The myth of "best" in audio needs to be addressed by all of us

@redwoodaudio

Relax.  At 1.5 years, your impressions are brand new.  Of course there's no "best," and it looks like you're already putting that idea to rest.  When you see controversies over "the best," just move on.  Good luck on your journey!

With me it’s "The BEST at that time" or "The BEST so far" or "The BEST of that bunch" or "The BEST looking" or "The Best in Show" or "Best be quiet" or :-)

In context, best is OK!!

Regards

@millercarbon  Ah, what's point...

About "the best", I was for a while pretty active in a local audiophile group. This one guy had put together a whole system of Stereophile Class A components. Pretty sure every single thing had been "the best" or darn near it in the last few years. He bought only "the best".   

When I visited one time it was pretty impressive to see all this stuff I had only seen in magazines. Great big Genesis speakers, monster thick cables everywhere, just insane drool-inducing gear. Until I put in my CD. Was all but unrecognizable- and not in a good way.  

This is the same guy who when he came over his wife snuck up to me and said, "I could listen to this all night!" She was so relieved, she had been to some others and was almost ready to believe all audiophile systems were utterly unlistenable. Well I had at the time a bunch of pretty well unknown stuff. Linaeum speakers. Anyone ever hear them called "the best"? Anyone even heard of them? 

So I don't know about "the best" when used by such as Stereophile. But I am not one to throw the baby out with the bath water. If we lose the idea of "the best" then we might as well throw in the towel. That was the gist of my nihilism comment. Get a grip. Learn a new word. Learn a new concept. Grow up.  

I once stopped and ate at a burger joint that advertised itself as "The World's Best Burger."  I went in with a 'Show me' attitude.

It was, in fact, the world's best burger.

Go figure.