An "Expert" is one who knows and accepts their system will not be perfect. Most know the deficiencies and are either willing to put up with them, or don't care.
I have several systems in my home. I know the deficiencies of each one and am willing to put up with them..... or can't afford to fix them!!
Experts are not self-proclaimed. It's ones perception toward a person. A person is an expert only if you think he/she is. So one has to answer the question him/herself how that person becomes an expert or whether an expert at all.
If you can see a person is a bad chef, it is because he/she bother to show how to cook or you manage to taste his recipe. I would like to thank all the chefs here in the forum who bother to show recipes and share how to cook. There are so many ingredients and recipes available we cannot possibly try them all. Good cook or bad is up to us to decide. This is actually why I decide to share my small experience on gears on this forum. Before I joined, I was taking without giving. Great chefs always are open to observe and manage to make good of his observations..always.
Is the view that improbable events happen more often than people think they will happen a "voice in the wilderness" view today?
My closest friend at the hedge fund I worked at in Manhattan wrote the software for the firm's statistical arbitrage strategy. Prior to joining our firm he retired in his mid-30s after a career as the Director of Research for one of the two most famous quantitative investment firms in the world. He was, and still is, one of the very smartest people I have ever known.
He did his best to analyse and calculate and estimate as carefully as possible the probability of a financial markets situation which would torpedo his strategy. He estimated that such an event would occur not more than once every one hundred years.
In August of 2007 that event ocurred three days in a row. That taught me that people underestimate the probability of seemingly improbable events, at least in the financial markets.
Commercial churning makes everybody a bad chef. One of the talents of audio critics is to lightly tamp the graveyard soil over their previous raves to inculcate a new generation of products that somehow are always "best", but nonetheless go through a seemingly endless cycle of MkI, MkII, MkIII etc. "better".
My systems are currently to my taste and enjoyment, which is all that matters. It takes a while, but jumping off the OC disorder carousel while still maintaining an attitude of exploration seems to be a skill all by itself.
Without entering the contentious debate on what makes one an audio expert in general, I'd like to suggest one thing necessary (but not sufficient) to make you an expert on your own system. You need to know what your priorities are. You need to know which attributes of music reproduction which are most important to you and you cannot live without, and which you can compromise on. It seems that many want everything that they have ever heard in other systems, which is impossible. If you always want everything of course you can never jump off the OCD bandwagon.
Audio is inherently a compromise, regardless of how much money you put into it. This begins with the speaker positioning in your room.
Only once you figure out what your priorities are you can make meaningful tweaks and upgrades towards one goal: your maximal enjoyment of music in your system -- a very personal thing that cannot be experienced by others in the same way.
I already know that my next system upgrades, even though clear steps forward, will be compromises (my next speakers will also be monitors, the Reference 3A Reflector). But they will be compromises that I personally can happily live with and which will give me more of what I want without forcing me to compromise on strengths that my system already has.
Without entering the contentious debate on what makes one an audio expert in general, I'd like to suggest one thing necessary (but not sufficient) to make you an expert on your own system. You need to know what your priorities are. You need to know which attributes of music reproduction which are most important to you and you cannot live without, and which you can compromise on. It seems that many want everything that they have ever heard in other systems, which is impossible. If you always want everything of course you can never jump off the OCD bandwagon.
Audio is inherently a compromise, regardless of how much money you put into it. This begins with the speaker positioning in your room.
Only once you figure out what your priorities are you can make meaningful tweaks and upgrades towards one goal: your maximal enjoyment of music in your system -- a very personal thing that cannot be experienced by others in the same way.
I already know that my next system upgrades, even though clear steps forward, will be compromises (my next speakers will also be monitors, the Reference 3A Reflector). But they will be compromises that I personally can happily live with and which will give me more of what I want without forcing me to compromise on strengths that my system already has.
Is the view that improbable events happen more often than people think they will happen a "voice in the wilderness" view today?
My closest friend at the hedge fund I worked at in Manhattan wrote the software for the firm's statistical arbitrage strategy. Prior to joining our firm he retired in his mid-30s after a career as the Director of Research for one of the two most famous quantitative investment firms in the world. He was, and still is, one of the very smartest people I have ever known.
He did his best to analyse and calculate and estimate as carefully as possible the probability of a financial markets situation which would torpedo his strategy. He estimated that such an event would occur not more than once every one hundred years.
In August of 2007 that event ocurred three days in a row. That taught me that people underestimate the probability of seemingly improbable events, at least in the financial markets.
I was short 2 days before Brexit. Not that Brexit was a black swan,but sentiment was so positive leading into it. Understanding risk is essential for the financial markets. I tend to think bear markets after cycle rises measured in multi year moves can be risk elevated.
An expert?
A REAL expert?
One that must be lauded?
I'd say the kind of guy that if he's disagreed with will readily call us all wankers.
You all know the kind of guy.
Joking aside IMHO I think people can have expertise in various fields - I would tend to say experts tend to have certain traits:
1. Being paid for what they do - whether as consultants, retailers, manufacturers etc
2. Repeatable results
3. Logical and reasoned justification of what it is they say and do
4. A fundamental understanding of the Science/Art of what it is they profess to have knowledge of - i.e. John Curl amplifier designer; Harry Weisfield turntables etc; Frank Schroeder tonearms...
I need help from an expert: What's the best way to select the best quality music recordings of the music genres that we love and of the new music genres that will advance our quality of life in our audio evolution?
I need help from an expert: What's the best way to select the best quality music recordings of the music genres that we love and of the new music genres that will advance our quality of life in our audio evolution?
That's easy Bob...follow your heart with your ear in tow. Of course the ear brings the mind with it.
Let's look at it from a different angle. Find a expertly recorded album and then understand why it is so. Of course the system level will determine at some level why I think it is great. But it can be appreciated on many levels...just beautifully done.
You are right regarding a well recorded music album and researching why and where and who did the recording, plus the record label and the studio and the recording engineer.
Today it is much easier to shop for the music we like to evolve with. We have free music samples on the Internet. Fifty years ago we simply went to the record store and bought the new Pink Floyd or Zeppelin or Stone or Cat Stevens album. Twenty years ago I used to go to the record store and spent hours listening to few dozen CDs with headphones. ...Just sampling them, every couple weeks, and always ending up buying half of them.
I also read the music section of all my audio mag subscriptions. So I was armed and ready.
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Bonus:
* Anthony Bourdain, the gourmet globetrotter, is he a good chef?
I just sign up because of this thread. I was always curious that how a man/woman can be so interested and devoted in his/her hobby. Because My habit is very well different from others I never stick to one thing or one work or one hobby for a long time, Because with the passage of time I start feeling bored. So I just want to know am I the only one who wants to change his taste every-time.
The short answer is - there are no experts, it's completely subjective. Some think that because they spend more or listen more that that makes them experts. They're fooling themselves and unfortunately others. What's best for you and your ears is what counts.
an expert?
A real expert?
One that must be lauded?
I'd say the kind of guy that if he's disagreed with will readily call us all wankers.
You all know the kind of guy.
Be careful as the King has wide ranging armies...or so I am told. He even got into fisticuffs with one of the dirty unwashed plebs recently...or so I am told.
