Spendors? Which ones?
Is advice from a constant upgrader to be avoided
For a while now I've been reading these forums and to be honest i was thinking of leaving. I felt a bit out of depth given that it seems so many others have had so much experience through owning what seems to be tens of speakers, amplifiers, DACs etc etc and reading people buying and selling piece after piece after piece on the search for some sound....
When someone asks advice about a certain item it seems like half the audience have owned it and moved on and have a comment to make. I then read about someone buying an extremely expensive amp and deciding quickly to sell it because it doesn't sound right. Then someone else is on their fourth DAC in a year.
So all these people have advice to give. What I'm wondering now is, is advice from a person who's never content, constantly changing their system, never living with a system for long enough, and have more money than patience, really the right person to take advice from? .
There seems fewer (maybe they're less vocal) people who buy gear and spend the time to appreciate it, and have maybe only had a very few systems in their lifetime. I think I'd rate their advice higher on the gear they know than the constant flipper/upgrader.
Is the constant flipper/upgrader always going to say that the gear they used to own was no good and they've now got better? Maybe their constant searching is because their ear is no good or they're addicted to the rush of opening a new box.
Just because person X has owned a lot of equipment doesn't mean their advice is to be sought after, it could mean the exact opposite.
- ...
- 102 posts total
I can count on half a hand the number of people whose advice I trust. So yes, I'd say almost everyone's advice is suspect. Humans are predisposed to too many cognitive biases to be dependable. And obviously, that's not just in audio. It's in everything. Since I depend on measurements, personal research and knowledged gained, my systems tend to be outside the herd-think of forums, and it has worked out well. My components tend to stick around with no complaints or regrets. |
And again, what a judgemental, self-righteous bunch. So you're asking if you should take advice from people who constantly upgrade. The most obvious answer is, "YES!" They've listened to a lot of different things, in a lot of different combinations. A better question for you would be to ask if you should take "input" rather than "advice". The answer is still, "yes", for the same reason. Any modern audiophile level system, even at the very bottom of the class, is going to sound really nice compared to the cheap Best Buy system most people put in their home. And, btw, that's great for them if that's all they want. We've all been there, all started there, well most of us anyway. Point is, there are a lot of people in here who've blown themselves away by how great there little system sounds, conclude that because they so enjoy listening to it that nothing could sound better and anyone who wants anything different is a fool. I don't eat the same meal for dinner every night, I don't wear the same shoes everday, I don't go see the same performances time after time and I don't listen to the same CD forever and ever. People who've had a lot of different components in their home have explored the nuances of sound variation that come from changing any and every single piece. (hey, let's have some fun watching a select and particularly self-righteous segment of this group melt down of what impact changing cables has!!). You can learn a lot about a landscape by talking with people who've walked down many paths. There is one caveat, however, and that is that there are people (many/few?) who claim to have owned components that they've only ever seen online or in one of those old things called "magazines". Their input is not completely useless because they are regurgitating the lessons learned by professional reviewers with far more knowledge/experience than the group here. Just remember that another word for regurgitation is vomit, tho. |
@surfcatDitto!! |
- 102 posts total