Is Audiophiledom a confidence game?

[rando]

5 hours ago, mansr said:

Sorry, I couldn't find a stating-the-obvious emoji.

Emoji/smileys are overused and lazy.  I've had long intellectually stimulating discussion using only gifs.

 

 

5 hours ago, crenca said:

 

Interesting, did not know that about the MTB market.

Well, it just isn't the way you were told.  There was a fairly significant technological and safety based innovation in regards to how the wheel is locked onto the frame and fork.  Seeing as this is an audio forum I'll make it short.  Through axle wheel mounting which as a consumer it is greatly advantageous to have everyone making new products switch over to at once.  The market supports the older equipment and will do for many many many years until the gross distribution of parts has outnumbered demand for a considerable time.  

 

Through axles will soon be on every type of new bike because they offer the convenience of a quick release with security and stiffness greater than bolt on track wheels.

 

 

[rando]

What was influencing your decision to build or buy this bike mid-changeover?  Maybe you should consider dealing with more reputable sources if you are of a mind they burned you.  I'm going to leave it at that since it isn't anywhere near a confidence game in the sense audio is.  

[rando]

1 hour ago, wgscott said:

This is no way to have a decent and civil discussion about expensive bike parts.

Kindly go pontificate upon your unique experiences where they deal with riders imbued with similar insights and expertise on BF.  

[rando]

4 minutes ago, Michael Lavorgna said:

Religion is an industry. If you don't think so, please explain their material wealth.

Well, that settled what type of mindset we have on display in today's 'Debate with industry personnel' highlight thread.  A reviewer (which isn't the same as a critic) and a self promoting artist you say? 

 

/audible sigh     

 

13 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

Thorsten Veblin wrote an entire book on it decades over a century ago.

 

1899 is what the copy in my library has printed on it.  They even bothered to spell his name correctly on the title page, Thorstein Veblen.   

 

[rando]

False alarm @wgscott.  You can pick up wherever you left off about bike parts.

[rando]

33 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I don't have a single reported post of Ralf's in my inbox.

 

 

11 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

or are you a fan-boy for Lasorgne?

 

 

 

3 minutes ago, wgscott said:

Wow   What crawled up your copious arse?

 

[rando]

@sdolezalekA steady diet of gossip based on personal interpretation is hardly the direct poop from someone with reason to know.  The first one slowly rots away accurate perception and digestion of how the deal is really being done.  If you were in the latter position how meaningfully and directly would you address a wide range of misinterpreted marketing concepts and hype blindly being accepted as fact?  Excusing oneself from a long winded conversation devoted to beginner level matters biased towards materialistic concerns, and suggesting it be moved to more suitable quarters, while filling the void with reputable material is hardly a strident bent towards selling belief. 

 

I'd be perfectly fine if you found the ignore button to your liking before feelings got hurt as well.  To be clear the contention being raised appears to be emotionally based.  Would it upset you learning right here and now that, just like Facebook, Strava turned into a place to sell stuff and prop up easily adjusted egos for the purpose of selling stuff as soon as 'grandpa' and 'mom' decided to flock to it en masse.  The "disruptive" side of this social media platform is it becoming the most medically relevant prescription drug study group going with people actually paying for the pleasure.  Don't forget about tracking and surveillance either.      

 

I take matters concerning cycling, rock climbing, bull fighting, and race car driving very seriously.  If you are playing a confidence game in regards to any of those.  I don't want to be anywhere near you and will push others away to safety.  Modern bicycles are capable to an extent so far exceeding that of the typical rider the speed and control is deceptive and addictive.  Add an incredibly medicated population, the same qualities of understated performance to cars on the same roads, and nobody watching the road so they can stare at an electronic device.  Getting a common sense restoring slap on the internet would be the best outcome.  

 

Audio, the indoor sport  , not so much.    

[rando]

2 hours ago, jabbr said:

Funny that a professional writer would be so thin skinned. Usually able to deflect criticism or support their own views better -- that is what writing is ultimately about?

 

I assure you this was more spurned lover thrashing around melodramatically than suicide by [insert force here].  Everyone gather round as I blood myself and eventually succumb all too quickly.  It never bordered on funny, watching this man impale himself on your (not jabbr's) barbs.

 

No matter how barbed or silvery a tongue you (again not aimed at jabbr) possess there is nothing clever about drinking the Kool-Aid.  Even sitting off to the side sipping it watching the bodies fall.  Immunity, resistance actually, only helps if you know that is only the poison in your cup.   

 

@The Computer Audiophile, we are not entertained.  Surely you must have an underfed lion or chariot race planned  :~)     

[rando]

Quote

Considering the Mason-Dixon line between objectivists and subjectivists is faltering, I think a reenactment of Gettysburg is called for  :~)  

 

Seems a foregone conclusion if we already know who successfully defends Little Round Top and eventually wins.  Maybe I should be instead asking how long you have been susceptible to the communist doctrine given this stated urge to reenact wheat falling from the blade? 

 

Just noting fears of being called yellow and red scares are culminating in a lot of people seeing orange nowadays.  The pen being mightier than the sword, it's creeping into unrelated corners of daily life.  I highly doubt any terrible events are on the horizon at CA.  No matter how thickly any one group calls to fill the void left by cessation of infighting with a popular purging of unwanted elements.    

 

[rando]

It is possible in to do business on the other side of the aisle and still hold your party card.  Respected opponents make good friends at times.  

[rando]

1 hour ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

What I want to know is what is the most expensive bicycle inner tube to use for my air bearing vibration control platforms. Just goes to show, you can mix high-end bicycle and audio after all !

 

I'm hearing improved acoustics using this for personal audio projects.  

 

 

[rando]

24 minutes ago, lucretius said:

Improved acoustics of which particular sounds, I dare ask? 

 

Throughput in my system has been improved across all functions.   Notably, strength of attack with a drastic lengthening of decay.  @Ralf11 might be interested to discover that bass impact is not unlike the effects of a SUB-PAC in the lowest frequencies.  I've also noticed a large impact in the horns, very detailed hall resonance coming forward, and non-fatiguing listening sessions.  

[rando]

 

32 minutes ago, wgscott said:

 

This is true even of the New York Times and Washington Post.  

 

It shouldn't even raise an eyebrow.

 

 

 

Tell me, how are newspapers on the whole doing these days.  Flailing institutions ditching highly respected long serving career journalists?  Unrepentant corporate mouthpieces surviving only on their usefulness to them keeping the taps open?  Reduced to using shameful marketing which further erodes consumer faith by giving away any profit to show subscription numbers still exist.  Lest we forget, who resorted to cheap tawdry ploys (which had a greatly detrimental effect on wider media) that saw celebrity news given more weight than thought, art, culture, discovery, literature, or well voiced readers informing the community of positive influences or events of interest.  Newspapers.

 

Do stay alert to the world around you.  It changes every so often.  Which I'm not sure registers based off recent posts.  Nobody is going to question if you want to pet your dog and go for lazy bike rides while the world passes you by.  Or politely expound on your knowledge of audio.  

[rando]

1 hour ago, christopher3393 said:

Unnecessary roughness?

 

I will admit to abrupt and disruptive () intercession curtailing, some of, the semi-off topic subjects that came to hand in this thread.  Including one that resorted to using somewhat crude humor in demonstrating how confidence games operate.  Offering a soft cushion with a nice big hole in the center.  Guess what, beyond being if not the most on topic example, when it goes flat a hard landing awaits.  For some.  No it is not nice.  Direct and businesslike localized pain which I'd bet someone would be willing to sell a bogus cure for. 

 

Numerous warnings feelings might be hurt were given, participation here isn't mandatory, nothing bordering on personal attacks or name calling was emitted, and truthful statements abounded.  I see much harsher intellectual put downs used here every day in the course of technically paradoxical discussions to suggest the other person might not grasp or hold stead in the field their claims deal with.  Floating the notion of disquieting behavior when the fluency and level of conversation is being elevated might be cause to consider what is weighing you down, within the parameters of this thread.  

[rando]

Lemme show you some cooked numbers and rig some tests.  No confidence game on that side of the aisle.  No sir, not at all.

 

Take it away, Bill.  

 

[rando]

Just now, Ralf11 said:

Say, we are doing anal. chemistry in a lake - you measure NO pollutants.  But to what level?  Did you measure to PPT (trillion) or what?  Epidemiology will set the level to which you must detect.

 

And... did you just measure in the water?  Or did you also measure the sediments?

 

 

Let's not and say we didn't.  

[rando]

1 hour ago, jabbr said:

John’s a highly esteemed designer. Not a measurement expert though — we can measure truly amazing levels of small signals. Think satellites able to listen in on ground conversations. The problem is that we don’t know how to properly interpret what we are measuring and that requisite equipment may be prohibitively expensive.

This came as close to anything I've read here to explaining the current predicament.  We could have an amazing wireless protocol for audiophile listening if the world was a better place.  There are more than a few other audio advances that are leaps beyond cables the common person has no access to.  Until our next step forward is granted the scrum of people butting up against that wall and making larger and larger claims is inevitable.  

 

It really gets to be a dull subject very fast.  Maddening only if you let it get to you.  Though I doubt the munificence of noting how unhappy people in this hobby are was sincere.  It was a valid response from someone pushed too far.  Or at least a sane mind inclined towards a positive bent could interpret it that way.  

 

[rando]

It matches the aesthetics and veneer of their cable cooker?

[rando]

Go thank @mourip and try not to be too greedy about how much attention you draw when the women start to show up.  

[rando]

Teresa is polite and reasonable in accommodating others ideas.  There is no reason anyone here should be unable to voice their thoughts in a manner similar to the one she uses.  The self propagating wars and +100 page threads that spill out grown men cursing and name calling on par with 10 year old's preclude others engaging in normal mature adult behaviors.  

 

What I saw missing in the mention of duels is how many thick layers of veneer needed to be penetrated before conduct was so deplorable it rated chancing death or exclusion.  Death being preferable as it didn't harm ones friends or family.  When illegitimate behavior and misconduct are given right of passage.  Duels no longer have meaning.  They are shootouts.