arnyk wrote:
> I apologize for the representatives of the DBT thought police that I
> have stationed near your house to make sure that you don't try to do any
> proper experiments. They are obviously acting in a too heavy handed way
> if you can detect them.;-)
Hah, it's the neural damping field man, turn it down a bit will ya! ;)
> The problem with the experimentation that has been suggested here lately
> is that it is not good useful experimentation that sheds helpful light
> on the issue at hand, but rather merely muddling and playing with audio
> gear and gaining self-gratification from turning the fancy knobs.
Well yes and no, it depends what you want, really. If what you want from
the experience is a few hours playing with gadgets and you aren't being
"led" by a dealer towards something that costs the earth that you can't
really afford then there's not really any harm to it. I've not done many
in-shop demos but when I have it's been self-led. They just set the
gear up in the room and leave me to it with no commentary applied. I'd
admit I bring my own prejudices to the scene, but it's still
entertaining and maybe I make a good decision and maybe I can't tell the
difference but I can rule out stuff I hate operating, or is physically
ugly (yes this matters to most people!).
> Unfortunately there is no known way to accurately discuss what these
> charlatans do without sounding negative.
>
> One problem is that so many resources and so much money is wasted on
> fantasy audio, that it hinders the development of the good stuff. So the
> answer to the question of "What do you want to see" has several
> dimensions. One answer is that since it is possible to assemble a really
> great sounding audio system without spending a dime on high end trash,
> simply do so. Hint: you won't get there if you get sidetracked into
> taste-testing DACs with sighted, non-evel matched, non-time synched
> listening evaluations. Another answer is that it would be refreshing to
> see even just new lies and flase claims from Audio's high end. The list
> of audio myths and other false claims that has been imported onto this
> forum lately is the same-old, same-old, some of it more than two decades
> old.
I pay no attention to smoke and mirrors stuff (I see no point in
"upgrading" HDMI or SPDIF cables once you have one that connects
properly and isn't falling apart, or buying half tennis balls or bits of
rubber for fifty quid to "stabilise" my electronics), but I don't see,
from my point of view as a non-electronic engineer, any way to build a
system without going to a hifi shop and -trying stuff out- then paying a
reasonable amount of money for a product I'm happy with and into which
someone has engineered the type of things I like - sound, features,
power output, etc.. I'm not even on the radar of the "ultra" high end,
though I admit the Naim amp was far more expensive than any component
that I ever thought I would buy and for many people that puts me firmly
in the category of "audiophile"..
So, I justified it to myself as I liked the sound more than I liked the
others ("false claim?". Well, I did.), and because with a built-in
solidly engineered DAC I no longer had to spend any money on sources.
And it's one box, and it's powerful enough that the sound doesn't
degrade at my preferred listening levels as much as others did, so there
we have it. I guess you'd object to the phrase "it was better than..",
but it was plainly better than what I had before and I preferred it to
the other choices I was presented with. So who lost out?
So how do PA systems compare to home audio? I have been underwhelmed by
some, and blown away by others in gigs over the years. Saw Massive
Attack in a local place one time and their PA was just jaw dropping with
the SPL and clarity it could deliver. On the other hand, I saw The Orb
at a local place and the sound engineer failed miserably to keep the
on-stage artists from pushing their output levels into distortion as
they got drunker and drunker. That was horrible by the time it was being
projected at your ears at 105db. That was clearly operator error..
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