Why are so many people spending so much money to build “perfect” streaming system?

@jjsmith 

I think the overwhelming evidence is in favor of better equipment sounding better, cables making sonic differences… etc. No analogous relationship between UFOs and audio.

@zlone

I appreciate your comments and sharing of your experiences. I don’t believe that jssmith would dispute that differences are heard, but rather why they are heard. Manipulation of signal/distortion to achieve a desired sound.

I believe that he feels his 179.00 laptop and 130.00 DAC are technically correct (Perfect bits transmission) and nothing further is required or necessary. It can’t get any better, only different. @lalitk is right, there’s really no effective reasoning with this rigid mindset.

Charles

Let a thousand flowers bloom. And if you're a listener who just likes to listen to your first-day-it-came-out LP of Led Zeppelin II, so be it. I got a "Whole Lotta Love" for ya.

@lalitk / @charles1dad …”there is no effective reasoning with this ridged mindset.”

This is very true. I have worked with hundreds of electrical design engineers, not the ones that create great audio components (like preamps and DACs), but ones that create microelectronics… microchips, DAC chips, and OP amps… etc. overall, these guys are absolutely sure they completely understand reality, far above any other human being… I mean it is Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island all over again… “we understand how things work and that is it”. They can be unbelievably closed minded… having their view that “it can’t make a difference”, therefore they refuse to hear one (ASR also comes to mind). I have some engineers that are still friends and they are on the open minded side and they have allowed me to show them otherwise.

To be honest, I think this attitude really slowed the advancement of high end audio. It took some real pioneers to look beyond the “It shouldn’t make a difference”, with such stubborn egotistical self righteousness, to listen and draw their own conclusions. Now there are lots of high end companies that hire engineers into an environment of listening is the key to evaluating a design. It is the pioneers like William Zane Johnson of Audio Research and Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson of Conrad Johnson that broke through the dogma and realized that a few measurements did not tell the whole story.

Sorry about the rant. But as a manager of multifunction departments and a corporate executive for decades, I learned to flip realities depending on which group I was speaking with. Honestly, the engineering community is the most difficult to deal with, having an incredibly narrow view of the world. The scientists are also very argumentative (I was a scientist for ten years), but they at least go back to observation to prove their point… so this softens changing reality to fit their view, mostly. 

@ghdprentice 

That is thoughtful and well stated. It seems to me that the really successful and innovative audio designers and manufacturers have a more “scientist” curiosity and open mind. They recognize what they can’t easily explain or understand and seek out the why?
Actually more humble and displaying humility rather than a know it all arrogance and dogma. You often learn more by acknowledging what you do not know and exploring further and deeper. Science seems to concede that there are no absolutes.

Charles