ev13wt
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Jan 24, 2007
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A little story of a German hifi guy and his path:
Once upon a time zer was sis German who love audio. He was a very scientific based person. On the hifi-forum in Germany he was known to jump into any cable (and other things like amp sound / sounding and digital vs vinyl et cetera) and demand proof of cable sound. He would argue for pages and pages trying to disperse "audio myths". He was well respected and loved. Important to note is that the forum in question is a very "realistic" forum. When people jump in, mostly new guys, and talk about cables and interconnects, they always get educated quick. It is so realistic that subjects worthy of discussion, like amp sounding, usually don't get very far anymore.
Fast forward 6 years. Today he is the editor in chief of Germanys biggest "audiophile" forum. His account is very inactive. The latest cover of the magazine showcases an article about usb cable tests. Now, bear in mind we are talking about digital transmission, jitter values way below the threshold of human hearing capabilities and so on and so forth.
The test goes on and the testers "hear" differences in the usb cables, with the most expensive getting a 9 out of 10 rating. This is the "best sounding cable". They also state that they couldn't actually measure the differences heard, but the will "keep at it". Note that there wasn't a 10 out of 10 cable.
So why did I tell this story? Well, it just goes to show that the audio hobby is a marketplace and people are trying to sell things. So when a new audio person enters the hobby, they mostly start out reading magazine reviews. Thus, they are already biased before entering any forums. They rate a magazines opinion much higher than any "typical uninformed users" opinion and as such, a flame war starts.
Once upon a time zer was sis German who love audio. He was a very scientific based person. On the hifi-forum in Germany he was known to jump into any cable (and other things like amp sound / sounding and digital vs vinyl et cetera) and demand proof of cable sound. He would argue for pages and pages trying to disperse "audio myths". He was well respected and loved. Important to note is that the forum in question is a very "realistic" forum. When people jump in, mostly new guys, and talk about cables and interconnects, they always get educated quick. It is so realistic that subjects worthy of discussion, like amp sounding, usually don't get very far anymore.
Fast forward 6 years. Today he is the editor in chief of Germanys biggest "audiophile" forum. His account is very inactive. The latest cover of the magazine showcases an article about usb cable tests. Now, bear in mind we are talking about digital transmission, jitter values way below the threshold of human hearing capabilities and so on and so forth.
The test goes on and the testers "hear" differences in the usb cables, with the most expensive getting a 9 out of 10 rating. This is the "best sounding cable". They also state that they couldn't actually measure the differences heard, but the will "keep at it". Note that there wasn't a 10 out of 10 cable.
So why did I tell this story? Well, it just goes to show that the audio hobby is a marketplace and people are trying to sell things. So when a new audio person enters the hobby, they mostly start out reading magazine reviews. Thus, they are already biased before entering any forums. They rate a magazines opinion much higher than any "typical uninformed users" opinion and as such, a flame war starts.