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
In ’02, ’03, ’04, etc., one could scarcely read a thread with more than a dozen posts without seeing someone say, “Everything matters.” So does everyone.

As with your system, how much it or they matter is the real question.

Spitballing ideas or attaining info on some new tech or gizmo has to be done somewhere. Somehow. If everyone takes what ever input or feedback as tainted either slightly or largely, by subjectivity then all will be well.

This includes dealers. Reviewers. Owners of likewise gear.

Remember too, there are folks who actually enjoy the same flavor ice cream. Like the same types of pies. Prefer their steak cooked the same way. Prefer tea with or without sweetner. With or without lemmon. So one can’t fully dismiss the fact of running into other people’s thoughts or preffs which are very similar or even identical to your own.

After all, we don’t all own entirely different pieces of equipment, do we?
Lots of Wilson, BW, KEF, and Sonus Faber speaker owners out there. Lots of Pass Labs, BAT, and Ayre users around. Loads of folks devoted to tube power. Analog only types abound. Strickly digital or mostly digital camps . are ever growing.

… and God forbid, everyone uses cables, although asking for input on wires is like spending two weeks with your in laws. At their rustic ultra rural outside plumbing only, so remote even cell phones don’t work and they have no TV but do have shortwave radio, mountain cabin.

I wouldn’t do it on a bet. UPS and FEDEX could never find it.

But I would respect their rights to live so fundamentally.

Knowing more about the person gains anyone more apt insight into the other person’s counsel. Reading only what is printed on Forum Pages is NOT how one should find out about another person. Way too often, blurbs, blogs, texts or emails simply do not always convey the true sentiment of the writer.

Wanna know what they really mean or meant? Ask them not someone else, not your friends, ask them. Its free. Simple. Takes little time at all. .

There’s plenty of folks trying to sell stuff via PM. Why not get to know someone the same way? They could wind up being an incredible source of experience, or just a new found friend you would not have had otherwise.

Lastly, if forums are such a source of irritation, little can be positively gleaned from them, serve little erstwhile purpose, why continue to involve yourself with them?


Lastly, if forums are such a source of irritation, little can be positively gleaned from them, serve little erstwhile purpose, why continue to involve yourself with them?


Obviously, to show everyone how enlightened one has become after 25 years.  The ultimate form of audiophile snobbery.
Late to the party as always, but I feel compelled to post!

Sonicsmith, I hope you felt better after the rant, but your reference of 25 years ago and your experience then(which you so easily cast aside now) may have been quite relevant.

The audio world was much different back then, in about 1992.  I don't believe audio forums really even existed, so I doubt you did any posting, but that's besides the point.  I've learned much from reading through countless posts, then experimenting with my own systems.

One develops a BS detector, much like when dealing with good and bad sales people.  One of my red flags are posters who see things in black and white only, who have a lot of emotion attached to their opinions, and who push their views with too much fervor.

It cracks me up that a guy with 3 posts declared this "by far the best post in Audiogons history" but perhaps it was. Sadly I tried reading it and gave up due to the lack of paragraphs. If your going to rant at least make it readable.