Mark Lanctot said the following on 02/19/2006 09:03 PM: > nelamvr6 Wrote: > >>Another quote I found interesting: >> >> >> >>This reminds me of a 'story I once read.' >>(http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/cgi/aesop1.cgi?hca&a26) > > > Yes, it's always nice to see that little elitist dig in such reviews > and publications. It is massively overused. > > Reminds me of elementary-school "no girlz alowd" treehouses. :-) > > It also conveniently makes what the reviewer states unverifiable by 3rd > parties. He can always cop out by saying "I guess your system doesn't > have high enough resolution" with the only measure of "resolution" > being how much it costs, which is not always a clear indicator of > quality anyway.
The sort of differences we're talking about are very subtle and indeed cannot always be heard on all systems, or even by all people. There are several reasons for this; 1. The system may mask any differences because of a lack of resolution, etc. 2. The listener's hearing may have degraded to the extent that they are not able to hear any differences 3. The listener may not actually know what they're listening for. Point 3. is possibly the most controversial, but is possibly the most prevalent. Unless you have been exposed to a lot of music systems and really know what you're listening for then the chances are that you won't immediately be able to hear subtle difference between systems. It's a matter of training your ears, and not everyone has had the time or inclination to do this. This is not a bad thing - people who have not are not poorer people because of it; those of us who have are not better, just more experienced. Indeed, it would save me a shedload of cash if my ears weren't so damned fussy! In my case, I have worked with music for > 20 years - in recording studios, doing live sound, in hifi shops, recording live classical music, etc. Believe me, your hearing develops and becomes very sensitive to changes. I've also had experience of point 1. Some time ago, I auditioned several DACs at home with my SB1, comparing them to each other and to the analogue output of the SB1. The results - I couldn't hear any difference. Now, I was not happy with my system at the time so I took the opportunity to upgrade. I didn't throw huge wads of cash at it. In fact, the main change was to modify my amp. and optimise the signal path - total cost ~$50. I repeated the test on the modified system and the differences between the DACs were clearly audible. I also subsequently reverted the mods made to my amp and repeated the tests. Sure enough, I could no longer hear the differences. Either way, the Emperor's Clothes reference is absolutely not relevant, and inventing a reviewer who measures resolution in $$$ is even more ludicrous. Remember, just because you can't hear a difference doesn't mean that no-one else can either. R. _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
