Now the flip side "referencing".
One of the ways to tell the difference between someone who plug & plays and someone who references is the way the listener describes his or her system. Someone who does referencing rarely talks about their system in terms of money. When people come up and talk about how much they have to spend for fair, good or great sound they don’t really understand the audio chain and how it works. These folks think that a component makes the sound as opposed to the audio chain making the sound.
For folks who explore the audio chain there’s a certain maturity level that is recognizable. An importance is given to the entire system start to finish without excluding any part. These listeners don’t make hasty judgement calls and are students of audio not dictators. Someone who references could care less if you’re using a receiver or separates. They could also care less if you listen differently than they do.
But the main difference between someone who references and someone who plug & plays is, the guy who references you can sit in their chair and listen to a piece of music then make a request of how you would like it to sound different and they will know what to adjust to give you that sound or at least be able to show you the variables. Plug & play guys will blame a recording where reference guys will know how to get the most out of a recording. And not only the most by their criteria, but also by another persons view of the way they want to listen to the same piece of music even if it is a different perspective.
Reviewers are mostly plug & play guys, trading out stock for stock. A listener who references has moved beyond reviews and has found tricks within his audio chain that give him the power of system control through variables.
MG