Hi
I may have been guilty of some of what you mention, but some audio concepts are not intuitive before you get advice from someone with more experience.
My example.... I had messed with many speaker placements with my Kef RDM3's and felt something was missing. I posted a simple question on this forum and got some great tips that vastly improved the sound I was getting with no
extra financial outlay. Would I have figured it out anyway??? Probably over time, but isn't that what this kind of forum is intended to do, i.e. share knowledge and experience between people?
Just another opinion! |
Part of the problem with our hobby is that every change in the system seems to change the sound, but many people lack confidence when it comes to determining if the change is, in fact, for the better. And rightfully so, the variables are endless. Equiptment, physical placement, room treatment, tweaks, power line conditioning. No wonder many people would just as soon have a boom box. |
Jvia; not an unreasonable observation. I would just say from personal experience that it took me 3-5 years of reading, listening, learning, talking, auditioning etc. before I became confident in my own listening skills, and also learned the "audiophile language". And I see a lot of that kind of inexperience showing up in questions here on A'Gon. I try to have an accomodating attitude toward those kind(s) of questions.
There was a time when I gave a lot of weight to Stereophile recommendations. Also, that was before my i-net days. I am now near totally confident in my own listening skills, and in my own judgement regarding most audio (music) considerations, and many of my components, wires, and tweaks are not "reviewer approved". But some aren't confident about these things, and yet others may just want to talk about it-- ie, get other points of view (I've done this myself) etc.
I now know what I want (musically) and am confident in doing my own trials and experiments, but I think many haven't achieved that kind of confidence yet, and thus they seek out the experience and opinions of those who have learned many audio "lessons". And then there is simply information sharing. I've certainly made my share of mistakes and have made some bad choices too, but that's part of the learning experience. So I say: welcome to Audiogon. Cheers. Craig |
I'm not hacking prople here that ask opinions before they buy, that is of course very sensible. But as an example, and I don't mean it in a harsh way if that person come through and reads this, but there was a post earlier about cartridge/tonearm, are they a match? Person has them sitting there, why not try it and see? Then on another sight I frequent, the one Prima Donna of the site just rips anyone who tries to effect their own repair, telling them how incompetent they are and its not possible with their measly brain. Then there is needing cable approval and so on. I am talking about it being there, in front of them. Why are we not promoting more experimenting with audio? Speaker spikes are an experiment, wiring cartridges out of phase, bi wiring etc. I would like to see more free thinking, and I would also like to moe people being a little kinder to the people wanting to know about the Bose and the Pioneer and so forth, cause every one we don't nurture(thats the word in all this I am looking for)every one we get,and do it honestly with a little compassion, its another one we lose to DR. Bose and Dr. Polk. What I guess I am saying is that the nurturing of thinking on your own and not following is seemingly not being done. |
I think Garfish hit the nail on the head. I've been putting together and "fine-tuning" my system for a little over a year now with the help of several friends. I even managed to attend CES this year. Yet I still have not had the opportunity to listen to other systems enough to allow me to fine tune my listening skills. I know what sound I like, but have difficulty describing and articulating it to others.
For this very reason I'm flying to Hawaii to spend a few days with these friends listening to their diverse systems and hope to train my ear for critical listening. Spending 4 days immersed in sound and audio discussion will also hopefully allow me to pick up and understand the language of an audiophile. If all else fails, I'll hit the beach and enjoy the sun. Life is good! |
I have received countless email from people on this site, They have excellent and very specific questions they ask and look to me for help. I've spent hundreds of hours playing and experimenting, I believe these people are simply looking for a direction that will not waste there time. I would rather see a thousand questions than a thousand frustrated people leaving our hobby.
I for one hope the questions continue to increase. The more people are willing to listen to ideas, the more we all gain from our hobby. |
Many experienced A'Gon posters do recommend hands on auditioning and personal trial all the time, and I certainly do. There is no substitute for hands on (and ears on) experience. trying out new or different tweaks and equipmenting is what drives much of the interest in this hobby, IMO. And it's also what drives i-net sites such as Audiogon and Audio Asylum-- well, that and the desire to share and communicate with others in the hobby. Cheers. Craig |
I think Jvia needs to learn how to comprehende what he reads. I started the thread about the cartridge and arm. I am quite pleased with the set up that I have and simply wondered what other options existed and was relying on the knowledge and experience of others that I do not yet have. If I had a high compliance MC cartridge to mount on my arm I would. |
I did comprehend what I read though, you state and I quote,
"would the cantilever on my Grado Platinum be considered" that to me means you own one, you state you have the arm, I ask why you don't just try it? I mean, how do any of us know anything until we tried it? Then soemthing might be discovered that could be reported to the rest of the world. |
Why do you think Rega's and Music Hall's are so popular in this site? At the same time, my threads on modding the Technics 1200 got trashed..
I wouldn't trade a Rega or Music Hall for my modded 1200. I had to buy a new tonearm assembly cause I messed up my first rewiring, but it was a $100 learning experience.
It is all this experimenting that has helped me take giant leaps with a reasonable investment. |
People often vary in degrees in regards to experimentation. There are people who must build their own equipment according to their own specification. There are people who do extensive research and auditions before making purchases. And there are people who wants to be led like lambs to a slaughter.
I am not categorizing people who post on Audiogon as one of the three personas above. Obviously there are more. But this demonstrates there are varied types of people out there who will ask very technical questions to very brain dead questions; very self serving questions and very asserting questions.
I think for most of us, including myself, there are just too many options, and we all want to be sure that we end up with the right options with our limited resources.
For an example, I did a day's worth of research on the internet on tubes. I seem to have decided on getting a set of Siemens 6922 and a set of Svetlana 6550. I posted a "Newbie Tube Question" thread to ask whether these would work with my ARC amp. Also, I wanted to know who to deal with because I didn't want to end up with low quality or bogus tubes.
It seems simple enough that I can just plop in the tubes and listen for myself. But this would be a costly experiment. Asking a brain dead question would probably save me lots of dead brain cells in the long run, assuming I get the right responses. |
I can relate to some of the frustration voiced on this thread. Experiments can be costly or impossible for some folks.
Still, asking for detailed information can be risky. I got roundly flamed because I asked equipment advice and dared to say, "please don't just tell me that you love it or hate it but specifically why."
For some reason, this request (which still seems to me both reasonable and obvious) intensely irritated a couple of the regulars, who subjected me to tedious lectures and more than a little sarcasm. One fella, in particular, was so annoyed that I wasn't willing simply to accept his pronouncements that he wrote me 3 or 4 private emails before his anger abated. Sheesh!
Let's be gentle with our newbies and with those who simply want to benefit from the wisdom and experience of others.
Will |
Jvia, Sir, as you will kindly notice that after your first response correctly identifying the arm, I stated that the Grado is mounted to the arm and that I am pleased with the results. I was just asking if anyone had further experience with this arm and other cartridges.
Kind regards,
Michael |
Mpoulos, sir, I just went and read that post agian, you did not state it was mounted on the arm, you asked if the cantilever was too low or too high in compliance, you never stated anywhere it was on the arm and being used. Had you, I would have asked what you thought of it. a post earlier i stated I thought it would go well with anything from the current Grado line. Anyway, not meant to be a slam, or an insult, but the way it was worded, at least the way I read, did not look as if the cartridge was on the arm. |
Jvia, 3rd response dated 3-25-02 posted my mpoulos (me)
Let's not quibble. Life is too short. Take care.
Michael |
