Sanity Check

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4 minutes ago, GUTB said:

Yes the famous chair test that gets trotted out by hardcore objectivists. The test was interesting but not for the purposes of proving the sameness of audio gear but rather how the stress of these kinds of tests degrades people's listening discernment. Unless you are a serious non-audiophile of the most toxic sort you can at least admit amps and DACs can sound significantly different from one another.

 

Ahhhh. The old "I can turn invisible only if no one is watching"

 

That trope never gets worn out

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1 hour ago, GUTB said:

 

So the question is -- does better audio interest you, or not?

 

Sure does. I start by dismissing what ever you think is a good idea. 

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Just now, Ralf11 said:

 

 

What stress?

 

How much stress was there?

 

how do you know there was any stress??  Did you assay stress hormones in the subjects?

 

I put out a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Totally nulls the stress. 

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24 minutes ago, mansr said:

Most people say their goal is accurate reproduction.

Not sure where people miss the Fidelity part of hi-fi. 

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9 minutes ago, mourip said:

 

I am curious what you have in mind by fidelity.

 

Faithful to the original performance? Faithful to the recording? Sounds good/real/convincing?

 

How would one know? Seems pretty subjective even if you had been sitting at the original performance.

 

That the signal that is encoded on the source is messed with in the least damaging way possible. 

 

So I would like a chain that I can go from source to the output of the amp, at the very least, capture that and compare back to the source with as little deviation as possible. 

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21 hours ago, zackthedog said:

 

Indeed.  It appears that we're not supposed to trust our ears, unless it's a certified DBT.  Then we can trust them. ;-)

 

In group therapy we call this a break through. Hopefully there is no relapse. 

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2 hours ago, mansr said:

That's oversimplifying things. A product can be overpriced even if some people still buy it.

 

I tend to agree with Chris in this regard. In competitive markets, which consumer audio certainly is, if a product is selling at a high price, and the manufacturer is profitable, then the market forces have spoken. 

 

If Wilson, or any other speakers, that were traditionally very expensive start to slump off in sales then that is an indicator that the price is too high (over priced). 

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18 hours ago, Abtr said:

What's wrong with a Range Rover? 

 

Generally very expensive initial purchase, very unreliable, very costly to upkeep:

 

 

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1 hour ago, semente said:

 

Cheap supermarket Pioneer DVD player:

 

Goldmund 9k USD DVD player:

 

Any similarity is placebo...

 

That and the $3500 rebadged Oppo never get old