Why do so many members seem afraid of making an audio decision?

@russbutton --

+1

There’s an emphasis in this thread on ’learning,’ while I would as well stress the importance of unlearning. Depending on the breadth of information gathered through years a lot of what’s accumulated can set one on a course that may be more reflective of a paradigm or school of thought than an explorative approach. DIY in a range of areas can be helpful in this regard with an element of trial and error or "Alice down the rabbit hole" that’s very rewarding.

At the core of things it may be an anarchistic tendency to challenge the established and ask the ’why’ in addition to ’how;’ about perspective and a different vantage point and daring to turn your back on things that may have previously held meaning and importance. Sometimes, or even more often than not it’s a feeling of reverence to something or someone that in effect makes secondary your own thoughts on a matter, and yet at some point the realization may surface that it’s time to look elsewhere. Not necessarily because of thorough deduction on a specific matter coming to an opposing view, but simply because following the current has you asking too many questions on the why of it that one can’t not pause and step back for a moment.

For a while I found myself heading in a direction in PC audio very much lead on or affected by a general tendency in this field, but at a certain juncture I began to question that direction, through chance almost, that it started a process of me devolving in a sense in the opposite way and back to an outset of years earlier. Not because I needed to be in opposition per se, but because I challenged a stance trusting my very own abilities to analyze it with an open mind. There was no presupposed right or wrong, price or principle didn’t matter, and suddenly I found myself reading through threads almost a decade old. Where I revived them I was told to basically "get into the loop" of the new. Why, because it’s new?

If people tell you something is generally accepted as "the shit" in opposition to something else, test it out for yourself. Maybe you feel the variations are miniscule and mostly about ’different’ rather than ’better,’ and then why shell out thousands of $$ if you can avoid it and be just as happy, and maybe even more? What’s interesting is seeing how a particular field in audio reproduction (like accessories or diaphragm materials, and also computer audio) can be obsessed about to a degree where it’s seemingly about a segment of a leaf on a tree that keeps you from seeing the damn forest. Or a least that’s my assessment on the priority shown in some cases that completely throws me off and has me wondering where audio in any way fairly authentic to a live reference, on the whole, enters the picture.

I digress. Be a warrior, throw things up in the air, challenge the established - not least try to see the forest for the trees. At the end of the day have the guts to go you own way, all the while sucking up all the information you care to. I don’t mean to be disrespectful of the "experts" in a particular field in audio reproduction, on the contrary, but their expertise may not speak to where this or that individual is heading.

@phusis 

@russbutton 

It depends on your objective. Is this a process for learning and experimentation where the process is your goal or do you want a high-end sound system soon… and spend most of your life listening to great systems and music.

The complexities involved with coming up a great system at a given investment level are huge and very time consuming to unravel. If you like bouncing around in solution space (like a ball in a pinball machine) rediscovering things already known and relishing it… go for it. But there are very well understood principles and guidelines to assess your own values, evaluate and match equipment to achieve the highest sound quality for the money. Most folks are not interested in making a challenging pursuit more difficult, but if it makes you happy, go for it. 
 

Most folks learn about the principles of algebra, Newtonian physics and quantum physics instead of ignoring them and deriving them from first principles. But one can do it either way. 
 

@ghdprentice 

There are a couple of ways to go DIY.  It's great fun to do your own engineering.  You learn a great deal.  But you can always let someone else do the engineering and you just build their design.  You suggest that a DIY guy isn't going to have great sound and great music.  Many experimenters do take time to get there, but you can build someone else's design and have true hi-end sound at a price we mere mortals can afford.

Perhaps you're one of those guys who buys his audio the same way he buys his luxury cars.  Bully for you.  Glad you can afford it.  I've met plenty of guys who dropped $30k and more on a pair of speakers that 5 years later, they're trying to find a buyer for at 75% less.

But if you had built the Linkwitz LX521 system, you'd have your "forever" loudspeaker system at $6k or less, depending on the amp choice you made.  You'd have a far superior system and money left over to put down on that next Tesla.

@russbutton 

I am definitely not into throwing money at getting great sound… but great sound is what I am after… end of story. I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours evaluating interconnects and cables. More evaluating components. I have also built some of my own speakers and speaker cables. But I found that carefully chosen components of all types, having professionals competing in the market place can exceed my meager attempts to reproduce their work.

I am not saying this can’t be fun.. an a great way to assemble a great sounding cost effective budget system. But for those wanting the best high end system they can afford are best served by learning by those that have gone before them. I have fifty years of pursuing the high end… always cost constrained, but with an increasing budget, and there are some known routes to get there. 

@ghdprentice wrote:

It depends on your objective. Is this a process for learning and experimentation where the process is your goal or do you want a high-end sound system soon… and spend most of your life listening to great systems and music.

No, you presuppose there's a division, except one doesn't exclude the other. Moreover you're implying to know my/our objective, which, speaking for myself, you don't. 

The complexities involved with coming up a great system at a given investment level are huge and very time consuming to unravel. If you like bouncing around in solution space (like a ball in a pinball machine) rediscovering things already known and relishing it… go for it.

I guess to someone pedantic about a normative approach the above sentiment is to be expected.  

But there are very well understood principles and guidelines to assess your own values, evaluate and match equipment to achieve the highest sound quality for the money. Most folks are not interested in making a challenging pursuit more difficult, but if it makes you happy, go for it. 

To you it seems cultivating audio reproduction is a daunting task to be thoroughly schooled by a more or less singular line of thought dictated by the "masters." To me it's more about the encouragement of embarking on an audio adventure and getting to navigate in it by yourself - both inspired, open-minded and discovering. I don't see how it's ever going to be wasted knowing how best to accommodate your own heading, but you would of course need to know of its possibility to begin with. 

I am not saying this can’t be fun.. an a great way to assemble a great sounding cost effective budget system. But for those wanting the best high end system they can afford are best served by learning by those that have gone before them. I have fifty years of pursuing the high end… always cost constrained, but with an increasing budget, and there are some known routes to get there. 

Well, my 40 years of experience have taught me excellence in sound reproduction first and foremost comes from proper implementation (and configuration), adhering to physics, perspective and a bunch of common sense - also and not least learning from others and knowing your live sound references. Pro segment/domestic ditto, new/used, DIY/preassembled, cheap/expensive, active/(passive), acoustic transformers/direct radiating - most of this (except passive config.) is incorporated in my setup, and yet to some it may be difficult to comprehend all of it can be housed under the same roof and in the same setup..