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
fsonicsmith

... 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 ...
I'm not sure how you arrive at this figure, but I think it's dubious.

... 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 ...
So you assume that others are also posting pablum and regurgitating?

... 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.

Pardon me, but I think you're deluded if you're claiming that this is what others here have suggested. Certainly I've never seen such claims.

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 ...
You're claiming to know that posts not even yet written are baseless?

I'll give you credit for the title of your thread: It's just a rant.
I always say, we don't know what we don't know, but the answers can always be discovered with our own ears. My other saying is, there are no absolutes in Audio, only preferences. 
I value the different audio forums. It's part of the hobby to me. I've made stupid comments over the years on Audiogon, but now I try to emphasize that my comments are about what I hear in my room, in the context of my system. I'm finally at a place that I know I'm blessed to have what I have. Once I'm done with cables, I'm done.

I don't think you have to be psychologically damaged to enjoy all the different ways the hobby can be fun. High powered monster amps vs SET, Horns vs Panels, different sound and different ways to make artificial music sound more real. And all just fun as can be!

 Now it might just help to be damaged. :0)

It's just the 25 year itch. Comes every five years or so. Just wait; in five more years you'll renounce all that you think you know now. 
After buying ,running a audio store and going from buying top A list and expecting system synergy to now getting great value and realizing parts quality on most commercial speakers,and electronics.is never near the best unless spending $$$. Myself  put top quality parts in components 
Resistors Capacitors bypass caps and others like Duelund quality caps
To Vishsy Naked resistors, Top wire  things like this  can transform your system 
And avoid having to  buy a new component for fat less then half the cost of new.