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

@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.

it's definitely a journey whether one likes it or not

so given we are talking about a hobby/pass-time here it's best we view this reality as a positive

being honest with yourself about whether you enjoy the process, the journey, or dread it, is quite important and one should alter one's approach accordingly 

that said, as others have pointed out, listening and auditioning can't be short circuited 

I thought that I would chime in and respond, and clarify myself about audio for me in general. What made me think of this was a private audio event I went to. A very relaxed listening event at a loft in an almost industrial, not the greatest part of the city. But when you entered the space, well turned out to be one of the nicest city spaces I had ever been in. It really was more of a party atmosphere; food, drink, with a decent size crowd there and the place was filled with high end Japanese gear from Luxman, Yamaha, Esoteric, etc. Even a Spectral setup with there sdr-4000. Here is the point about this event, the men and the women’s reactions to the equipment for the most part are quite different. A lot of the guys listened intently and would have a harder time committing to which equipment they preferred as opposed to the women who seem to choose almost immediately what they preferred and when asked why they liked something didn’t get into long boring(I think) explanations. "It sounds better", "more like music", "I just like it more". Much less wishy washyness.

I have come to the conclusion that you cannot listen to every piece of audio equipment out there in a way that will help one form a solid opinion of what is better or best. It’s a" fools errand" to think that you can that you can choose the best audio equipment, by constantly refining your choices down to that last, this is the one I will definately purchase choice, only to hear, read about something else that you now must listen to. Not to mention that many of the components are not locally available and you’re shipping equipment back and forth from all over the country in the hope of some audio nirvana, moment of truth you are hoping for occurs.

As I see it, I try to listen to as much audio in a realistic amount of geographic space as is reasonably possible; considering also things like ease of repair, return to a dealer, the ability to listen to my purchases may be compared to something newer out there in the comfort of a dealer or easy enough to try at home. The idea of being in this sort of constant frenetic mindset of "did I make the right or best choice" simply kills the fun and enjoyment of music. I work with what’s available to me and work with that. I had most of my audio either crap out or blowup or something in a very short span and it was a learning curve replacing everything but I did and I am done for now truly enjoy it. Hell, one of my favorite dealers in town recently replaced their long-time ref turntable with something new, and yes it is better in most every aspect, not mind altering (maybe for others) better, but better and I don’t care. I’m happy with what I have and will stick with it for "time to come".

Oh and I have built audio equipment myself including speakers that I have had and refined over literally decades. I even took a course in college, a 300 level physics course that had to do with advanced audio design(I was just looking at material I kept from that class) where we used software like Thiel & Small parameters before any retail software existed that the prof. created, did our own tests on driver specs to double check the public data published by manufacturing companies was accurate, network theory, etc. so to those who suggest building your own equipment...... I’m sure I missed a few things, points but I have to get back to work.