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Are Audiophiles "Simply Guessing?"

Comments by Pro Musician, Rick Beato written by Robert Archer / CEPro:

https://www.cepro.com/article/pro_musician_rick_beato_audiophiles_guessing


"File size and equipment choice don’t matter"

"Training is the biggest factor when it comes to critically evaluating music"

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgEjI5PZa78

Came by this while searching for related material. Thoughts? Reaction?
david_ten
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Alan Parsons worked at multimillion $ facilities with original recordings that are far better than what most audiophiles ever listen to. So I guess his attitude was that for recreational listening there was no point to compete. 
glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,669 posts
 
I think its similar to many aspects of work recreation life. many people that do something for work don't do it for relaxation-recreation. I used to love working on cars then I owned an auto performance shop now I hate working on my car... sort of ruined my hobby for me having to do it every day all day. I'm betting Alan P has a similar type of situation.
david_ten OP
5,480 posts
 
Also that ’Mastery’ is more than simply deliberate practice (aka the 10K Hours Rule / Malcomb Gladwell).

If we were to follow Gladwell, many audiophiles would be experts given the amount of time spent listening. One problem with this is that technology is marching on and keeping up with it, even within our very specific hobby, isn’t as feasible or as practical as some believe it to be.
gawdbless's avatar
gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
Surely that test should only be done streamed through a mega dollar set up, with loudspeakers, not cheap? headphones. As we all know the more you spend on your equipment the better the sound quality.
Perfect pitch? so what.  
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

The systems used are typically not up to discerning small differences, like that between AIFF and .wav or FLAC and .wav.  Give them a good system and make the listeners close their eyes and you would get the result you expect, even with untrained listeners. 

Training ears is always a good thing.  I believe it mostly allows the listeners to tune-out the visuals and focus more on the placement and focus.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio


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