There is also the "reverse snobbery" effect, which the wine tastings I describe actually encourage. It's the joy of finding a cheap wine that you really enjoy that you think tastes better than the expensive wines that other people are overpaying for. It requires a certain strength of will, and it is subject to some of the same "I need a new fix" effects, but it's really very satisfying. It is from double blind tastings that I discovered that not only do I truly prefer Krug and Salon over "lesser" Champagnes, but that I also really enjoy Spanish cavas that are an order magnitude cheaper. So not only do I feel justified when paying for a vintage Krug, I feel smug when buying an obscure cheap cava.
Win win. -- Charles On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 10:41 AM, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> wrote: > On 06-Dec-13 11:39 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > > > http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/09/12/tasting-wine-blind/ > > Another viewpoint, partially inspired by the above piece: > > http://www.anxiousmachine.com/blog/2013/12/10/placibo-philes > > Placebo-philes > December 10, 2013 > > Audiophiles have gotten a lot of bad press recently, what with the > apparently silly Pono music player (which plays much higher quality > audio files despite almost no one being able to hear the difference) and > the news from Wired magazine that "burning in" your headphones has no > discernible effect on sound quality. Reading about the truly insane > things audiophiles will do in pursuit of the perfect sound, I can't help > reflecting back on that unfortunate period in my life when I almost fell > down the same rabbit hole. > > For me it started with a simple search for better headphones. I think I > typed "best headphones under $50" into Google, and what came back was a > series of lists, like this one or this one, ranking the best headphones > at a series of price ranges. I settled on a pair pretty quickly, and > when they arrived I loved them, but those lists had planted their hooks > in my brain. How much better would my music sound if I were willing to > spend just a little bit more? > > I decided to research what headphones I would buy the next time I had > saved up a decent amount of money, and my research led me to my first > (and really only) foray into Internet forums: a website called Head-Fi, > where enthusiasts gather to discuss, argue, and bond over their love of > headphones and headphone-related accessories. It was a remarkably > friendly place for people who enjoyed tuning out the world, but darkness > lurked at the edges. People would post glowing reviews of the headphones > they just bought, and others would weigh in about how much they loved > those headphones too, but inevitably someone would say how those > headphones would sound even better if connected to a decent headphone > amplifier. Or a decent digital audio converter. Or how those headphones > didn't even compare to these other headphones that just cost a little more. > > The perfect headphone set up always cost just a little bit more. Audio > nirvana was always just out of reach. > > Over the course of three years, I wound up buying one pair of headphones > that cost about $100, then another that cost about $150, then a > headphone amplifier that cost about $100, then another headphone > amplifier that cost several hundred, then a special iPod that had been > rewired for better sound, then several more pairs of headphones, each > more expensive than the last. It helped that the internet made it easy > to resell my previous purchases in order to fund my new purchases. At > the height of my sickness, my portable sound system looked like this: > > portable rig > > But that was nothing compared to the equipment (and prices paid) by > many. The most money I ever paid for headphones was about $300. But the > best headphones were going for more than $1000, and the best amplifiers > and related devices were many times that. People would post pictures > like this: > > high end rig > > and I'd wonder what in God's name that would sound like. > > I don't think it's an accident that this period in my life was the same > period in which I had two children in diapers and an extremely stressful > job. After putting the kids to bed, if I didn't have any more work to > do, and if my wife wanted to watch TV, I would find a quiet spot in the > house and get lost in the increasingly detailed soundstage my gear > supplied. > > But the specter that loomed over everything was the idea that this was > all some big placebo effect. I would occasionally spend an evening > listening to a song on my new set of headphones and then on my old set, > or with my new amplifier and then my old amplifier. I would make my wife > listen to see if she heard a difference. Sometimes she did, sometimes > she didn't. Sometimes I didn't. Every once in a while, I'd read a post > on Head-fi about someone who was selling everything he'd bought because > he realized he was listening to his equipment rather than music. I > finally had the same realization and made the same decision. At the > time, I felt like a recovering addict, or a victim of a con artist, > reformed but slightly ashamed. > > I got a new percpective on that period, however, when I this recent > piece by Felix Salmon (via Kottke) about converting money into > happiness. Salmon is also interested in placebo effects, specifically in > the world of wine tasting, where experiments have frequently shown that > very few people call tell the difference between cheap and expensive > wine, or even the difference between red and white wine. When I first > read about those studies, they reminded me of the scene in Brideshead > Revisited when a couple guys get drunk and describe the wine they're > tasting with increasingly absurd metaphors: > > "….It is a little shy wine like a gazelle." "Like a leprechaun." > "Dappled in a tapestry window." "and this is a wise old wine." "A > prophet in a cave." "and this is a necklace of pearls on a white neck." > "Like a swan." "Like the last unicorn." > > I had moments almost as absurd with my headphones, when I heard things > inside songs I swore I'd never heard before, when I felt as if parts of > the music were two dimensional backdrops and then three dimensional > shapes would leap out of the picture towards me, or the music would > drizzle over my head, or crackle like lightning, or I'd swear I could > smell the studio where the song had been recorded, or something. > > In other words, I was an idiot. Because on other nights, usually after > I'd owned that same set of gear for a little while, I wouldn't hear > those things any more, and I'd start thinking that I needed better gear. > I needed a new placebo affect. > > It's easy to sneer at the placebo effect, or to feel ashamed of it when > you're its victim. And that's precisely why I found Felix Salmon's piece > revelatory, because instead of sneering at the placebo effect of fancy > wine, its marketing, and its slightly higher prices, he thinks we should > take advantage of it. If the placebo effect makes us happy, why not take > advantage of that happiness? > > The more you spend on a wine, the more you like it. It really > doesn’t matter what the wine is at all. But when you’re primed to taste > a wine which you know a bit about, including the fact that you spent a > significant amount of money on, then you’ll find things in that bottle > which you love ... After all, what you see on the label, including what > you see on the price tag, is important information which can tell you a > lot about what you’re drinking. And the key to any kind of > connoisseurship is informed appreciation of something beautiful. > > This idea of "informed appreciation" reminds me of another area of > modern life beset by placebo effects: the world of alternative medicine. > In a recent article for the Atlantic, David H. Freedman argues that > there's virtually no scientific evidence that alternative medicine > (anything from chiropractic care to acupuncture) has any curative > benefit beyond a placebo effect. And so many scientists are outraged > that anyone takes alternative medicine seriously. However, there is one > area where alternative medicine often trumps traditional medicine: > stress reduction. And stress reduction can, of course, make a huge > impact on people's health. The Atlantic article quotes Elizabeth > Blackburn, a biologist at the University of California at San Francisco > and a Nobel laureate. > > “We tend to forget how powerful an organ the brain is in our > biology,” Blackburn told me. “It’s the big controller. We’re seeing that > the brain pokes its nose into a lot of the processes involved in these > chronic diseases. It’s not that you can wish these diseases away, but it > seems we can prevent and slow their onset with stress management.” > Numerous studies have found that stress impairs the immune system, and a > recent study found that relieving stress even seems to be linked to > slowing the progression of cancer in some patients. > > Perhaps not surprisingly, a trip to the chiropractor or the > acupuncturist is much more likely to reduce your stress than a trip to > the doctor. If anything, a trip to the doctor makes you more anxious. > > Maybe each of these activities (listening to high end audio gear, > drinking high end wine, having needles inserted into your chakras) is > really about ritualizing a sensory experience. By putting on headphones > you know are high quality, or drinking expensive wine, or entering the > chiropractor's office, you are telling yourself, "I am going to focus on > this moment. I am going to savor this." It's the act of savoring, rather > than the savoring tool, that results in both happiness and a longer life. > > Of course, you don't need ultra high end gear to enjoy your music, or > ultra high end wine to enjoy your evening, just as you shouldn't solely > use acupuncture to treat your cancer. It might be as effective to learn > how to meditate. But maybe we all just need to meditate in different ways. > > >
