Can I Have My Money Back?

Just the other day I joined a vinyl forum. I had found a topic in it that I was interested in, so I registered to be able to join the conversation. As I started reading some of the member's posts, I came a across a long sarcastic thread against audiophiles. In response to someone's already sarcastic comment, someone wrote, "That's nothing, some people out here in California actually believe the choice of cables can improve sound!"

But that is just the thing, it is perceived as a BELIEF, when it is, in all the cases I know of, empirical knowledge. People have experienced the difference a particular cable has on sound, which they then tend to prefer or dislike.

You may not have experienced this things yourself because you have not done a/b comparisons, have not trained your listening habits to pay attention to the qualities of sound that are affected by cables or your current system can't resolve the differences between two cables. These are all possible, but that does not mean that others can't experience, appreciate and even seek those differences. I, for one, have never experienced what happens in a cyclotron, but I do not pretend to deny the realities of sub-atomic physics because of my very limited experience.

I remember when I started playing around with cables I thought there would probably be some differences because it seems logical to me that different materials and geometries would certainly affect the qualities of sound, but I was hoping those differences would be slight, as I did not want to open another avenue of possible improvements to my system. The cables in question were Analysis Oval 9's vs. Radio Shack thick copper speaker cable. Unfortunately, even with my very modest system back then, the differences were huge. In the decade since, my system has evolved a lot and cables have always been a careful consideration.

I'll have agree,even in my modest system the cables I have chosen make a very large difference in the reproduced sound. Most engineers and the like are stll only working to make a living and most of us bend for a dollar.

"The sound was unbearable. While it played, all hard, flat and edgy, I said to myself 'it's new technology it will improve but so far blechh'."

Blecch indeed. I remember the first time I heard some of them that same year at a friend's house (Sony CDP-101 player, I forget what the other equipment was). We were both ready for great sound and were excited about "digital" plus the discs looked so cool and rainbow-y. What we got sounded so bad that it gave me a stomach ache, seriously.

As far as why the condescension towards "audiphools," it's fun to sneer at luddites, if you are dim enough to think that anything newer is necessarily better.

Because I believe the scoffingly derisive 'insider'-- (quite often just industry-adjacent rather than a studio man himself)--- and the hairshirt ear-candling audiophile-- are the same guy, different suburb, may have that same state-U undergrad degree, and grew up in the same kinds of places ... I think there's room here for peace.

Just as it's important to recognize that the audiophile market sector is often plagued by bullshit 'innovations' that make anyone who ever dropped out of an Engineering program at community college scoff--- So too is it important to remember that over half the Industry-Adjacent loudmouths have never mixed down audio tracks for a paycheck or set a mike in a live, for-profit recording studio.

On internet venues, more often than not, we've got inflated-credentials audio "veterans" (who may have once worked in the outer layers of a media corporation, perhaps filing requests for executive travel arrangements or something similarly vital) telling us that cabling, sample rates, amp configuration, speaker setup.. don't really matter much in our era; the digits are too damned good. On the opposite hand, of course, we have audio morons playing their Dianna Krall recordings thousands of times in a row to determine things like where the TipToes should go on the cd player. Telling the world, after their titanic struggles, exactly what comprises "transparent to the source material" .. having never been close to that source material, or any other, of course.

In the end it comes to little schoolboy oneupsmanship contests. I know good sound because I work in the same building as a radio station downtown. I know good sound because in the seventies my college roommate had a full McIntosh system. My brother-in-law was once a soundman for Pat Benetar and he says that the best sound (uses frayed cables, uses pennies in the fuseholders, uses the 6ohz hum off the mains to reinforce the low end, etc).

Whether so-called 'veteran' or hapless amateur, a lot comes to distantly remembered sonic-superiority things, back "in the day" or in the glory years. Of someone else's career.

But these are all pretty useless kinds of epicureanism. Not everybody is a fraud. There are real, hands-on, informed industry voices. What I think the actual industry studio man forgets is that, yeah, even with his bog-standard miles of canare cabling and electrovoice mikes, he's used to monitoring a live feed from a competent professional musician, one who can play his way around the flaws & shortcomings of most stages and studios in town, upscale or downscale. So he's used to an Embarrassment Of Riches. Even the most unimaginative of recording techniques is going to pull down a competent track from a session, even given the lowest common denominator on the studio side. Even a dull mixdown is going to sound fine, coming from the Studer under all those newspapers and coffee cups in the corner. So his day-to-day has nothing to compare with an audiophile trying to best set up a system that can make fifties jazz or forties swing sound like a live feed.

The differences in program are so very far apart as to defeat comparison; to bring the schoolboy one-up contest to an opposition of apples and oranges is never going to give legit conclusions.
And it really has to be said: a "studio owner" may be much more concerned about his lease being renewed or leaks in the ceiling than say, replacing tubes or managing micro acoustics; once we get involved with letting "ownership" or "management" tell us what's what with the culture of music and recording, we're lost.
Safe to say, also, that any time you get somebody barking about how they've 'done this since forever' and small specifics don't matter-- you've got trouble. Credibility trouble.

Thanks for constantly taking the fight to the "esteemed opposition".
Your clear and cogent arguments would blow their minds if there was a crack for the clarity to enter.
What amazes me is the vitriol from those who rate "audiophiles" a couple of steps below pedophiles.
I feel sorry for those who can't hear the difference.

Lets face it, some people can hear the difference. Age, social behaviour and career choice may have a direct impact. Like may individuals we all have deficiency, glasses to better our sight. Hearing is not immune to these deficiency. I can see why some people voice blah blah claims. I'm ok by this. I know what I want and I try to achieve what I want to hear. With other individuals, music is not part of there lives. I'm ok with that. With handicaps, such as; blindness and hearing lose some of the greatest composer have merged. It's the spirit that drives these individuals that go beyond and fill the room with joy. I've studied Jazz in college and I can say that there is a big difference between reading the pretty dot's on music sheet and having the music. That's what separates (amateurs vs professionals).
Some would ague that some engineers don't know any better. I would say, that's not true, many devote there lives to capturing the creativity and magic that happens in a controlled environment. Capturing the essence of a musical vibe is hard and a struggle that everyone in a studio working on the project is not immune to. It's hard to describe the studio experiance, compare to dropping the needle on your turntable and sit back and partaking in the magical ride. The audience is unaware of many performances that were performed to chase that sound, that feeling. It doesn't end in the studio its perpetual and goes to the mastering stage and to manufacture stage.