New Thread on Steve Hoffman website that says Audiogon sucks

@harold-not-the-barrel ,

"Now we have legions of arrogant novices, snake oilers and all kinds of besser wissers trying to be so darn smart here."

"This thread is just another symptom of that cancer that eventually will destroy great forums, and whole civilization in the end. Unless we want to stop it."


Good points for sure, but aren’t you forgetting reader responsibility? One of the main points of any forum is to read various points of view and then to draw your own conclusions.

Since all we have to go on are words it should be second nature for us to always ask basic questions eg

What are the poster’s intentions?

What are they trying to sell us?

Are they factually correct or trying to ’blind us by science’ or careful omission?

Is the argument balanced, or are we only hearing one side?

Who are they trying to help?


In fact doesn’t all the information we encounter from third parties (where trust is not automatically given) need to be treated in this manner?

As for civilisation being destroyed by this ’cancer’, I am reminded of that Gandhi quote when asked what he thought about Western civilisation,

“I think it would be a good idea."

In other words, we’re not quite there yet, not in the political realm and not yet even here on Audiogon!

Action, reaction! When someone goes a-trollin’ the fish go a-bitin’. 🐡

I like gravy on my taters! Mmmmmm... 🍟

peterm13
Well reported.  Happy Listening!

@peterm 13, you might not agree with the way it's run but surely you wouldn't disagree with the fact it's an absolute goldmine of information, would you?

Audio is largely a matter of taste.

(I believe that mass suggestibility figures in, too, driving things like expensive cables, fads in DAC design, and schemes like HDCD and MQA, but that’s just my opinion.)

Statements that "this sucks" or "that sucks" belong on a third-grade playground, if they belong anywhere.

Statements like "tubes are better than solid state" or the reverse; or "DAC chip X stomps chip Y" reach only the level of the fourth grade.

There are many ways to get great sound. I’ve heard expensive (and cheap) systems that have been distressing, and cheap (and expensive) systems that sound great.

This is a shared hobby . . . we should start by showing respect for one another and for the subjective nature of the purported objective: enjoyment of music.