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Re: Thanks guys ...

> It's hard to get a handle on the objectivist POV

Of course. One cannot use reasoning built on basic scientific knowledge to make a case if the person you are speaking to does not possess that basic scientific knowledge or even want to possess it in the case of most audiophiles. This is no different to many other areas where people want knowledge/answers but are not prepared to spend the time learning the basics/issues. As a phenomenon hand-in-hand with the marketing of disinformation in support of vested interests it has had a large and growing impact on shaping society. The audiophile industry is a nice example although hardly one to get worked up about.

> There's plenty of hand-waving, insults, pretentiousness and
> argumentation, though.

Why else would people argue with audiophiles unless they enjoyed this sort of thing? People who are wrong about straightforward objective matters like audiophiles are very soft targets for people who want an argument or to take the p*ss.

> You also said that the "casual reader" would be put off by the
> subjectivist POV.

I said: "I suspect a few casual readers possibly are nudged away from the subjectivists viewpoint not so much by the arguments but by the emotional and evasive behaviour." Read the posts in this current crop of threads and, ignoring the content, look at who evades debate about points of substance and who gets emotional. This is the behaviour of people losing a debate and for those not particularly engaged with either side it will come across. For those emotionally engaged with one side or the other there is less of tendency to see what is actually there.

> A. If you want to know if this component sounds different in your
> system, I recommend that you go and audition it.

Although option A has the appearance of a rational position it is not a useful one in the absence of reasoning to narrow the field to a small set of candidates. Many, many centuries ago people noticed that performing a test everytime they wanted to know something was not a good idea and so they started to invent speech, writing and this scientific business in order to use reason instead. And it proved most effective in creating the technology around us except, of course, for audiophile equipment. When audiophile magazines largely stopped narrowing the field it was yet another indication that they had stopped being consumer-orientated.

> B. This component cannot possibly sound different. There is an
> absolute truth in audio and perceptions are invalid.

Option B is utter nonsense and although I am sure it is what you would like objectivists to say I challenge you to find posts that actually put forward this position.

> In other words, would you (as a casual reader, most likely a newbie)
> prefer to be told how to think or what to think?

Neither. I suspect most newbies are not particularly interested in thinking but simply want guidance about what best matches their needs concerning audio equipment.

Later if the audio equipment itself starts to become a hobby then the hobbyist will start to choose where to look for guidance and satisfaction and how to go about the hobby. Some opt to be guided by scientific reasoning and knowledge whereas others opt for audiophile marketing and buzz. It depends on the type of person and the former, of course, cannot become an audiophile and so is not well represented on a site such as this.



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