The Audiophile Debate

[Florestan]

Yeah it sounds very mundane.  The true transcendent experience would be using cheap earbuds and being happy with the music.

Actually, the true transcendent experience would be to give up technology altogether and listen only to live performances or to the sounds of nature. 

[Irons]

Granted, but I'm not sure that never-ending accumulation and replacement of material things is a sign that someone has raised above the mundane...

Probably true but doesn't alter the fact that system upgrading is great fun. Expensive yes, but better then wasting money at the bookies or pub. Doesn't make you a bad person.

[Florestan]

Probably true but doesn't alter the fact that system upgrading is great fun. Expensive yes, but better then wasting money at the bookies or pub. Doesn't make you a bad person.

Of course not, I never claimed that.

[AnotherSpin]

Actually I have $10 headphones from when I was a kid that still work!  You just have to take care of your things.  Also my Sony boombox from back then also still works as well as my radio alarm clock.

Cheap stuff is no longer made to last, otherwise no one would pay over and over again. Disposable is the key word. I can't remember how many times I had to buy headphones for my iPhones.

[Atriod]

Still catching up on this thread, I'm not sure why you guys expend paragraphs and paragraphs on this stuff. It's like religion, it relies on faith, you're never going to convince them that it's not rooted in any reality.

[71 dB]

Still catching up on this thread, I'm not sure why you guys expend paragraphs and paragraphs on this stuff. It's like religion, it relies on faith, you're never going to convince them that it's not rooted in any reality.

Probably 99 % of everything I have wrote online has been complete waste of time.

[Spotted Horses]

Probably 99 % of everything I have wrote online has been complete waste of time.

For most people, the figure is 99.9%.

[AnotherSpin]

Still catching up on this thread, I'm not sure why you guys expend paragraphs and paragraphs on this stuff. It's like religion, it relies on faith, you're never going to convince them that it's not rooted in any reality.

You mean faith in so-called "science"?

[Valentino]

So-called science?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube?wprov=sfti1

[AnotherSpin]

So-called science?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube?wprov=sfti1

I didn't quite understand your reference to tube equipment. I have enjoyed tube components such as those from Manley for long years. At one time, a huge leap in sound quality was achieved by replacing cheap rubbish Russian-made Svetlana tubes with high-quality NOS, such as those from Telefunken from early 60s.

[Valentino]

I have found that anti-science audiophiles are more inclibed to use tubed equipment than other audiophiles. Tubes are science though.

Faith in science is invented by people of faith. Science is non-dogmatic. That's it's base.

[71 dB]

I have found that anti-science audiophiles are more inclined to use tubed equipment than other audiophiles.

This is pretty self-explanatory.

Tubes are science though.

Of course they are. Tubes were cutting edge applied science technology in early 20th century, but eventually science gave us something better, the transistor. In the future transistors are possibly replaced by something better (whatever AI-developed room temperature supragates they will be    ).

Faith in science is invented by people of faith. Science is non-dogmatic. That's it's base.

Science is about the best available knowledge and understanding of things today and the desire to improve, deepen and even correct that knowledge and understanding with scientific process. The only "faith" I have with science is that it is the best guideline for humankind going forward when it comes to knowledge and understanding of the World around us.

[AnotherSpin]

Faith in science is invented by people of faith. Science is non-dogmatic. That's it's base.

Science treats reality as the interaction of bodies or objects. And this is an extremely narrow and limited approach. Any child thinks in a more complex way.

[71 dB]

Science treats reality as the interaction of bodies or objects. And this is an extremely narrow and limited approach. Any child thinks in a more complex way.

Your concept of science is extremely narrow and childish. If anything, children are victims of brainwashing by their parents.

[Fëanor]

You mean faith in so-called "science"?

To say so implies a critical misunderstanding of science.  Science is not a collection of facts or settled theories;  it is a process of skeptical (in the best sense) investigation including challenging existing theories and formulating new, testable hypotheses.

Science is that antithesis of faith.

[AnotherSpin]

Your concept of science is extremely narrow and childish. If anything, children are victims of brainwashing by their parents.

True. Children come clean, they possess (or they are) unlimited and unbounded knowing. Then, in time, they became conditioned by parents and schools and society, with various bullshit, such as science, et al.

[DavidW]

My reaction to this and the other thread is that I'm too much of a peasant for either.  You rich folk are arguing about whether it is smarter to spend literally tens of thousands of dollars on room treatment or on cables.  And I'm like:



Rich people are just different.

[Todd]

Ultra-expensive cables will only do if they involve using a vacuum (eg, Stage III cables) or liquid (eg, Teo Liquid Cables). 

Science.

[AnotherSpin]

My reaction to this and the other thread is that I'm too much of a peasant for either.  You rich folk are arguing about whether it is smarter to spend literally tens of thousands of dollars on room treatment or on cables.  And I'm like:



Rich people are just different.

You don't have to be rich at all to be able to appreciate well-made things. Maybe even the opposite. The more money there is, the more rubbish there is in life.

[71 dB]

True. Children come clean, they possess (or they are) unlimited and unbounded knowing. Then, in time, they became conditioned by parents and schools and society, with various bullshit, such as science, et al.

I don't know how seriously I should take this response. Nowadays it is hard to tell when other people are being serious or joking. So much mental ilness. So much ignorance. So much social media brainwashing people. So much toxicity...

My desire of be part of the discussion is very low. What is the point of saying anything?