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High End Myth Glossary.

Disclaimer:
Many of the glossary terms bellow are entered with little or no comments. Large comments might require large space and time investment. If anyone reading this glossary is offended, than I'll keep you a company as well. Every myth-paragraph bellow adds a price to the audiocomponent only without substantial improvements and "upgrades" to your system.

Feel free to add to the list bellow:

1. Cables' price should be arround 10...20% of the whole system i.e if the system costs $100k than $10...20k should be for interconnects and speaker cables.

2. Directional signal cables.

3. Zero Negative Feedback.

4. $10k 10Wpc amps.

5. No need for larger output power. Place compact system speaker into the plywood horn enclosure and use SET 1W/ch.

6. Tube watts v.s. SS watts.

7. CD-players or digital separates over $1.5k(Analogue sources stay somewhere next to but not to the same degree for example $10k cartridges)

8. Audiable differences in .3dB or in .5%THD v.s. .001%THD.

9. Auditioning of audio furniture.

10. Stereophile or other oriented magazines one-person "expert reviews"

11. $5000 Mark Levinson amp looks like it should sound excellent...

12. $12k CD-player reads CD with greater precision.

13. tubes $900/matched pr

14. amp stands $600/pr.

15. microphonic-free chasis, power interconnects and speaker wires. tubes and transistors can certainly be added as well.

16. wire reactance influence on audio freequencies.

17. Nirvana speaker wire has substantially less reactance than Home Depot.

18. S/N ratings of CD-player(larger than CD's dynamic range 16bit = only 60dB!)

P.S. I would be also glad to see Worst-of section in forums here.
128x128marakanetz
ultraviolet
105 posts
 
I think I was misunderstood Pbb. I agree with Marakanetz. I interpreted the comments of bob bundus to mean that the first post of this thread was all nonsense. Perhaps I misunderstood him. If, in fact, that is his position I disagree, I think that there is a great deal in this hobby that is utter nonsense, some of which was listed by Marakanetz and some of which are absolutes. If you look at one of the last threads I chimed in on, you'll see that I feel quite strongly about this.

The word audiophile is more and more becoming synonymous with delusional. Perhaps it's the "peer pressure" to prove to friends, family and audiogon members that we have some hypersensitive hearing or the ultimate golden ear.

Consider for a moment a given component or system. There's a thread going on right now about Audio Note DAC's. I've never heard one--maybe they're the greatest thing ever, maybe they're garbage. Two people on that thread claim that there is something wrong with the bottom end. A whole ton of people said that they must be doing something wrong or are simply lying about ever hearing one. This is the problem with high end audio--the only acceptable review, comment etc. on an expensive component is praise. Neutral will get you into trouble, but perhaps not flamed too badly. A negative review will brand you either deaf, a liar, or an idiot. Furthermore, If you tell the reviewer that they are wrong and the component is good, you are adhering to some standard (aka an absolute). If you agree with the reviewer then the exact same logic applies. The contention that there are no absolutes in audio is an absurd statement.
pbb
1,140 posts
 
We may have gotten our signals crossed. What I find remarkable is that the people who truly believe that everything is in the head of the listener are very often the ones who have very limited knowledge of the basics of electronics. I don't purport to know a hell of a lot about the basic science behind electronics, but I know enough to recognize poppycock when I hear it. On the other hand, it does not all sound the same. Often enough there would be a simple fact based explanation, but it is a lot more entertaining to talk in broad terms emphasizing aesthetics and to bring everything back to one's individual likes or dislikes than to use a double track approach of measuring and listening. It is so strange how one school always fears that the other approach will, somehow, taint their judgment.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz OP
5,473 posts
 
Continue the list:

A GOLDEN EAR TEST.

...for a perfect and sensible ear(s) that able to hear .1dB differences:

1. Eat a bowl of grean pea soup with smoked chops of pork turkey or beef.
2. Play a critical recording you're intended to judge a system performance.
3. Pass some gas during an auditioning(preferably quiet especially for those who has a microphonic tube equipment so you won't interrupt a listening test)...

In result you should hear sonic changes of more than 0.1dB(not realy sure if worse or better) as the air pushed by the speaker has some content of impurities that somewhat change the air dencity and thus vary the room accoustics.
nietzschelover's avatar
nietzschelover
93 posts
 
I've noticed that, contrary to the myth that audiophiles have adversarial relationships with their spouses, my system sounds better when my wife sits next to me. I don't think she quite qualifies as furniture, however. (Although she can be a bit stoic, sometimes.)
On certain rather bright recordings, however, they do sound best when she stands in the corner.
timf
237 posts
 
To really listen to furnature you must be quiet. I find it very stressful myself.
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