The Insane World of High End Audio! Is it All a Scam?


This 15 minutes of youtube video by "cheapaudioman" say a lot and hide a lot...

He review low cost products ...

His analysis of audiophiles world here seems fair to me...

But nowhere in all his videos and in this one  he mention "acoustics" as the basis of audio hobby, the anker of any system  and gear piece  evaluation and satisfaction...

He  always talk about the gear... Probably acoustics for him as for most is only acoustics panels purchase...

My point is not that the audio world of audiophile is a scam with scammers...

Not at all.

It is ignorance  of what is acoustics basics that makes people victim of their own decisions  and a potential prey for honest or dishonest sellers..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeqbFYaJisQ

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Generally, people are flawed in their thinking that if it costs more it must be better. This bias lives in the imagination of humans and makes it easy for scammers.

Years ago Starbucks coffee was doing poorly. They kept lowering the price to lure customers but it wasn't helping. New management came in and immediatly tripled the price on coffee to change the perception that the cheap price = cheap/crap product. Instead the new higher price gave a new image that this coffee is now improved, higher quality. "it must be better at that price!". Even though the coffee was unchanged, people with money were now lured in due to price.  A smart marketing tool that didn't cost them anything.

Certainly the people with money can see the Emporors new clothes. They also hear the sound improvement from a $2000 box of rocks. (they'd never buy the rocks if they were only $50 )

The difference of buying a Rolex vs. a Timex has NOTHING to do with telling time.

Very good posts... Thanks Bolong and gdaddy1

 

But you miss or forget the "dog which did not barked" in the audio conditioning market...wink

I have some gear at different price categories. 

Without A/B-ing such items in the same room, you wouldn't be able to tell what exactly you paid for or not.

The cheapman youtube guy probably doesn't have any point of reference or clue, except catering to his subscribers, i.e., other angry cheapaudiomen who got hyper-capitalism's short end of the stick. 

There's also a lot of junk sold at astronomical prices... that just looks good. Many expensiveaudiomen pay for such looks.

When I first started out in this hobby, I was sure all cables sounded alike and cable marketing was all a scam.  As my ears got better, I could hear the difference and realized it was important to me, so I bought into pricey cables.

And I have never heard two pairs of speakers sound the same -- there's always a difference.

My impression is that cheapaudioman 1) cannot tell the difference in sound at the high end which is convenient because 2) he doesn't have enough money.

He notes the diminishing returns with higher price.  At some price level, he can't tell the difference (or the difference is too small for him to care).  But there are others who hear the difference and do care about it.  When listeners can tell the difference between $60k speakers vs $10k and have the funds, the value proposition makes sense.  That's the market niche.

So with sour grapes, he labels the high end a scam.  May his ears never become educated to appreciate the finer differences in those diminishing returns.