cliveb wrote: > Audiophiles aren't going to use ABX tests, because so-called high end > audio operates much like religions: it requires faith over and above > rational analysis. Consider a devout Christian/Muslim/Jew/etc who is > offered the chance to take a test that will prove beyond any doubt the > existence or otherwise of God. They're not going to take that test, > because it puts at risk their investment in a belief system. Audiophiles > who buy in to the snake oil ideas are in pretty much the same position. > > And of course they have a get out clause: the high priests of > audiophilia tell them that ABX tests are inherently flawed, so they have > a rational (to them) reason not to take them.
Nicely stated. Plus throw in some additional nonsense like "the reason why you can't a difference between a high bit rate mp3 and a flac file or between a CD quality flac file and high resolution flac file is that the playback system is not high end enough" and you've constructed an almost bullet proof belief system. I do see an interesting parallel between that of hi-rez audio versus CD quality audio and that of digital audio versus analog audio - in that in the early days of CDs I was always amazed when I played an LP only to find that it really sounded quite good, less convenient to be sure, but not all that terrible sounding. The same thing is probably happening now with CD quality or even well made mp3s, in that upon close listening they sound pretty darn good, so good in fact that the hi-rez version doesn't offer a clearly better sound. And without a clearly better sound to justify the high price one's money tends to stay in one's wallet. As for high priced earphones and headphones - the up side is that better sound quality is coming to much less expensive earphones and headphones. I heard plenty of great sounding headphones and even one set of amazing planar magnetic earphones at CanJam. For me the price point at which the differences in audio quality between headphones becomes smaller and smaller is around $1000. For example the difference between the $1,000 Focal Elear headphone versus their $4,000 Utopia headphone is more of build quality rather than audio quality. And the Elear headphone is quite well made. *Disclaimer: since all of my listening at CanJam was sighted and not very well controlled do not place any value on my observations.* Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. & sub Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Energy sub Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0 Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar Garage: SB3-JVC compact system Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso Server: LMS 7.9 on dedicated windows 10 computer w/2 Drobos 'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ralphpnj's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10827 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=107118 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
