Article: Guest Editorial: Why did audio stop being about audio?

[Middy]

Thanks for a thought provoking editorial.

 

I wouldnt even ascribe to any religious connotation but it is apt in this context of music. 

We come here for community and find community within community with like minded souls. We want to share our beliefs and become a greater sum of that shared experience.

Community is safe and sheltering. We forget this and tribalism comes to the forefront to protect us and our friends. 

Swap music for any subject and the same result applies.

 

I come here more for the people, in general, nice, funny, intelligent people who love audio and all that entails.

 

The price for this is a sea of opinion the web has given us.... a Pandoras box with a linear power supply upgrade.

This is a family by choice not chance but even a divided family is family all the same. We are more a like ..a common truism in life, remember that before fixing some post in anger full of bile. 

Audio brings us together so we can enact what makes us feel human, sharing, learning, helping, laughing, guiding. 

Yes there is the bad and the herd protects in the main. But i have learned probably more about people than audio.

 

Have a lovely audiophile holiday in style. 

I will now slaughter the fatted wallet at the alter of expensive fuses..

 

Sincerely 

Middy 

Aka David

 

Ps anyone with just a smartphone thinks all of us are nuts. There are more of them so think on that...

 

 

[Middy]

45 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

Why did audio stop being about DACs and AMPs?

 

Some people didn't get that cable......

 

Have learned alot about how knife sharpening sounds in Audio.

 

Power is important... especially as fuses can blow easily.

 

Cross overs don't work in reality or non reality and speakers can be loud, harsh and get easily distorted. No matter how solid a foundation they rest on.

 

Lots more puns but you get the point and I say again you learn more about people than audio on a forum...

 

More suprised we haven't got to this point and closed the thread......

......Chris Pickins

[Middy]

Feel better now... I just read this thread in Ye oldie Salem style witch trial voices from a 70's hammer film, as the dialogue is about the same but without the stress involved. I suppose its a boil on the arse of audiophila that needs popping every blue moon... Who's arse or who's squeezing doesnt matter as everyone gets something out of it and then carry on regardless.....

Happy xmass all, sad to hear it died...

 

 

 

[Middy]

Has the dead horse got up yet and asked not to be flogged anymore......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Middy]

I did have that nagging feeling..

[Middy]

Mary poppins had it right...a spoon full sugar of helps the unpalatable truth go down. 

An iron fist covered in a silken glove still hurts, wit and intellect don't hide the underlying meaning. Even using the clumsily written word.

 

The best of both sides keep me coming back, the metaphor, wit and breath of knowledge by the posters here (and this thread) is fantastic.

Its application leaves wanting sometimes. I need a BS filter, an EEs thoughts, the descriptive prose of a golden eared owner of another jewelled bauble of audio delight. 

 

But gents remember your salient points are judged, as well as your tone and have a little faith that in the main we have the brains to make an informed choice of our own. 

 

If we can't then that's something that will never happen no matter how many post you try.... and alienate those who do.

 

Part time audiophile: 

The pornhub of audio. Filled with vacuous tube models and fauning groupies. Ridiculously large cables and horns. Front ends to make you go blind.

 

The best and the worst of our hobby but I love looking all the same.

 

Keep smiling

 

David

 

 

 

 

[Middy]

The big Crazy.org is now for sale.. I just registered it.  For about the price of Rav's old TT2...

[Middy]

 In life 90% of the time I try and give an answer in the most holistic, rounded way i can think of, drawing on my  experiences, limited knowledge and hypotheticals with the most positive outcome.

 

90% of the time people don't want advice.. Just reassurance of what they have already decided 3 days ago....

 

For me knowing this takes away the frustration as a normal act of human nature.  I have a collection of items unused, making me just as blind to my initial desires.

A thousand warnings about a kick in the nuts... The real lesson is learned after the fact.... What the fancy term? 'Operant  conditioning' ? 

 

Ironic after the initial 'pain' at the start, whats left is interesting intelligent debate, so thank you for broadening my horizons gents, always a pleasure and a pleasant suprise.

Sorry i can't add much than uneducated school boy humour.

 

Have a lovely weekend all

 

Dave 

 

[Middy]

All that ticker tape was from early audiophiles moaning..... wax is more organic than this new fad shellac....

 

I Alpha beta tested with 4 flapper girls...😁

[Middy]

They dont make them like they use too, oh they do...

Custom hi end job.....

This is my alarm song for the morning, just love the tune and this crazy guy...

 

 

A visual metaphor of audiophilia...

[Middy]

Are fuse's still an issue or moved from the Harry potter side/ box of magic beans of audio? 

The electronics EEC designers in work looked at me like i'd grown a new head and quite rightly.

I tried one before for fun and noticed a change 2 years on... second hand one just in.. fantastic but its just a fuse. My only concern always is that it doesn't sound like a fireman kicking the door in. 

These guys scream of pseudoscience marketing crap for scientologist rejects...

Not done a Amir special and A B' using 25 blind electronics engineers but enough that I can't reconcile that this has done the most to enhance my listening pleasure. Whats more the Ebay seller described to a Tee the exact changes before it arrived...

But kept my mouth shut the first time as bias and just in my head like the voice that said spend £100 on a bloody fuse... more money means better and be belittled..

 

But i am trapped with sub/obj dogma as the IFI gear measures well and is published but more than less had little effect for a modest price. 

I am a subjectivist by default because its all i have but the paradox of having 'faith' in a highly educated engineer in thier field telling me otherwise because i am not and i should.

So the bullshit filter failed me and cost me. Trust from experience won... 

But a dilemma many it seems are trapped between... well at least me... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Middy]

6 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

 

let me get this straight - the F word is not allowed, but this is?

 

Hi Ralf i hope this was taken in its context.. that even published figures or outlandish claims of synergistic research, I cling to people like your good self to interpret what I don't understand. 

Published results can be as much BS as nano quantum tunneling marketing babble.

But i cant lock Amir in my basement as my personal measurements gimp if I fancy spending money. I can't verify facts that are verifiable and i am back to try before you buy if i am lucky.

 

Piggy in the middle and people who try to help on both sides are attacked regardless as not qualified enough... Golden Ears or letters after thier name.

 

But i very much appreciate your help regardless..😁

 

All this at best... hopefully Shepparding me in the right direction with the tag line caveat emptor...

 

 

 

[Middy]

Yes of course but its reading this from many other 3rd party descriptions. 

Oh.. Increasing expectation and positive bias 🤔...

yes but its the best i can do to avoid the  payed advert shill factor as some put it..others  personal experience..

 

but.... then i am just in the mass delusion crowd feeding of each other giving credence to the product.... Cos its just a fuse...

As any one who knows ohms law knows its a con, 30 miles of 40,000v cabling...

and i know there is a lot of money made from the unsuspecting... 

 

Don

You can see the merry go round you can be trapped in with no way off. 

Better or worse there has been a change for me. My hearing hasn't changed, things are there that werent, different from subtle changes forgotten in moments.

Like a baby suddenly crying in a crowd, different from concentrating on one conversation in a noisy room .... i can list what has changed with all my gear from nothing to quite substantial. .

I use a fuse as a personal example and many here in some degree feel aggrieved for one thing or another.. that next best thing... i have personally.

 

Interesting Schitt doing the taste test on discreet v off the shelf, proving a point and to a degree with measurements don't matter if.. implementation or human preference. That can be rigged though..

 

Thanks for making me think Don if that was the implication of "foreknowledge".. All true but again i am caught in making the most informed choice i can, risking my money and having a listen.

60% objective reasoning 40% subjective listening, the fuse was against this rough principle of mine..

Sorry its a thread not a book club i am rambling...

Even if money wasn't a factor the same applies i suppose.  

I did ask to have something tested in work but no joy.

I am only posting as an example of the middle ground and find very little to argue with. I  am not even an expert at finding my ass with both hands..

 

Op statement: i dont think anything changed, its the reproduction of sound, we are just more cognizant of what it takes to get there and all that it implies...

 

Cheers my friend

 

Dave

 

[Middy]

A stupid question but one i have never had answered.

If the measurements don't show a meaningful change but the listener can hear/perceive a change.. why not measure the sound output, not the measurement of the device post DAC. 

That is what is being subjectively measured by the listener.  A microphone and speaker dont move, the test track doesn't change.  If he can hear a change it has or hasnt been from the variable.

 

The nasal passage/eustachian tube isnt dry, he isnt fidgeting, mass deluded bias, affected my moon rays.

 

Sorry I tease but the sound is the common denominator, measure that and the human variable can be discounted. Or confirmed ? Not better just a change occured..

 

Then plot of the sound will or not be differen't and much more palatable to the average subjectivist as objective factual change...

 

Human AB.ing doesnt do this..

 

[Middy]

 

 

@bluesman

 

Thanks for your insight, a lovely trip through your life and thoughts. Really enjoyed reading that ... Merry christmas friend.