We each approach this, including the way we treat others in this forum, in our own way, as we do most other things.
We can use the language, "The only thing getting between advancing the training of one's dog is the owner of the dog." Yes, that's right. "The only thing resisting the improvement of aesthetics of one's interior design is the person in charge of that interior design." You can turn that lens on anything, and yet not everything needs that lens - for instance, we probably should be very tactful in applying our lenses to the behavior of others.
The art hanging on my wall is my art, fits my desires and preferences. I buy my art based on a very long history with art and yet, I wouldn't walk into your house and say you have bad tastes, when you are on your very own path in discovering and responding to art.
I also wouldn't call you names and act as though I was somehow helping you "upgrade" your artistic sensitivities, by calling you a name. Learning just doesn't work well that way. We really have discovered that antagonizing the student, demeaning the student, calling the student names, punishing the student does not, neither in the short nor long terms, produce a better student.
- The motives are all wrong, and lack the very sensitivity that the person claims to be illuminating.
You wish me to apply your lens,
@douglas_schroeder , and I think it would have been worth your time to take notice that I fully embraced your call for "data." I applied your lens. It's worth putting more effort into noticing the things that already meet your interests and alleged requests/standards...
So, your rendering and application of "chintziphile" rides on your own motives, which appears to be to sell me, and others, more costly equipment. Maybe it's part of a competitive approach that has often worked for you? Maybe you think I "need" your "vision" or experience of high-end components. You certainly aren't, in the preceding content, evidencing a high-end interest in discussing the finery of the available technology, even when it (possibly) shows up in lower cost equipment...
That's fine. I've heard your argument. It includes a tendency to call people names when they do not share your value system... I could push the button a lot harder on this, but if you want to roll around in it a bit, I know you are much more intelligent than you initial spitballs reveal...
Are you the kind that has decided his value system should be shared by all? I doubt it, because part of this sort of thinking depends on putting others down as though they are somehow less valuable for their own ways of seeing and processing... I would imagine, if I owned a number of $10K+ components from your list of favorites, you would offer a contrasting set of salutary phrases, very uplifting, even exalted phrases, without knowing a real thing about me, and without much caring, by the way.
It's fine to be absorbed by high-end Mercedes Benzes and lean "taut" bodies. That's all fine. I get the attraction, the sexual and visceral basis of your thinking and what moves you. Go for it! I've driven many MB's in my life - I get what it's all about - the "image" of it all, the interpretation of "power" that such things appear to command. Not a bad ride, nice 'finish' work, ok motor, but I'm much more interested in other values when it comes to my buying power, and my ownership experience.
In here, I'm more interested in understanding the tech - that's one of my values, so when someone made the critique that this thread obviates "learning," I ask you to give me some insight into how my experience enjoying much deeper richer bass from my fire-bottle might be calculated in terms of THD+N or other factors, and how this might be an analog to desirable DAC tech, perhaps evidenced in more AND less costly examples. At some point, the claims to "better" will interact with what we know about things, what we are learning. The engineers are clearly in touch with this... what kind of background do you have, other than "reviewing" the tech? How well do you know the tech?
I don't think you really want to be lectured, who does? But I see the importance of laying bare motives.
I want to know how DACs work - what is in them and what does it do?
I am permitted to develop a thread on this very topic.
.... I don't have any interest in endless claims about how amazing things are in the DAC world of $5000 to $90,000 components, or that there's something wrong with me because I don't have the money to spend on a $5000 DAC.
If that's your interest, Mr. Shroeder, please move on. You claimed you don't like to argue, and yet you immediately started out within the components of argument, and quickly moved to what is commonly known as the "ad hominem" fallacy, which distracts from the claim and evidence, while moving to a focus on character.
You then doubled-down on character, claiming that somehow you have been able to rise from that grave situation, while never addressing any of the interesting points raised in the posts you were allegedly addressing.
You found the points agitating and at odds with your values, so you struck out, so let's have the value discussion...
I'd like to start with valuing the people I'm talking with. I appreciate many different points of view, regarding the technology. I'm not here to assess your character, based on your buying preferences, or your methods of conducting reviews. When I read one of your articles a few months ago, it was clear to me that I was studying a mind that is strongly drawn toward things that cost and look a certain way, and that's fine. I am also interested in some of that, in some places, but I'm absolutely much more satisfied with my Toyota than I would be owning most of the MB's I could afford. I love that my seven year old car will likely go 200,000 - 300,000 miles without any serious service needs. To me, that's smart shopping, smart tech, smart living. That's part of my value system. I don't feel a need to make $200K a year, nor buy $10,000K stereo components, because I make choices that give me a hell of a lot of mileage for pennies.
This is an example of the notion that wealth is relative.
How would you feel, driving most Toyotas? Maybe you do see the intelligence of owning such a vehicle, and I would be interested in hearing the values you associate with a Toyota...
I found your call for evidence concerning the possible sonic differences between the top 20 measured DACs, from but one reviewer, quite reasonable.
I also called upon you, to provide some "data" for the counterclaim that might be drawn out of the thread you had teased out.
Your response was to ignore the entire post and ignore all of its substance. Your response was to mostly ignore the call for deeper analysis and discussion. I would love to hear the result of your mind entering into a conversation with the data results of the testing done on the Modius...
Your "past self" was a chintziphile? I think he was much better than that, probably preserved a little innocence and sense of adventure in the wide open field of audio. The joy is in the process.
In the 80's and 90's I spent day after day, and hour after hour, FOR YEARS, visiting local high-end stereo shops, where I auditioned EVERYTHING and talked to the sales team for hours. They loved it; I loved it. I bought a lower cost pair of Vandersteen (2ce) and kept them for over twenty-five years. Was that chintzy? None of those salespeople every claim the purchase of a Yamaha AVR was chintzy. My purchase of a 15" velodyne subwoofer was also never sold with the added judgment of "chintzy."
Never in all of my face-to-face communication with people selling audio in high-fidelity stores have I encountered a person who wrote off my joyful interest in the tech as chintzy.
I think it's worth thinking about these encounters as though they are to be valued on par with face-to-face interaction. It is the screen, the anonymity, and other factors I won't describe (I might, if pressed) that are supporting the IMPULSE that it's just fine attack character when someone else is behaving in ways that run counter to one's own values.
Can you imagine buying things at on ground stores and having sales people spit on your character because you decide to buy within your own comfort zone?
Let people be themselves, let them conduct their audio search in their own way, if they aren't hurting anyone.
