Let me clarify this please. I’m not putting down audiophiles in general and I consider myself an audiophile. And I’m not talking about anybody on this site at all, Nick and you guys are great. But I guess I just want to make a general statement about differences of opinion in the Audio world and how people deal with it when there is a difference of opinion.
I (and I think everyone) don’t appreciate it when I try to share my experiences with someone, and I am invalidated just because of someone else’s previous beliefs. For example, last month I went to a meeting of the Los Angeles and Orange county audio club and I started a conversation with a fellow. At first the conversation started out well enough, but soon he was saying that there was only one kind of speaker that was any good, the older Tannoy speakers. I didn’t disagree, because I have not heard them. But then he started telling me how it was when a concert violinist virtuoso played and how it was when a conductor is really into the music, and what he was saying was completely wrong. How would I know that? I have a degree in violin and viola performance and pedagogy, I have a degree in education, I have been an orchestra conductor and founded chamber orchestras, and I have solo’d on violin with orchestras. I studied conducting under the winner of the International Mozart Award, after Bruno Walter and Herbert von Karajan won it. So I know a little bit about violin solos and orchestra directing. I know exactly what that stuff is about and this guy basically was very misinformed. Trying to be respectful, every time I tried to tell this gentleman of my experiences and what it is really like from an expert perspective, I was shouted down as if he was the great expert. I finally just walked away from the guy. To be clear, there are a lot of nice people in that club and he certainly didn’t reflect the general population.
The reason I can speak on things with some authority is that I have actually done the things of which I speak, and have experimented with many, many different things and seen many common believes just not be true. I also have a bachelor of science degree in computer science and I’ve been a professional programmer for about 20 years, and I know that either something works or doesn’t work, and why it works. And I try to apply that to most things in my life. I have also had a few patents awarded to me having to do with improving sound and vibration. If I really don’t know about something, I make it very clear that I may have a believe about it but I really don’t know about it.
I think all we can do is share our own experiences and possibly what someone else has said, and be clear about the difference in our conversation.
Unfortunately, I think that some people substitute what they have been told and what they have read with actual experience and think that the words of other people somehow makes them an expert. And I think a lot of this comes from the media, with people just blindly believing what they are told.
So I really appreciate and respect it when people say they believe something is true or not true because they have actually experimented with it and found it to be true or not true, and that it isn’t based only on what somebody has read. Or when someone knows that all that they know is what they have read, and they are open to at least hearing another perspective.
On the flipside, Nick and I have seen the opposite side of that, where somebody is an anti-audiophile, who does not believe that wires make a difference (Which is fine, we are all entitled to our opinions), but then puts you down as if you are a moron admiring the emperor’s new clothes, for thinking such heretical audiophile thoughts. We observed this first hand at an audio meeting at my house. Some people just cannot stand to hear a differing point of view and experience. And when someone’s beliefs turn into a quasi-religion and feel the need to put down the other person for not sharing their beliefs, I have an issue with that.
All of this has nothing to do with people I have seen on this website, but I thought I would just throw that out there to see what you thought about this.
Just my two cents worth.
Gary