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Law of Accelerated Returns

I think back over the many decades of pursuing high end audio and I realize some of the most inspirational were listening to state of the art systems. Systems I could never dream of affording. I occasionally would get up early and drive the two hours to Phoenix in hopes of finding no one listening to the state of the art system in “the big room” at one of the four or five high end audio stores there in the early ‘90’s.

One such time I was able to spend over an hour with the most amazing system I have ever heard: Wilson WAAM BAMM (or something like that… all Rowland electronics, Transparent interconnects). The system cost about over $.5 million… now, over a million… although I am sure it is even better (I can’t imagine how)..

 

But listening to that system was so mind blowing… so much better than anything I could conceive of, it just completely changed my expectation of what a system could be. It was orders of magnitude better than anything I had heard.

 

Interestingly, as impressed as I was… I did not want “that” sound, as much as I appreciated it. It still expanded my horizon as to what is possible. That is really important, as it is really easy to make judgments on what you have heard and not realize the possibilities… like never having left the small town in Kansas (no offense).

I keep reading these posts about diminishing returns. That isn’t the way it works. I recently read an article by Robert Harley in The Absolute Sound called the Law of Accelerated Returns that captures the concept perfectly. March 2022 issue. The possibilities in high end audio is incredible. Everyone interested in it in any way deserves to hear what is possible. It is mind expanding. 

 

 

ghdprentice
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
13,130 posts
 

Anybody with a mid Eighties Delco AM/FM radio replaced by equal $ Jensen Coax w Pioneer deck has, HAS experienced BEYOND accelerating returns….

stuartk
3,079 posts
 

 I don't begrudge anyone with the means to pursue the ultimate. 

That said, I can't help but wonder whether it's not true that "ignorance is bliss".

I can be very obsessive and am not at all sure that being exposed to 100K systems would make me happier, knowing I could never afford one, myself.

Furthermore, as I'm not engineering-minded, were I able to spend 100K, there's no guarantee I'd end up withy a system that I'd enjoy more than my current 25K system. 

I actually haven't heard many systems. I attended a couple meetings of a local audiophile society and felt very out of place, as the emphasis was very much on gear. No-one wanted to talk about music. 

 

 

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,210 posts
 

Interesting experience indeed that reflected a fact which can be verified here in Audiogon...

The ignorance of acoustic and psycho-acoustic science is proportionate to the perveived attention FOCUSING on the gear "tasted" sound...

People in acoustic experiment focus instead  on timbre perception and music perception  to create the best audiophile environment in their house/room/system...

Ignorance of acoustic is the common link among the subjectivist and objectivist complete underestimation of the power of acoustic control to deliver and TRANSLATE the recorded initial acoustic event in another acoustic event in your room  ...

We listen to the seaker/room relation not to an amplifier ALONE....Or to a dac alone....

 

It is the reason why i dont feel i am a "normal" or the regular audiophile....

I dont mind about the gear after i chose a very good one to begin with... The audiophile work begin AFTER the gear is chosen... Upgrading is a deception BEFORE you can control the mechanical, electrical and acoustical embeddings  working dimensions of the system...

 

 

I actually haven’t heard many systems. I attended a couple meetings of a local audiophile society and felt very out of place, as the emphasis was very much on gear. No-one wanted to talk about music.

 

stuartk
3,079 posts
 

@mahgister 

"We listen to the s[p]eaker/room relation not to an amplifier ALONE....Or to a dac alone...."

Yes!  And along with synergy between room and gear, there is synergy between components. For these reasons, I never buy anything I cannot try out in my room and return, if necessary. 

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,210 posts
 

Yes there is a synergy or his lack of synergy between gear and UNCONTROLLED normal room...

But we can recreated the room and midify it to correlate to our specific audio system..

This modification of a room by mechanical controlling method inspired by Helmholtz iswhatintereste me and what i spoke about..

Then acoustic method can be used to make any room to be synergetically optimal for any gear...

Then you can buy anything which is "relatively good" and before upgrading it you must work on the room to makeit working at his peak level quality wise...

Upgrading before that is waste of money and ignorance of what you try to evaluate because you try to evaluate his quality in an uncontrolled room...

Yes!  And along with synergy between room and gear, there is synergy between components. For these reasons, I never buy anything I cannot try out in my room and return, if necessary. 

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