Vinyl / High qual analog tape / High-res digital -- One of these is not like the other

When someone describes his system in words, they’re still just words. Words mean different things to different people. Highly resolved, transparent, Low noise floor, holographic soundstage, they’re just words. Words tend to lose their meaning, especially audiophile words. Most of them are way overused. As of you know what a system sounds like by someone’s description of it. You won’t know what a system sounds like until you are actually there. “My system sounds fabulous” seems to the war cry of the audiophile.

For what it is worth Mike, I am not terribly "welcome" on the ASR website as I far too often called out the errors in either Amir's measurements and/or conclusions based on his measurements. It was pretty brave having him over given his reputation and you can't win all hearts.  I find him pig-headed, and rare to admit his errors, but not dishonest, and his feelings about your system, while perhaps tainted by bias, may have very well been honest. We all have different likes.


The reason why, with rare exception I choose to be anonymous online, is working in an industry that crosses technical and creative boundaries in an era of cancel culture, I can't afford to "piss-off" someone who may be a revenue stream for people that count on me, simply due to a difference of opinion, not to mention I have had colleagues cyber stalked purely because of those opinions, and we are not talking political/cultural opinions, we are talking purely about technical opinions and personal preferences.

My perspective on the differences come from being very close to the creation, and being true to what is being created, or at least the ability to be accurate. My feeling is if you have accuracy, you can always tune for preference, but you can't go the other way.

It was pretty brave having him over given his reputation and you can’t win all hearts.

the time he came for the meeting related in his comments, i never invited him or knew he was coming. we had already locked horns by that time and so his viewpoints were expected. he came with an agenda. big surprise.

some years prior to that, i had invited him over. but at that time he was not a listener, he was a techie who liked writing about hifi. trying to fix what he saw was wrong with audiophiles. so he arrived to listen, stayed 15 minutes, and left. he cared nothing about listening. he cared about being the smartest guy in the room.

some things never change. and i fully admit he is a smart guy.

mikelavigne,

"what did you learn from those moments?"

Ha! I don't really know to be honest, other than its fascinating to read about such scenarios. 

I mean I'd love to try something like the Harman blind speaker test, but yeah, there would be a considerable amount of trepidation beforehand. 

Putting yourself and your preconceptions to a public test must be daunting for anyone. It's hardly surprising that reviewers persistently shy away from such tests. 

However in their case, it's not really an excuse as it's their job. Something they signed up for and something they get paid for.

So yeah, it was good of you to do it, and share the results.

Hi G, Regarding Rumours in one month, I might pull out the SACD if I wanted to relax and not have to hassle with the vinyl.  But I would probably reach for the vinyl, thinking there would be more musical engagement.

Hi M, Regarding my vinly pressing: its the 33 rpm version, and its analog sourced, and sounds amazing. Sorry you got stuck with a digital record.