Objectively Subjective. Well done AudioChews!
Open Minded, but not Empty Headed.
This is quite obviously a forum with a subjective leaning - which matches my own and that of the other mods quite nicely - but it is developing & taking on a life of its own. We seem to be (with a few notable & eminent exceptions) a group that follows our ears & intuition above all when building our systems.
How is that working out for you?
It seems obvious to state that musical enjoyment is an emotional thing, sometimes a stimulating thing, sometimes a motivating thing - but it's not really an objective thing. Enjoyment or engagement with music cannot be qualified, far less quantified - and you certainly don't need an expensive HiFi to appreciate it. For instance, I have known several successful & very talented musicians over the years, who had zero interest in HiFi. They got the music though - it's message, it's point, were able to interpret it with insight & emotional understanding - often through a grotty plastic boom-box or mini system.
On that basis one might argue HiFi is a relative waste of time musically, but I suppose we all would have our own argument we could bring to bear on that premise, based on our own appreciation for music, and yes, sometimes the gear. Where we choose to draw the line in pursuit of our perfection is the only way we really differ from each other.
It seems that the UK HiFi scene is being led more & more by forums, which in turn are characterized broadly by a robust scepticism as to whether claims of systems sounding better through tweaking/upgrading should be taken seriously.
The more sensitive and perhaps committed subjective audiophile has even (petulantly) complained the prevailing attitude is "Nihilist". The more 'numbers uber alles' objective audiophile publicly and disdainfully patronises the subjective audiophile as 'sheep', 'deluded', as 'meat for the marketing men'.
Neither side has come out looking too good.
At the end of the day the best advice is the oldest - try it for yourself. The problems arise when we get sensitive over other people challenging our findings. There is no truth in HiFi - How's that for an oxymoron? Some people will like colouration, others detail & pace. It's all good, but being absolutist is not an option. I read the wilder claims of subjective audiophiles with raised eyebrows of disbelief sometimes, and I read the dismissal of someone's experience by learned objective audiophiles with a furrowed brow of irritation.
This forum would do well to have more objective, clear thinking and technically experienced audiophiles imo. I have especially enjoyed some of the comments we have already seen of this type, and it adds to the collective knowledge on the forum. Whilst I remain subjective in my assessments of equipment, I welcome the scepticism of cleverer folk than me who offer the wise warning not to be mislead by placebo or expectation - and explain why that could well happen to me. They help me keep my eyes as well as ears open.
Well done AudioChews - we are a broad little group. Every view is welcome, it can be challenged too if you want - just remember to show respect. We do not pursue perceived foo with attack dogs of truth. This forum should be a refuge to hang out in, and enjoy a nice atmosphere. It doesn't matter if you lean subjectively or objectively, you're welcome to chew it over with us.
Go tell your friends. (if you have any, you HiFi nerd!)
Comments
Generally I am very objectively minded. My line of work is early education and child development, and the amount of unfounded subjective belief in that field is terrible and embarrassing. (And in that field the stakes are much higher than whether a particular cable is, or might sound a bit different to another cable.) I've prattled on about that before and won't do so here.
In audio though I just haven't experienced, or been persuaded a reliable connection between existing measurement methods and what I hear. I don't know why this is. My perception is one possibility. I am at heart a subjectivist who lives in hope that one day some exciting young objectivist will say "Aha I've got it, we should be measuring a wires bomble rating..." or something similar.
But for me the real problems that plague hifi forums are more human.
Firstly is the simple issue of the confusion of opinion with absolute value. So often what is in fact a statement of opinion about a product is accidentally or deliberately presented or interpreted as a statement of absolute value about the product. Crazy.
There was once carried out a questionnaire of a large number of children to investigate what hypothetical disasters they most feared. Considered worst was, unsurprisingly, the death of parents. But in second place was wetting oneself in class. This same intense fear of the crushing of one's peer status is, I think, seen in all walks of adult life - indeed, research indicates that people will protect their peer status more fiercely than almost everything else that they posess. But this research would be unnecessary to anyone who has spent anytime on larger internet forums. And this is the second problem: Grown men arguing through their computer screens to prove that it is not they who is about to lose the argument, or miss the point of an argument or is looking stupid, or at least more stupider than the next man. In short - that it is not they whose pants are wet. Of course, all but the most autistic of us are subject to some degree to these pressures, but thankfully not to the degree of the belicose minority who stomp around some forums.
I suspect that on a subconscious level in the brains of the most problematic forumites these 2 issues (of the facade of value and the potency of status) combine to create the heady brew that causes the undiginified clashes that, thankfully, are rarely present here.
Personally I can live with objectivist v subjectivist debates just so long as:
1. Opinion is regarded as such and;
2. We all agree that sometimes a little bit of wee comes out of all of us when we're not expecting it.
Here both of these boxes are ticked. We know an opinion when we read it, and we know the value of humility.
Members of Audiochews unite!
My POV is simple - I don't know. I do not know why any tweek should work any more than I know how a power amplifier works. At least one of those does work though.
I am happy to listen to any POV, the more respectfully it is given the more weighty it is to me.
Talk about dumming things down...
He's back soon- Quick intellectualise man!
Erm...what jazz CDs have you brought recently?
I bought 'Adult Children of Heterosexuals' by Jason's Gay Haircut & the Jazz Iguanas.
:X