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Talk but not walk?

Hi Guys

This isn't meant to start a fight, but it is important to on lookers. As a qualifier, I have my own audio forum where we report on audio issues as we empirically test them. It helps us short cut on theories and developing methods of listening. We have a wide range of systems and they are all over the world adding their experiences to the mix. Some are engineers, some are artist and others are audiophiles both new and old. One question I am almost always asked while I am visiting other forums, from some of my members and also members of the forum I am visiting is, why do so many HEA hobbyist talk theory without any, or very limited, empirical testing or experience?

I have been around empirical testing labs since I was a kid, and one thing that is certain is, you can always tell if someone is talking without walking. Right now on this forum there are easily 20 threads going on where folks are talking theory and there is absolutely no doubt to any of us who have actually done the testing needed, that the guy talking has never done the actual empirical testing themselves. I've seen this happen with HEA reviewers and designers and a ton of hobbyist. My question is this, why?

You would think that this hobby would be about listening and experience, so why are there so many myths created and why, in this hobby in particular, do people claim they know something without ever experimenting or being part of a team of empirical science folks. It's not that hard to setup a real empirical testing ground, so why don't we see this happen?

I'm not asking for peoples credentials, and I'm not asking to be trolled, I'm simply asking why talk and not walk? In many ways HEA is on pause while the rest of audio innovation is moving forward. I'm also not asking you guys to defend HEA, we've all heard it been there done it. What I'm asking is a very simple question in a hobby that is suppose to be based on "doing", why fake it?

thanks, be polite

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net


128x128michaelgreenaudio
fsonicsmith's avatar
fsonicsmith
965 posts
 
Mapman, trust me. I know. I let him get under my skin once but never again. He reminds me of an alien creature discovered by Mulder and Scully. If captured, restrained, and secreted off to a special laboratory, the scientists would be befuddled and give up. They would conclude the creature is of no use to humankind and not worthy of further analysis. 
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,522 posts
 
But out of the many thousands of recording I have on vinyl. tape, cd etc there is likely only a double handfull that I consider to be truly terrible. Lets say 0.1% total?

Now maybe I am missing something here but WHY should I try to "fix" my system to get this 0.1% to sound acceptable? I am more than likely going to end up just making it worse for a whole bunch more recordings before I MIGHT get it right and at what cost in time, effort and $?

Same here. Just a very few out of thousands. Some almost a century old (remastered of course).

No reason to worry about the 0.1%. Even new fuses oriented in the right direction probably won’t help.  

 You’d have a better chance of making GK acceptable.

Toot toot! :-)




uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Would that be new fuses in my system or in GK?
Inquiring minds need to know!
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,522 posts
 
I doubt even properly oriented, bees wax-stuffed, graphene-lined fuses with TC shmeared all over it can help that dude.  But its worth a try!
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio OP
1,019 posts
 

I want to touch on the car, but first let me give you guys a little insight into my job of "doing" (the walk). About every day I get a call or email asking me to do some testing. This morning for example I was asked to test the sound of different materials used by the state of Illinois in building residential properties. In particular the 3M product called "fire-block" vs the other brands.

What I will be doing is making a testing jig so I can hear the results when using 12-2 and 14-2 Romex. I will be testing literally dozens of different competitors and then make my recommendations.

You might say "so what". And that would be cool, unless your one of the hundreds of thousands of listeners who want to go further. For every guy out there saying their system is just fine there are 40 saying "I wish I could....". They come up on this and other audio forums every day reading to see if they can find an answer to their questions. Why don’t they post? One of the major reasons is they know that many folks posting probably are offering their opinions on topics they have never, or with limited experience, researched more than reading what someone else thinks. How do I know this first hand? I have a list of emails from this very forum to get to almost every day since I have started visiting. Am I the answer? Nope, I’m the messenger. You’re the answer and I’m here to give the encouragement to try. If your not interested, then my question is, why did you post? And what are you going to say to those folks who do start to walk, or have been walking?

The starting points I have been talking about cost you the listener zero dollars, or very little. The most interesting part to this is, this is the future of the hobby for the music adventurist, and it has been happening for a very very long time.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

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