What I learned on Audiogon This Year


Things I learned from the forums this year:

1) In n Out Burger is the best fast food in the world, and Father's Office is the best Burger in LA (thanks BongoFury).

2) Widespread Panic and Arcade Fire are great bands.

3) All Digital is the wave of the future through downloads and analog is dead.

4) Analog is back to audio dominance and will continue to grow, digital is a trend and will die off except for convenience sake.

5) Don't ever say anything derogitory regarding certain types of gear that are defended by thier ______-mafia gangs. Especially___________________________.

6) Expensive Power cords are a still the biggest snake oil in audio.

7) Speakers are the most important place to start building a system.

8) Analog sounds better than digital.

9) Blu Ray is dead in the water, downloads for all media, video and audio is now the standard and will only continue to grow.

10) This is not a hobby, but a terrible affliction/addiction, and I need to change out some more gear.
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11) Do not make cat jokes. Especially ones advocating fixing them to audio equipment.

12) Do not diss rim drive turntables. Idlers are the future of analogue.
I have learned that whatever the majority thinks is easy will be difficult for me. Whatever tweak that made a world of difference in the other guy's system will make no difference in mine.
Plato, great post. I have heard the Wyred DAC and love it. I am helping a non-audio-fool friend put together a higher end system, and had him buy the Wyred DAC2 as the centerpiece. That said, in my system I liked the Bryton BDA-1 better than the Wyred, I thought it had a deeper soundstage. But that was my system. The Wyred is as good as advertised.

MickeyF, excellent post. I hate cats, and rim drive.
I learned why many people prefer tone arms that don't have user removable headshells, because cartridge rolling is expensive and addicting.
Do not make an absolute judgment. Someone will always dispute it (and rightly so).