It saddens be that so many people ascribe their lack of understanding of some of the many phenomena within our world to the nature of the world, itself, and not themselves.
I've grown so tiresome of all those, "I can't understand how, therefore it must not be," arguments.
"I don't understand how this tweak could work, so it doesn't."
"That flies in the face of current theory, so those claims must be false."
If science, herself, were to operate within those parameters, it would never advance.
What hubris! "To me, evolution just doesn't seem possible. So the theory is false."
"I don't see how the world could come to be without a creator, so there must be one."
"I do things for a reason. So, nature does, too."
We live in a world where anthroporphism has run amok,
The world of high-end audio is no different.
If we can't explain it, it must not work.
If we can't reconcile the theory behind something with our own (generally, quite limited) precepts regarding kinetics, or electro-magnetism, or quantum mechanics, or gravitation, or the strong and weak nuclear forces--then we are being conned!
What a bunch of horsesh*t!
Friends, reality doesn't give a f*ck what you think.
A few of the conundrums with which we "audiophiles" are faced are:
1) The varying degrees of our acuity of hearing bear no relationship to our bankbooks.
2) Listening is a learned skill of which most of us have little.
3) I suspect that, ofttimes, the developer of an expensive tweak
a) Doesn't, really, know why it works, so they posit something that may be absurd, or, at best have little to do with anything, and
b) Won't simply admit that the cost of the product has nothing to do with the cost of its manufacture but, rather, with an attempt to recoup the R & D involved in its development.
(This is exactly the same as a pharmaceutical company trying to recoup its investiture it a newly developed product before it must be offered in generic form.)
One sad truth is that many "audiophiles" lack either the faculty, or training, or both, to discern those heightened sonic attributes for which they so often pay so dearly.
It would not surprise me if less than twenty percent of you reading this, now, can hear well enough to discern what those "golden-eared" ones can.
Furthermore, I suspect that very few of the "golden eared" have honed their listening abilities sufficiently to make effective use of what effectively remain naught but latent abilities.
So, many of us are just wasting money, when we tweak.
And many of the rest of us are simply not getting our money's worth.
Though the fault, in both cases, lies, solely, within ourselves and bears no relationship to the genuine efficaciousness of the product, or procedure, in question,
Now, I'm off to play drinking games with Christopher Hitchens and shall see you on the morrow.
