This Sistrum stuff works

Hi Judit, What ever works is all that matters. Please forgive me if i disagree with your side by side bake-off theory. How else would you know what tastes best?

Ah - the correct metaphor. That is what you actually get with side by side comparisons - a taste. Sometimes a bitter disappointing taste, sometimes a glorious moment. However, it is mostly subjective, not objective truth.

We all need to carry a cushion so as to dampen the fall of each others ego. All of us here put much time and energy into this thing called hi-end audio. We also put much of ourselves into what we would like to be our own recreation of live sound. Our ways and means and personalities define the system we own. Its is our nature and our right to disagree. Some times reading other opinions that I differ with make wants me to scream down the digital highway "hey ya just don't get it do ya". I find it difficult to bite my own sarcastic tongue. I welcome a good read and the friendships I feel I have kindled on these forums. Tom

Let's all go to a retreat together and bond. Then get naked, get into a hot tub, smoke some doobies, and talk about audio heaven, while we listen to Inagoddadivida, by Iron Butterfly, through outdoor Bose speakers. That would be a good thing. Keith, you too, jump into the hot tub with us...peace guys, warren

Brulee: I am sorry if my post came across the wrong way. I was not trying to belittle the comments / experience that anyone has had with Sistrum products and stated such in the first sentence of my second post in this thread.

What i was trying to say was that i thought that the approach being taken by Grand Prix has a lot of merit in my eyes. They are actually taking measurements, performing tests, i.e. trying to understand why / how things work and why we hear what we hear. I do not believe that we have the knowledge to fully understand all of the things going on in any given device ( be it a rack, electronics, etc... ), but i do think that the more that we know, the better off we are. Like any other "science", data can be interpreted / misinterpreted. It is from trying / studying / making mistakes and applying ALL of that info that progress is made.

I also stated that i did not agree with everything that Grand Prix had to say. They too have their fair share of marketing and hype taking place. However, they have seasoned such marketing with at least a hint of real "technology". That is why i said what i did about "audiophile approved products". Many are strictly based on nothing less than snake oil. Personally, i would not use the shelves that Grand Prix provides with them, so we are probably in agreement at least on that subject.

As far as commenting without having experience, i have done that many times. This is a discussion forum and one need not have hands on experience to process logical thoughts about a subject and / or ask questions. Unfortunately, i think that a lot of things get lost in the translation due to lack of voice inflection, body language, etc... I try to be careful in how i word things, but misinterpretation is inevitable in some circumstances. That is why i have always encouraged those that don't understand something to ask / post questions.

As far as relying on those with personal experience using a product, this also has pitfalls. One does not know their past points of reference, their level of experience with other comparable products, how far they went in trying to optimize the performance of said unit, how long they actually used the unit,etc... For that matter, one can have have a unit for a month and only put a few few hours on it. How usefull / accurate do you think those comments would be ?

It takes both a skilled and knowledgable audiophile / writer to convey all of that information in an easy to follow manner. If you doubt this, take a look at Audio Review and read some of the reviews of any given product. Everyone has opinions and even those owning / using the same identical product can have VERY different points of view / experiences.

To take this one step further, if we resorted to people contributing information strictly based on products that they only have first hand experience with, there would be VERY little posted on these forums. Especially if one wants to narrow things down to using Brand X with Brand Y type scenarios. As such, i will continue to post in the manner that i have and i hope that others will share their points of view, even if we differ on perspective. That goes for you too. After all, i would want to know the highs and lows of any given product / plan of attack PRIOR to forking out the money or making the effort to try it. Contrasting points of view with some type of background as to why / how we have those opinions can only help those inquiring about such subjects.

Since i'm hoping that we are all adults capable of individual thought processes, being able to read various points of view and draw our own conclusions is part of life. Audio is no different as far as i can tell. As such, i try to pass on usefull info that i've found and / or experienced. Along with this, i include personal observations based on my own individual thought process. Whether or not one finds the links that i provide, my comments based on personal experience or simple thoughts thrown out to ponder useful, entertaining, repulsive, etc... is up to them. As such, caveat emptor ( let the buyer beware ). If you don't like what i'm selling ( or saying ), don't buy it.

Twl: I hope that you understood where i was coming from and did not take my comments as a personal attack. Your thoughts / comments on this product are quite interesting and i'm glad that you shared them. Personally, i find many of the comments / ideas found on the Star Points / Sistrum website to be similar in concept to that of Michael Green.

Judith: Thanks for understanding where i'm coming from, or at least trying to : )

As far as your comments regarding side by side comparisons go, i agree that they can be of limited use as neither item is fully optimized under most circumstances. This is not to say that the experience isn't usefull, but that the information garnered from such testing needs to be fully absorbed and digested in the proper manner. Sean
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