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How Can YOU Be Sure About Anything In Audio?

Posted by thetubeguy1954 (A) on January 17, 2007 at 09:18:52

Hello All,

I've been quite sick these past few days with Bronchitis. So at my doctors insistance I remained bedridden until today. While I laid in bed I started thinking about all the ongoing arguements that seem to dominate most of the posts here on A.A. --- Objectivists vs Subjectivists, Tubes vs Solid State, DBTs vs Subjective Listening, Controlled Directivity vs Dipoles/Omnipoles etc.

I, like many others here, believe many if not all of these arguements will not go away no matter how convincingly either side presents their POV! Why? Well the reasons are many! Some people actually like to argue just for arguements sake. Some are firmly convinced their POV is correct and nothing anyone says will convince them differently. Some are comforted in the belief that their $500 Pioneer receiver "sounds" every bit as good as a $50,000 Krell monoblock. Some are comforted in knowing that they can hear the improvement that their new $1500 interconnects made. I'm sure there's a myriad of reasons I cannot even think of as well.

However it's unimportant what others believe. The ONLY real important thing is you're not throwing your hard earned $$$$$ away buying components that provide improvements that don't exist! But like the subject of this post asks how can YOU be sure about anything in audio? Many people here would tell you that only DBTs can answer this question. But besides the fact that DBTs are extremely difficult to setup properly and very few people know how to run them correctly. There are those, even amongst the Objectivists who'll readily admit DBTs have their own limitations as well.

I'd suggest a different approach. Hopefully you've done a lot of listening to this new component before purchasing it. Even in an audio salon you should be able to ask a salesman to install it in 2 or 3 different systems so you can be sure of what you're hearing.

(NOTE: I'd like to suggest you only do this if you're quite serious about purchasing the component at that salon. Audio salons don't have the time to do this for every Tom, Dick & Harry who justs wants to listen at their store while planning on purchasing the component somewhere else as cheaply as possible! I believe it's people who do exactly that who are responsible for much of the rude behaviour many audio salon salespeople exhibit today!)

If it's at all possible ask to be allowed at least 48hrs (hopefully longer) to hear the audio component at home before the sale is final. If you want to know what that new component you bought really "sounds" like whether it's an interconnect, preamp, CD player, amplifer or speakerwire bring it to a few of your fellow audiophile friend's homes. That way you can hear your component with different amps, preamps, speakers, wires and in different rooms! I'd ask these friends what they do or don't like and see if it agrees with what I'm hearing. Also be sure to take lots of notes and see which sonic traits remain consistant in the differening systems. Then bring it home and listen again.

Were there sonic traits in some of your friends systems you didn't like? Do you hear these traits at your house? How many of the consistant traits from the other systems do you still hear in your home system? Finally remember this is were the new component is going to remain so I'd give the most weight to what I heard at home then in the other systems. Having taken your new component to others homes and using it in other systems should make any obvious flaws noticeable. In addition you'll have had other experienced audiophiles listen and share their opinion of what they hear as well. Like they say, two heads are better than one, so the more heads and their ears that you can get to listen to your new component the better.

The reality is this, you can never be 100% sure about anything in audio. So when you finally get that new audio component home, if you like what you hear, if it makes you tap your foot and if it brings a smile to your face, what else really matters? Some measurements from a machine? Another's POV? or your own enjoyment?

Thetubeguy1954

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