Nobody doing thier own experimenting or research?

Jvia; not an unreasonable observation. I would just say from personal experience that it took me 3-5 years of reading, listening, learning, talking, auditioning etc. before I became confident in my own listening skills, and also learned the "audiophile language". And I see a lot of that kind of inexperience showing up in questions here on A'Gon. I try to have an accomodating attitude toward those kind(s) of questions.

There was a time when I gave a lot of weight to Stereophile recommendations. Also, that was before my i-net days. I am now near totally confident in my own listening skills, and in my own judgement regarding most audio (music) considerations, and many of my components, wires, and tweaks are not "reviewer approved". But some aren't confident about these things, and yet others may just want to talk about it-- ie, get other points of view (I've done this myself) etc.

I now know what I want (musically) and am confident in doing my own trials and experiments, but I think many haven't achieved that kind of confidence yet, and thus they seek out the experience and opinions of those who have learned many audio "lessons". And then there is simply information sharing. I've certainly made my share of mistakes and have made some bad choices too, but that's part of the learning experience. So I say: welcome to Audiogon. Cheers. Craig

I'm not hacking prople here that ask opinions before they buy, that is of course very sensible. But as an example, and I don't mean it in a harsh way if that person come through and reads this, but there was a post earlier about cartridge/tonearm, are they a match? Person has them sitting there, why not try it and see? Then on another sight I frequent, the one Prima Donna of the site just rips anyone who tries to effect their own repair, telling them how incompetent they are and its not possible with their measly brain. Then there is needing cable approval and so on. I am talking about it being there, in front of them. Why are we not promoting more experimenting with audio? Speaker spikes are an experiment, wiring cartridges out of phase, bi wiring etc. I would like to see more free thinking, and I would also like to moe people being a little kinder to the people wanting to know about the Bose and the Pioneer and so forth, cause every one we don't nurture(thats the word in all this I am looking for)every one we get,and do it honestly with a little compassion, its another one we lose to DR. Bose and Dr. Polk. What I guess I am saying is that the nurturing of thinking on your own and not following is seemingly not being done.

I think Garfish hit the nail on the head. I've been putting together and "fine-tuning" my system for a little over a year now with the help of several friends. I even managed to attend CES this year. Yet I still have not had the opportunity to listen to other systems enough to allow me to fine tune my listening skills. I know what sound I like, but have difficulty describing and articulating it to others.

For this very reason I'm flying to Hawaii to spend a few days with these friends listening to their diverse systems and hope to train my ear for critical listening. Spending 4 days immersed in sound and audio discussion will also hopefully allow me to pick up and understand the language of an audiophile. If all else fails, I'll hit the beach and enjoy the sun. Life is good!

I have received countless email from people on this site, They have excellent and very specific questions they ask and look to me for help. I've spent hundreds of hours playing and experimenting, I believe these people are simply looking for a direction that will not waste there time. I would rather see a thousand questions than a thousand frustrated people leaving our hobby.

I for one hope the questions continue to increase. The more people are willing to listen to ideas, the more we all gain from our hobby.