TELL OTHERS WHAT THEY CAN OR CAN’T HEAR IN A SYSTEM?
I ask the question. Because I have had several discussions on Audiogon where certain posters will try to tell another person what they can or can’t hear in a system. Most of the time never hearing or having experiences either the piece of equipment, cables etc. It is usually against those that spend money on more expensive equipment and cabling. Why is this so prevalent.
This issue doesn't put me on the defensive or make me angry. It's pretty simple, actually. Sometimes someone tells me I cannot hear something, and I ask if there's another ways to listen. Often, there is. Hearing, like the other senses and taste in general, can be developed. I have learned to hear better because other people have helped me to become attentive in a new way.
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False opposition for me. I’m interested in the science of it because I listen to music. There can be a connection between the science and the immersive experience of the music. Perhaps this analogy will ring true: no one who bakes at higher altitudes dismisses those little scientific hints about adjusting the temperature. Just because there are crackpots out there with bad or pseudo-scientific advice about baking doesn’t make me ignore the relevant and helpful scientific advice. And I pay attention because following it makes the food "just taste better." Of course, maybe the point of this discussion is to shake a fist at "those damn measurement people." Not my bag, man. |
Are you saying no one can help you to pay attention to new things and help you get better at hearing? Ever go birding and have someone show you how to look for birds? I did -- and I learned that I was not seeing what I could be seeing. If you’re saying that you cannot be better at hearing than you are and no one should try to teach you, then I suppose knowing you’re as good as you can be at something -- and that is a kind of accomplishment.
To a degree but if you’re saying it’s so different that we cannot improve or compare, then I don’t see how anyone could ever have created audio equipment with any popularity at all. So, you can’t be saying that. |
A recipe is a scientific thing and so is apprenticeship (in person with another person); so is daily trial and error. None of it is guesswork, which seems to be what you're suggesting the grandmother does. Just because there aren't formal measurements or numbers doesn't mean there isn't systematic attention paid to quantities, ratios, timing, and technique. A lot of the audio suggestions flying around lack any of those things with any systematicity. And finally, acoustics and hearing are fairly precise things. It's harder to get the image and tonality of a singer correct to the ear than make a lasagna taste decent. |
The true spirit of science -- a hypothetical attitude. For those interested, Stuart Firestein (Columbia biologist and neuroscientist who studies olfactory systems in animals) is great on this. https://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_firestein_the_pursuit_of_ignorance |
