I Just Know It's BS ... But I Have't Tried It Yet


Have you ever noticed how quickly naysayers jump on "unconventional" products they have never tried, letting us know they are worthless -- shamelessly admitting they have no direct experience with the item they are putting down? For example, anything with the word quantum in the name seems to set some people off. Do you have your favorite examples of this phenomenon? What do you make of this irrational approach to high end audio that is often suffixed by LOL and exclamation points for emphasis?
sabai
Trust has a lot to do with it.

I don't trust anyone who solely pitches pros and NEVER addresses cons. All products have both. If depicted otherwise, a big red flag should go up.

I don't mind "fanboys" ie people who just like certain things for whatever reasons.

However, many who post on Agon are not merely fan boys and have products to sell and this site does nothing to identify user types. So motivation behind claims often becomes very murky, but less so once one knows who they are dealing with.

Its easy to recommend or like a product when one gets to audition or even own it for a discount or perhaps for nothing. In a case like that, there is little skin in the game as would be the case for the average perspective buyer. Its all useful things to just keep in mind to help sort through things. The facts are NOT always apparent. So some degree of skepticism here specifically is a wise thing IMHO.
The key phrase "Trust Your Own Ears" sometimes is used to pitch different kinds of BS.
"Trust Your Own Ears" is sound advice, but a highly flawed and often unreliable process nonetheless. The BS'ers know that very well, but they will never say it.
Similar issues were discussed at great length a couple of years ago in a thread entitled "Do You Believe In Magic?"

As I indicated in one of my posts in that thread, my background in electronic design (unrelated to audio) has taught me that many things can occur in a system that are subtle, counter-intuitive, and inherently unpredictable. One example among a great many that could be cited being effects caused by coupling of electrical noise between circuits that are ostensibly unrelated.

As I also said in that thread, however, while broad latitude should therefore be allowed for the possibility that subtle, counter-intuitive, or even unknown phenomena may be at play, the boundaries of that latitude are not infinite. There has got to be some finite boundary to the degree of absurdity of a tweak or a claimed effect beyond which “a priori” rejection is warranted. And beyond which assertions of the efficacy of that tweak or effect, or at least the likelihood of its having any kind of general applicability, warrant being challenged.

What is involved here is a spectrum, a continuum, of ideological positions. At one extreme are those whose minds are totally closed to any assertions which don’t make sense to them. At the other extreme are those who would seem to believe that there are no finite limits to the degree of absurdity of a tweak or a claimed effect that would warrant “a priori” rejection or challenge.

As with most ideologies, IMO it can be expected that in most situations positions at both extremes of the spectrum are much less likely to be correct than those which are somewhere in the middle. That may seem like a cop-out, but in most things in life that’s usually the bottom line, as I see it. And I see no reason why audio is any different.

IMO. Regards,

-- Al
Jedinite24,

No, I don't have all the money for every tweak. I have a lot of tweaks and accessories in my system. Almost everything I buy is used -- purchased at a deep discount, in most cases.