Did Amir Change Your Mind About Anything?

@daveyf, of course I listen. I guess I gave the impression I did not. I listened at stores, I listened to what other people said, I even did in home trials. Funny thing the brain though, it often tells you what you want to hear, and I think in a strange joke of mother nature on audiophiles, the harder you listen, the more your brain tells you what you want to hear. Looking back on my journey, I think I convinced myself of a lot of stuff that was not true. That is why I was always looking for the next upgrade. I was not doing a lot of anything though I thought I was.

No one can tell you whether/how your system, room and/or ears will respond to some new addition.   There are simply too many variables.

When I thought I knew everything but really knew nothing, this is what I believed too. Now that I have a good foundation of how things work, including the metaphorical me, and by me I mean our hearing, I have a pretty good idea, if I can get enough information, to know how the system (including all the pieces) will respond and what that means for the sound I will hear. I no longer feel I am on the merry-go-round, lots of movement but always ending up in the same place. Now I am walking a line to where I want to go. It is not always straight, but I keep moving forward, not in a circle.

 LIKEWISE: no one can possibly know whether a new addition (ie: some kind of disc, crystal, fuse, interconnect, speaker cable, etc)  will make a difference, in their system and room, with their media and to their ears, without trying them for themselves.   

Oh we can.  If I told you that my music sounds warmer when I wear read socks vs blue you are going to go along with that?  You won't opine that this can't be possible?  That we could measure the effect of red vs blue socks and show conclusively that there is no difference? Or use knowledge of acoustics that says what light sees as far as color, doesn't matter when it comes to sound?

What if I insisted that I can hear the difference?  What if I started to sell red socks saying it makes your music sound warmer, more like real instruments and less "digital?" What then?  I am still good to go and you will defend me if someone shows up with all of the above science and engineering to show these socks can't possibly make a difference?

You see the problem?  Some of you have let your guard down so much that you know believe anything can make a difference in sound.  You don't realize how trivial it is for your brain to manufacture differences where there is none in the sound waves.  You not only go along with these faulty tests and conclusions and come to these forums encouraging people to do the same.  And damage is done.

You don't live the rest of your life this way.  Don't do it for audio.  Know the limits of your audio testing.  It is not like you are born with knowledge of your brain and perils of ad-hoc subjective testing.

Anyone that knows anything about the sciences, realizes that something like 96% of what makes up this universe, remains a mystery.     

You believe in that science but when it comes to audio, all of a sudden we know nothing.  But let me ask you this: do you worry about dark matter with respect to performance of your car?  Do you know dark energy is what pushes your car ahead instead of a know chemical reaction?  

If the answer is no, why on earth do you believe that putting a battery connected to one end of an audio cable makes it sound better?  I mean are you not at all moved that when I measure this Audioquest cable, that I can't even detect a difference down to many decimal places with with the battery on or off?

Seeing how these companies don't present a single listening test research showing efficacy is not a concern to you?  That any and all things must make a difference to somebody as to then keep the floodgates open to all of them?

Are you not concerned that some of these things do the opposite that is claimed?  Here is a Nordost flat cable noise immunity test:

Compare that to cheap generic cable (watch the top right graph):

This cable not only costs a lot more, it is also a pain in the neck to use as high-end cables are almost always are:

Why can't you leave any room for independent evaluation of products showing issues like these?  You don't take medication without such, why do you spend incredible amount of money on these audio tweaks this way?

Doesn't it make sense that it is pretty easy to make money by making a fancy looking cable and selling it for thousands of dollars?  Just like a magic trick, isn't reasonable that your senses can be fooled enough to make a sale?

The Naysayer Church wants you to trust their antiquated science (1800’s electrical theory) and faith-based, religious doctrine, BLINDLY ("Trust ME!"). 

What?  I thought it was your group that says "I trust my ear so you must trust what I say."  That is definition of asking someone to trust you blindly.  We on the other hand believe in bringing independent proof.  We do that with not only measurements but proper knowledge of electronic design and sciences around perception.  You want to throw all of that out ask us to believe what someone perceives through faulty listening tests.  This fits what you see above to the letter.

You really think engineers don't know what a wire does?  Or what a rack does for equipment performance?  That they need audiophiles to tell them there are differences that can't be explained?

    IF you’re interested in the possibility of improving your system’s presentation, have a shred of confidence in your capacity for perceiving reality and trust your own senses: actually TRY whatever whets your aural appetite, FOR YOURSELF.     

Trust your senses, plural, and you will definitely fall in the ditch of wasting money and effort instead of sitting back and enjoying music. 

What you should do is do what you preach: trust your ear and only your ear.  If any other senses are involved, then you are not assessing the sound of something.  Learn how to do a proper listening test that has only one variable (what is being tested) and do it to rule out chance (i.e. repeat a dozen times) and by all means you can trust your ears.  

Yes, there is a bit of work involved in that.  But I assure you it is less than attempting to convince people to abandon common sense and audio science/engineering. 

If you can't be bothered at all, then there are people like me who do the legwork for you and present you very useful information to base your audio purchases on. Huge number of your fellow audiophiles are doing exactly that and are better for it.  Think hard as to what they know that you don't.  Surely they know your method.