It’s interesting how people roll up their armchairs and park here without much interest in the subject of the forum. Some like science but not sound. Others like sound but they keep arguing against science. Maybe they’re lonely and they just want to be a part of a group- it doesn’t matter what the group is. There should be a forum on Internet forum psychology. That would be a perfect parking lot for all those armchairs!
I hear you. I love sound reproduction and music and technology and headphones and speakers and for that matter learning for the sake of learning and have been fascinated to see this technology evolve over the years, since I was a teenager. I was once proud to predict that someday we could hold our music on a memory chip. . . it was a pretty good prediction, but we have gotten so far past that or anything I could have imagined. I am like a kid in a candy store here. I don't claim to be anything special. I guess I could not deny I am talented at some things. If anything my brain goes into auto-pilot mode in parsing out music and I lose touch with people for whom that does not happen. I'm not saying I'm great at it but I am always surprised when someone or most people are not aware of what's going on in the music and just say I like this or I like that music and that's that. It's valid, I guess, I think it is a valid human experience, perhaps the specifics are just a language some people did not have the good fortune of learning at a young age and it's an uphill climb at an older age I would guess, but not insurmountable.
I've been aware of the need to debunk audio silliness for 40 years now. . . it's a monumental undertaking. I came to head-fi many, many years ago and it was a disaster in terms of misinformation and commercial influences distorting the truth, and except for this little corner, I think it still is. I even feel a little bad for posting at head-fi sometimes because someone is going to get drawn into the lion's den and acquire misinformation and incorporate that into their fund of knowledge.
I love just to learn new things, too, which you can probably tell by my tangential references to things that fascinate me in the moment. I think there's an inherent value in learning as you live. It's a one-shot deal and I'd just assume get the most out of it. I've learned a ton here in just the last few months, it's amazing, book learning, audio practicalities, developments, what goes on in making a recording, etc. It's great. But there are times I'm tempted to drop out because the nonsense and hostility just keep coming at this sub-forum like a torrent.
But I do think there is a cautionary tale--we have to be careful not to make scientific consensus in the moment a sort of religion of its own. Some of the worst chapters in history have been written along those lines. I can see that like me you will turn on a dime if you see hard evidence that contradicts your standing knowledge and beliefs--but for many on the "science" side they are just as dogmatic as the "belief" side of the coin. At that point we lose the ability to influence the views of others, because both sides are just saying "because I said so."
I don't know why I just wrote all this. : )
I think "normal" people are too ready to pick a fight on Internet forums. I don't know why.
