bigshot
Headphoneus Supremus
I've already given a reasonable response and you're not registering it. I'm not interested in pure science in theory. You can own that. I'm interested in applying basic scientific principles to help make my home audio system sound better- not perfect to the nth degree, just better. That doesn't require stringent tests. I'm not building a lab or a recording studio. I'm not publishing at the AES. I'm listening to music in my living room to enhance my lifestyle, and trying to please myself and my friends and family. If there was a forum here for reasonable people with normal goals and a rational process for working to achieve them, I would be there. But we've been herded into absolutist "us and them" groups, and I'm even worse at being a hoodoo mystic than I am at being a white coated, bespectacled scientist, so here I am. You're stuck with me.
I abide by the standards I ask other people to abide by. I don't ask them to take my word for anything. I offer my opinion and I tell them how I reached my conclusions. Most of all, I offer suggestions to help them apply achievable controls to stick a toe into the world of rational skepticism and science so they can find out for themselves. If they haven't applied any controls at all, I explain why controls are necessary and I tell them that their results will be more accurate if they implement them. I'm not going to tell them that applying controls requires equipment and knowledge beyond their ability, so they should just take the word of a scientist at face value. I would like to instill a little bit of skepticism and experimentation in them so they can understand and solve their own problems. I grew up watching Mr Wizard do simple experiments on TV with basic household items. That kind of science is fine with me.
I don't want to be an expert or an authority. I want to be a facilitator, helping them grow and learn for themselves. I don't care how stringent their controls are as long as they make an honest effort to implement them. If it isn't enough, they can do a little more next time and get a little better results. "Right and wrong" are defined differently by every person on Earth. I prefer to speak in terms of "not so hot and a little better". In the past, I've helped folks set up simple listening tests that helped them realize in which direction the truth lay. That was a lot more useful to them than linking to technically dense AES papers that require a subscription, or plowing through paragraph after paragraph of complicated jargon that focuses more on the exceptions to the rule than the simple truth. I don't want to be a scientist and feel the need to cross every T and dot every I. I just want to help.
Normal people who come here want to know if an SACD really does sound better than a CD, or if spending a lot more money on an amp will make a big difference. They aren't asking for a thesis paper. They just want an explanation of the why and how of things in laymen's terms so they can decide what to spend their money on. There's way too much talking over people's heads in this forum already. I shouldn't be required to add to that. I would rather help people understand the fundamentals of how things work and help them figure out how to come up with a rational strategy for making their stereo sound better. Pretty simple goal. And I'm attempting to do this in an internet discussion forum- just about the most informal mode of communication there is. There is no qualification for typing in words here. Anyone can do it. And people lie to us or make stuff up here all the time. Worry about them first.
Arguing about silly stuff like this is what makes me feel like a king in Gulliver's Travels arguing about which end of an egg to break. I'm not writing at length here because I enjoy it. I'm speaking precisely to try to explain where I'm coming from so folks understand and stop trying to paint me as something I'm not.
I abide by the standards I ask other people to abide by. I don't ask them to take my word for anything. I offer my opinion and I tell them how I reached my conclusions. Most of all, I offer suggestions to help them apply achievable controls to stick a toe into the world of rational skepticism and science so they can find out for themselves. If they haven't applied any controls at all, I explain why controls are necessary and I tell them that their results will be more accurate if they implement them. I'm not going to tell them that applying controls requires equipment and knowledge beyond their ability, so they should just take the word of a scientist at face value. I would like to instill a little bit of skepticism and experimentation in them so they can understand and solve their own problems. I grew up watching Mr Wizard do simple experiments on TV with basic household items. That kind of science is fine with me.
I don't want to be an expert or an authority. I want to be a facilitator, helping them grow and learn for themselves. I don't care how stringent their controls are as long as they make an honest effort to implement them. If it isn't enough, they can do a little more next time and get a little better results. "Right and wrong" are defined differently by every person on Earth. I prefer to speak in terms of "not so hot and a little better". In the past, I've helped folks set up simple listening tests that helped them realize in which direction the truth lay. That was a lot more useful to them than linking to technically dense AES papers that require a subscription, or plowing through paragraph after paragraph of complicated jargon that focuses more on the exceptions to the rule than the simple truth. I don't want to be a scientist and feel the need to cross every T and dot every I. I just want to help.
Normal people who come here want to know if an SACD really does sound better than a CD, or if spending a lot more money on an amp will make a big difference. They aren't asking for a thesis paper. They just want an explanation of the why and how of things in laymen's terms so they can decide what to spend their money on. There's way too much talking over people's heads in this forum already. I shouldn't be required to add to that. I would rather help people understand the fundamentals of how things work and help them figure out how to come up with a rational strategy for making their stereo sound better. Pretty simple goal. And I'm attempting to do this in an internet discussion forum- just about the most informal mode of communication there is. There is no qualification for typing in words here. Anyone can do it. And people lie to us or make stuff up here all the time. Worry about them first.
Arguing about silly stuff like this is what makes me feel like a king in Gulliver's Travels arguing about which end of an egg to break. I'm not writing at length here because I enjoy it. I'm speaking precisely to try to explain where I'm coming from so folks understand and stop trying to paint me as something I'm not.
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