Wmcmanus
President treasurer secretary and sole member of the Cayman Islands Head-Fi Club.
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2002
- Posts
- 11,830
- Likes
- 27
Just for fun, I started the thread below last night and gave it a little time to run:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/i-t...thread-277429/
I didn't want it to become another useless post type of thread, and that's why I've cut it off now. Maybe it's just me and my crazy imagination, but I think there are a few points in there worth considering (in addition to the fact that people can't follow simple rules, but that's quite Ok, and was kind of funny actually).
I think there are several tendencies at Head-Fi that an informed user ought to be aware of and do his or her best to avoid/combat:
1. Many people ask for advice without giving us enough information about how they intend to use the unknown product of their desires. They don't tell us enough about themselves (their sonic preferences and musical tastes, their associated gear, how they intend to use the item, etc.) Yet, they want us to tell them what is the "best" solution for them.
2. Many people likewise answer such questions by giving advice without directly or even indirectly providing a context in terms of where their advice is coming from. In other words, they don't give us a proper perspective either, and thus the teeter starts to tauter toward the "blind leading the blind" scenario, even though both the person asking the question and many people who are answering the question could do a better job and thus help lead to a "better" (but maybe still not "best") solution.
3. There is also the "familiarity" issue in that people will recommend what they are most familiar with (i.e., HD650 and K701 are recommended a lot more than are comparable Ultrasone headphones) and this has the tendency to create a bit of a sheep herding mentality. Perhaps it's not intended as such, but it's the inevitable result because most people asking for advice are looking for tried and true solutions. Although they ask for the "best" they are often times looking for the best "safe" alternative.
4. On top of all of that, when it comes to audio gear, reasonable people can and will differ in their opinions, so you always have to account for individual tastes and try to understand where each of the advice givers is coming from. That becomes even harder to get a handle on as their interests shift and their own opinions change over time as they are exposed to more products. Pinpointing another person's perspective at a moment in time is hard enough to do, but keep in mind that all of our opinions are moving targets.
5. But despite all of this, I still think it's possible to "make sense" out of the vast array of information that is available on Head-Fi, so long as you find a way to sift through the muck. Each of us does that in different ways, but it's instructive to me the the same "usual suspects" always seem to reappear no matter what the question is. If the question is "What is the best headphone, price no object?" you'll get one set of closely aligned answers. If the question is, "What is the best portable headphone for under $100?" then you'll get another list of "usual suspects" and can take it from there by asking more specific questions concerning your sonic preference and intended use.
Thus, despite all of the rather compelling reasons why Head-Fi ought to be a massive database of seemingly useless and impossibly conflicting data that cannot be made useful as information, somehow people seem to be able to make sense of it all, and then add their experiences into the mix to further confuse everyone else!
What do you think?
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/i-t...thread-277429/
I didn't want it to become another useless post type of thread, and that's why I've cut it off now. Maybe it's just me and my crazy imagination, but I think there are a few points in there worth considering (in addition to the fact that people can't follow simple rules, but that's quite Ok, and was kind of funny actually).
I think there are several tendencies at Head-Fi that an informed user ought to be aware of and do his or her best to avoid/combat:
1. Many people ask for advice without giving us enough information about how they intend to use the unknown product of their desires. They don't tell us enough about themselves (their sonic preferences and musical tastes, their associated gear, how they intend to use the item, etc.) Yet, they want us to tell them what is the "best" solution for them.
2. Many people likewise answer such questions by giving advice without directly or even indirectly providing a context in terms of where their advice is coming from. In other words, they don't give us a proper perspective either, and thus the teeter starts to tauter toward the "blind leading the blind" scenario, even though both the person asking the question and many people who are answering the question could do a better job and thus help lead to a "better" (but maybe still not "best") solution.
3. There is also the "familiarity" issue in that people will recommend what they are most familiar with (i.e., HD650 and K701 are recommended a lot more than are comparable Ultrasone headphones) and this has the tendency to create a bit of a sheep herding mentality. Perhaps it's not intended as such, but it's the inevitable result because most people asking for advice are looking for tried and true solutions. Although they ask for the "best" they are often times looking for the best "safe" alternative.
4. On top of all of that, when it comes to audio gear, reasonable people can and will differ in their opinions, so you always have to account for individual tastes and try to understand where each of the advice givers is coming from. That becomes even harder to get a handle on as their interests shift and their own opinions change over time as they are exposed to more products. Pinpointing another person's perspective at a moment in time is hard enough to do, but keep in mind that all of our opinions are moving targets.
5. But despite all of this, I still think it's possible to "make sense" out of the vast array of information that is available on Head-Fi, so long as you find a way to sift through the muck. Each of us does that in different ways, but it's instructive to me the the same "usual suspects" always seem to reappear no matter what the question is. If the question is "What is the best headphone, price no object?" you'll get one set of closely aligned answers. If the question is, "What is the best portable headphone for under $100?" then you'll get another list of "usual suspects" and can take it from there by asking more specific questions concerning your sonic preference and intended use.
Thus, despite all of the rather compelling reasons why Head-Fi ought to be a massive database of seemingly useless and impossibly conflicting data that cannot be made useful as information, somehow people seem to be able to make sense of it all, and then add their experiences into the mix to further confuse everyone else!
What do you think?
