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

@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..

A lot of people are window shopping and like the interest a recommendations thread generates.

Many also seem to have a certain product in mind and become conflicted when alternates are mentioned because they are looking for confirmation of their choice.

Cost and lack of trustworthy reviews also come into play. So many reviews fail to capture how something sounds. Sad but true. They will say it sounds great but fail to mention any down sides or overall tonal balance that affects system matching.

Also living in the Chicago area has given me great opportunity for dealer and audio show visits over the years. If one is serious about sound, exposure is the only way find out what you like.