Well, it does depress me that the sort of thinking I attack in my post leads to things like my good state of Texas wishing to stop teaching evolution to my children.
As it all applies to audio, not so much.
Your attempt at a reductio ad absurdum retort falls rather flat,Tholt.
I never said that "pretty much everybody has no idea what they're hearing", implying that they "therefore have no basis to judge if it's truly good or not".
I was referring to those subtle sonic attributes affected by tweaks.
And, yes, most people can't hear them.
That doesn't mean they can't tell good sound from bad, though.
Why would it? Does not possessing the taste buds of a first class sommelier mean one can't appreciate a good bottle of wine?
Then, you make another generalization.
For one thing, people who design audio equipment are, generally, not the same ones who sell tweaks.
And, not all people who design tweaks fail to understand why they work. Besides, that's hardly the point.
Suppose someone tries out forty types of glue putting a speaker they designed together before settling on the "right one".
Does it, then, follow that they would, or should, know why the one they, ultimately, chose sounded best? Of course not. If they possessed that sort of knowledge, they wouldn't have had to try out the first thirty-nine!
Just because some discoveries are stumbled upon doesn't mean they all are. Sound engineering principles don't fall by the wayside because of any of this.
You seem to be saying that what applies to some people applies to most. And that what applies to most, applies to all, creating your own absurdity.
That being said, I agree that, for many, paying more for differences they don't actually hear is a joke.
How much have YOU spent on jars of rocks, for instance?
Do you, always, do well in double-blind testing?
My accuracy rate is, typically, about 85%.
Oh, and, my god! Why do I always keep hearing that, "Nietzsche is dead."--God joke, year after year? What does that even mean, really?
Ha, ha. Nietzsche died. The joke's on him? In what way is that a witty comeback, or retort? You mean, he thought he wouldn't?
After all, one of Nietzsche's points was that we ALL die--as did that Jesus guy.
Upon the arrival of The Second Coming, we'll know the joke really was on Nietzsche. Because that means that after he died, he found that he, still, existed, albeit in the afterlife.
At that point, he, probably, looked around and said something like, "Uh oh." In German.
And did you hear the one about Ergo, the Philosophy student, who, when writing of Descartes' dictum, "Cogito ergo sum" responded, "Cogito sum Ergo"?
As it all applies to audio, not so much.
Your attempt at a reductio ad absurdum retort falls rather flat,Tholt.
I never said that "pretty much everybody has no idea what they're hearing", implying that they "therefore have no basis to judge if it's truly good or not".
I was referring to those subtle sonic attributes affected by tweaks.
And, yes, most people can't hear them.
That doesn't mean they can't tell good sound from bad, though.
Why would it? Does not possessing the taste buds of a first class sommelier mean one can't appreciate a good bottle of wine?
Then, you make another generalization.
For one thing, people who design audio equipment are, generally, not the same ones who sell tweaks.
And, not all people who design tweaks fail to understand why they work. Besides, that's hardly the point.
Suppose someone tries out forty types of glue putting a speaker they designed together before settling on the "right one".
Does it, then, follow that they would, or should, know why the one they, ultimately, chose sounded best? Of course not. If they possessed that sort of knowledge, they wouldn't have had to try out the first thirty-nine!
Just because some discoveries are stumbled upon doesn't mean they all are. Sound engineering principles don't fall by the wayside because of any of this.
You seem to be saying that what applies to some people applies to most. And that what applies to most, applies to all, creating your own absurdity.
That being said, I agree that, for many, paying more for differences they don't actually hear is a joke.
How much have YOU spent on jars of rocks, for instance?
Do you, always, do well in double-blind testing?
My accuracy rate is, typically, about 85%.
Oh, and, my god! Why do I always keep hearing that, "Nietzsche is dead."--God joke, year after year? What does that even mean, really?
Ha, ha. Nietzsche died. The joke's on him? In what way is that a witty comeback, or retort? You mean, he thought he wouldn't?
After all, one of Nietzsche's points was that we ALL die--as did that Jesus guy.
Upon the arrival of The Second Coming, we'll know the joke really was on Nietzsche. Because that means that after he died, he found that he, still, existed, albeit in the afterlife.
At that point, he, probably, looked around and said something like, "Uh oh." In German.
And did you hear the one about Ergo, the Philosophy student, who, when writing of Descartes' dictum, "Cogito ergo sum" responded, "Cogito sum Ergo"?