the meaning of the word "better"

Nonoise: yea, had the SWAG v AFD dropped on me at a party, and immediately fell in love with it. Caught the first few episodes of House of Lies, then lost the thread (life had the gall to interfere, as it will). Definitely rings of management consulting mumbo jumbo, no doubt.

"Better" can be one of two things, depending on the system-builder's goal:

Better is a component that makes (lets) a sound system sound more pleasing to that person; without a specific reference in mind, other than that person's sonic preferences. Or:

Better is a component that makes (lets) a sound system sound more like what live music sounds like. Familiarity with the sound of the real thing makes it possible to have this be a useful reference, in spite of all the variables.

Frogman, I coudn't have said it better, great response.

gentlemen:

thank you for the connotations of the word "better".

unfortunately, because of the two "concepts, i.e., better as closer to lack of coloration, and better as to preferred, when the word is used in a sentence without qualification, its meaning is unknown.

02-15-12: Rok2id
Of course on a macro level, everything is probably better than components were decades ago.

The re-sale prices of many pieces of vintage gear would seem to contradict that statement.

Frogman, that is a good description, but one must always remember to weigh time in with that equation. Many times I have felt that something sounded "better" according to your definitions, only to realize 6 months or a year later that it was simply different (better in some areas, weaker in other areas) and not really better overall. You have to account for the "new component euphoria" phenomena. Too many times folks listen for 2 hours and expound on the virtues of a new toy. We all find a piece of gears "faults" over time.