My rant; we don't know what we don't know


Please don’t read this unless you are both bored and getting frustrated with the upgrade merry-go-round. Please don’t flame me if you think I am full of crap. Just stop reading. I am going to post this here in amps/preamps because I think it applies here just a bit more than in any of the other forums, though it still applies to all of them. I don’t pretend to know all that much about amps and preamps when it comes to circuit variations and designs. But one thing I do know after forty years in this hobby is that there is so much utterly painful hogwash bullsh*t owner-biased flotsam/diatribe/detritus utterly spewed out by mostly well-intentioned enthusiasts that it has to make any of the wiser folks in the industry cringe. My message to all of you-98% of what you read in this forum about the qualities of an amp or preamp in this forum will not help you obtain better sound. If you have a good amp or preamp and you feel the itch to upgrade, chances are, again, 98%, that the amp or preamp you presently have is not the impediment to your achievement of great sound. It sounds cliche’ as hell and most of you don’t to hear it or accept it, but the devil is in the details-room, component matching, speaker positioning, grounding, resonance control, room treatments, and it goes on and on. I am not in the industry and I have no affiliation of any type with anyone in the industry but I know from experience that 25 years ago I thought I had it all figured out; I posted on forums about my enthusiasm for this amp or that preamp and today I would cringe at all that misguided pablum that I mostly regurgitated from things that I had read but did not really understand and things that I thought I knew that I now know I do not. If you post here because you have nothing else better to do and it adds to your enjoyment of the hobby, fine. But if you rely upon others’ posts for finding just the right piece of gear that will suddenly part the Red Sea, spread the clouds and open up rays of sunlit audio-nirvana to suddenly shine it’s grace on your head and ears, you’re deluded. This is why Audio Note gear can sound amazing when set up properly in one room and gear from Sugden and Harbeth (just randomly for example) can sound amazing in another and on and on. This why those who have read Jim Smith’s book and re-read it and implemented as many of his tips have nothing but great things to say and those that have had him "tune their room" are amazed. We have a cultural abyss amongst us and it is the internet. Find a REAL person over the age of 50 who has been in the business for 30 years or so and talk face to face with a REAL PERSON! Listen with your own ears. If it means a five-six hour drive, pick a weekend on your calendar, make an appointment, and get off your couch and into your car to go visit a REAL PERSON. Thanks I feel better now. Those that want to claim that one amp is better than another or that one preamp is the answer to the search for great sound will, obviously, continue to post here with their unequivocal and yet baseless opinions and I will continue to skim and skip 98%, check that, 99%, of the posts here. And to those who might respond with the question, "why do you spend time here and ignore your own advice to interact with real people?", my response is that I am trying and succeeding at walking the walk.
128x128fsonicsmith
+1 Definitely. Good sound is available to anyone but you wont find it on the merry-go-round. The merry-go-round is just a reflection of a psychological need and nothing to do with the pursuit of high fidelity. There is a wonderful Agoner that went through about 50 high end speakers and amps and cables in a few years and is now struggling with headaches with Magico speakers that others would die for. This person is about as lost on the merry-go-round as it gets - fulfilling what has become a psychosis that cant ever be sated.
One of the most common posts on this site goes like this:  My system sounds fantastic, but I want to change it.  Apparently, people just don't when to leave well enough alone.

Happiness is that moment before you need more happiness.
And that quote is from someone who is always closing.
It's a neurosis or a compulsion disguised as a hobby. But it's more fun than scratching eczema.  And there are those magic random moments when your system emits pure bliss for just a couple songs.
In general I find much to agree with in your observations and in particular I get very concerned as you do with those who constantly pursue major component (amp, source, speaker etc) changes in search of some elusive nirvana. 

The truth is it takes months (years even) to optimize a system around any component change. Synergy in everything is key and dropping a new component in will completely disrupt what you have before. Sure you'll hear differences but until you've spent many hours listening, adjusting and maybe even changing supporting tweaks how do you know you have the measure of the new component?

For this reason take any review with a pinch of salt -- especially if you are not familiar with their room and supporting accessories. 

For example in my case it's taken me more than five years to begin to understand how to set up and get the most from my speakers and I'm still not certain they don't have more to give. With each adjustment in my system I need to make changes elsewhere as I realize each compromise I'd been making to ameliorate a prior euphony now needs to be unwound.

Truly this is a process of constant experimentation and many small steps -- which is what I think makes it most enjoyable for many of us