I think PBE made an excellent point about people refining their ears. I know a lot of people here may find the comparison strange, but I think high end audio is a lot like wine. To a great extent, it first involves developing your palate, and then from there, determining what wines do it for you and indulging your own personal tastes. Oftentimes, there is even a moment of epiphany that sparks this passion. That first great Bordeaux or California cab' wher you go "Wow! This is what it's all about!"
In the audio world, that moment may have been when we first heard a great system -- or at least, gear that had a sonic signature distinctly better than the Sanyo stereo-in-a box we bought at Sears. >From there, after we reach a certain level of system peformance, the pursuit often goes off on a tangent that inevitably becomes more and more personalized / indvidualized. And we tailor our systems to sound the way WE like them. That may be warm and rolled off, or bright and analytical, or any nuance in between. Unfortnately, coveying our sense of how this sounds "right" or "better" to others can be difficult. First, much of it is subjective and does not show up on an oscilliscope or a chart of specifications. Second, the skepticism curve is very high. As mentioned earlier, people readily accept testaments about visual differences, but can be very skeptical about auditory ones. For example, if I compared two plasma TVs and said: "the fog in Master & Commander looked pixelated on the Hitachi display compared to the LG," few people would give me flak about it. If on the otherhand, I compared two speaker cables and said:" bass was tighter, images were more clearly delineated in the soundtage, and there was more air around the instruments on the MIT cable compared to the Monster," you better don your asbestos suit! A bit of a rant I know, but you got me going on this one! Best, - VD -- Videodrome Two-channel System: SB3 -> Behringer SRC2496 -> Musiland MD-10 DAC; Outlaw 970 Pre/Pro; McCormack DNA-125 amplifier; Quad 11L speakers; Sota Sapphire ttbl. w/ Grado Ref. Platinum Cartridge -> Rolls Bellari VP-129 tube phono stage; Marantz 10b; Nakamichi RX505; Cables Used: DH Labs, Van den Hul, Distech, Monster, many more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Videodrome's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11727 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=38696 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
