I know a lot of guys are getting bent out of shape about this, but the reality is that the sound we seek is based on our experiences and goals. We all have different things that get us excited. And it is a good thing!
Many guys read the specs and get excited. Many guys read the marketing materials, about some new exotic material, and assume gear is using is best, because it deeply touches their identity. Many guys seek out opinions from designers and dealers they respect. Many guys look for small batches and exclusivity. Many guys look to their friends and hoards of people using a certain product, so they can get extra pleasure by talking about it on an audio board. Many guys with solely engineering mindset hear a certain sound and learn/ force themselves to like it. Many guys want their gear engineered to sound like music, as they hear it.... And likely it’s a combination of several of these.
There are many perspectives on why some like certain gear in high end audio – engineering, psychology, economics, etc.
I have previously stated my thoughts on how references are formed, which is based on cognitive science: ”… we, humans, prefer things that are familiar to us. If you have been going to a small mom and pop jazz bar for the last 30 years, the acoustic signature of that joint is a big part of your reference and what sounds right to you. The pattern recognition and familiarity areas of the brain are activate when one is listening to music. So we have learned to focus on certain tones, pitches, melodies, and harmonic structures over others. In a nutshell, we have learned to focus on some aspects of the sound, those that are familiar to us, while ignoring others. Otherwise, our ancestors would have gotten confused by the various sounds coming from their environment, and would have been easier lunch to the roaming predator. For that same reason, it is why at an audio show some people sit glued, with their jaw agape and the hairs on the back of neck standing up, while others walk out, shaking their head and wondering of what the other "idiots" are so thrilled about when the system sounds "flat" and "dead" to them….”
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...ace-of-many%85&p=258456&viewfull=1#post258456
Economics provides yet another perspective: whether we realize it or not we all fall into distinct groups of buyers who might prefer or require varying products. Market segments can be identified by examining demographic, psychographic, and behavioral differences among buyers. If smart, the audio firm then decides which segments present the greatest opportunity—those whose needs the firm can meet in a superior fashion. The offering is positioned in the minds of the target buyers as delivering some central benefits. Using a car example, some guys want the safety of Volvo, while others want the sports car of their dreams in Porsche…
Additionally, looking at the hobby from an economics perspective, High end audio is unique but not that unique. It's an experience good. Gear manufacturers and high end audio magazines are not offering an object for sale, nor a service. Instead, they are offering an experience. (I know many have a hard time accepting this reality, especially on this site, who only see this through am engineering product lens. ). But engineers cannot test a new piece of gear in a lab, like a new tire, and evaluate its performance for audiophiles. That makes it extra hard for us to know in advance if the "experience” for sale is one they we would like to have, so critics and word-of-mouth comments from other consumers play major roles in marketing, and subjective judgments rule. There are few, if any, “objective” claims to high quality, and customers disagree on what is good, so their choices reflect tastes, not verifiable differences in quality. Don’t believe me? Here's a painful experience from the recent Axpona show: Apparently some genius from Magico tried to set the crossover for the Q7 V2 at Axpona using some computer model running in Israel, and how did that work out? Sure Valin and other reviewers liked it, but most thought it was embarrassing for such an expensive system to perfrom like that. The organizers had to turn off that damned sub! A real shame, as so many people would love to hear Magico perform at its potential.
Also, as was mentioned in several posts above, someone driving in their car with an 85 db noise floor or listening to an mp3 on an ipod can be in complete bliss. However, as soon as you play a high end system, so many audiophiles forget to listen to music and start analyzing via audiophile vocabulary and focusing on irrelevant sounds. This analysis is sickening for those of us who want to get lost listening to music.
Check out an excerpt from a reviewer, Alan Sircom. Among so much slime in the audio media. Alan seems like a good guy, he occasionally contributes here, and I have nothing personal against him. Yet check out this quote:
… The resolution on offer here was so significant; it almost made a mockery of what we hear from other systems. One live Mozart recording, you could not only hear two people coughing in the audience, you could not only identify where they were in the physical space, but you could tell one of them was considerably more bronchial than the other. One was polite coughing, the other was ‘have you taken your medication’ coughing. On other systems, you barely hear there is an audience…
The loudspeaker was resolving of system enough to easily hear the difference between digital filters, or switching between triode and solid-state output in the ___ and throwing a soundstage sufficiently large enough to impose imaging limits at the side-wall diffraction panels, and the sealed-box precision and speed to the bass made it one of the…”
This focus on sound is just an appeal to particular marketing segment. Nothing wrong with having “sound” as your objective; interestingly, it infects the vast majority of the reviewers, and huge numbers of audiophiles share it also.
Contrast this with a quote from a Peter “The Great” Breuninger review: …”Attending a concert is one of life’s great pleasures. Going out, enjoying a fine meal…strolling over to the hall, seeing the people, and finding your seat. Waiting for the lights to dim, the anticipation…you know that feeling. When the show starts, you are instantly mesmerized by the performance… It is overwhelming and it is wonderful…”
As a musical example, check out this soul tune by Otis Redding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5q9VgQrmyE
Who cares, if there are keyboards or horns playing in that song? Wait, were there keyboards or horns even playing?
This is the experience I am after. Having been to thousands of live shows, why waste your precious, limited mental energy on irrelevant sounds, such as your shoes squeaking, full vs. empty glasses clanging at the bar, etc. Who really cares about the sound of the violinist scratching his balls, if they are shaved balls or au naturel? Why get distracted by extraneous details and noise, hyper-focus on inconsequential details, instead of enjoying the heightening of emotions?…Before the show, I am hoping the musicians are on top of their game, get into the show, find inspiration and creativity, play songs I want to hear, and I find the state of flow where I am transported….
So, different things for different groups of people and market segments.
Regardless of the experience we seek, let’s not forget that despite the arguments, listening to well-reproduced music on a high end system is a hobby about enjoying life and relaxing so we can be better doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen, or whatever we do for the majority of the time.
Coming back to topic, let’s please have some more suggestions on DACS that have been superbly engineered and sound like real, live music. What about products combine greatest of engineering and the greatest of golden ears?
