DavidMahler
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2007
- Posts
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I get asked a lot about source vs amp vs headphone. And in fact I too myself have often wanted to determine where to spend the money most.
While this analogy doesn't really suggest an answer to that question, it was something which popped into my head and I thought it was kinda funny, and kinda true....though it would be fun to have the analogy debated and discussed.
If one were to compare a listening experience to an eating experience, I see the factors at play as this:
The RECORDING = The Recipe
=
The creator of the original recipe, the chooser of ingredients and cooking instructions is in this case Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon is the recipe..... how good the food tastes will depend on:
The SOURCE = The food itself
=
If your produce is not fresh, your meat fatty or spoiled then it will not matter how well you cook them or how well you adhere to a recipe - the end result will still come out different than the recipe inventor would have wanted. The crappier the food, the crappier the end result. The fresher and higher quality the food, the better possibility of having an unbelievable eating experience. Same goes for the audio source.
The Amp = The Kitchen (Hardware and Appliances)
=
The way in which store your food to preserve freshness and the appliance you used to prepare and cook your food - the quality of your broiler, your grill, your oven, your fridge.....this functions the same as an amplifier. An amplifier's job is to be as little as an obstacle as possible.....it hopefully stays as faithful to the source as possible.
The Headphones = The Chef (adherence to or deviation from the original Recipe and cooking instructions)
=
Does the chef like to embellish on the original recipe a little bit? A little extra salt maybe? In audio, this would be a coloration. While colorations can be very nice, they are still deviations from the artist's original intent. A headphone which is presumably as neutral as possible "follows the recipe as precisely as possible"
The Listener = The Eater
kinda self explanatory
Anyway this is obviously a loose translation / analogy.....but I thought it was kinda funny and would maybe start a funny conversation.
-Dave
While this analogy doesn't really suggest an answer to that question, it was something which popped into my head and I thought it was kinda funny, and kinda true....though it would be fun to have the analogy debated and discussed.
If one were to compare a listening experience to an eating experience, I see the factors at play as this:
The RECORDING = The Recipe
The creator of the original recipe, the chooser of ingredients and cooking instructions is in this case Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon is the recipe..... how good the food tastes will depend on:
The SOURCE = The food itself
If your produce is not fresh, your meat fatty or spoiled then it will not matter how well you cook them or how well you adhere to a recipe - the end result will still come out different than the recipe inventor would have wanted. The crappier the food, the crappier the end result. The fresher and higher quality the food, the better possibility of having an unbelievable eating experience. Same goes for the audio source.
The Amp = The Kitchen (Hardware and Appliances)
The way in which store your food to preserve freshness and the appliance you used to prepare and cook your food - the quality of your broiler, your grill, your oven, your fridge.....this functions the same as an amplifier. An amplifier's job is to be as little as an obstacle as possible.....it hopefully stays as faithful to the source as possible.
The Headphones = The Chef (adherence to or deviation from the original Recipe and cooking instructions)
Does the chef like to embellish on the original recipe a little bit? A little extra salt maybe? In audio, this would be a coloration. While colorations can be very nice, they are still deviations from the artist's original intent. A headphone which is presumably as neutral as possible "follows the recipe as precisely as possible"
The Listener = The Eater
kinda self explanatory
Anyway this is obviously a loose translation / analogy.....but I thought it was kinda funny and would maybe start a funny conversation.
-Dave
