Good gosh amighty!! It just refuses to die!! Alright, alright, I give up - I solemnly swear I will never call for a geekfest to end ever again! And to prove it, I submit the following thought:
Sticking with the example of cables, I have never understood why the "objectivist" position is self-represented as being inconsistent with the notion that there could be audible differences between even competently designed and manufactured wires. Why couldn't, and indeed why wouldn't, there be? After all, different cables are physically just that - different. On the level of a thought experiment, where the "objectivists" seem to enjoy operating, there should be no argument that any change, however small, in the physical configuration and composition of any part of the entire circuit (including wires, of course) and its environment will effect some corresponding change, again however small, upon the electrical properties of that circuit. Objectively this will even be true of, for instance, multiple examples of the very same piece of gear, for no two individual things will ever be totally identical to each other, or occupy identical positions within the universe. Therefore, objectively speaking, any change to any part of any stereo system and the environment it operates within will produce some change on the signal it passes, period. Whether that change can be perceived by a person, whether by measurement or by hearing, is a separate question, and one that immediately begins to bring subjective criteria into the equation. But when it comes to something like cables, it seems to me that the "objectivist's" theoretical position can only be, "Differently configured and composed wires will always pass a given signal differently than one another, and it is possible that where a difference exists, it might be heard." So where's the problem?
Sticking with the example of cables, I have never understood why the "objectivist" position is self-represented as being inconsistent with the notion that there could be audible differences between even competently designed and manufactured wires. Why couldn't, and indeed why wouldn't, there be? After all, different cables are physically just that - different. On the level of a thought experiment, where the "objectivists" seem to enjoy operating, there should be no argument that any change, however small, in the physical configuration and composition of any part of the entire circuit (including wires, of course) and its environment will effect some corresponding change, again however small, upon the electrical properties of that circuit. Objectively this will even be true of, for instance, multiple examples of the very same piece of gear, for no two individual things will ever be totally identical to each other, or occupy identical positions within the universe. Therefore, objectively speaking, any change to any part of any stereo system and the environment it operates within will produce some change on the signal it passes, period. Whether that change can be perceived by a person, whether by measurement or by hearing, is a separate question, and one that immediately begins to bring subjective criteria into the equation. But when it comes to something like cables, it seems to me that the "objectivist's" theoretical position can only be, "Differently configured and composed wires will always pass a given signal differently than one another, and it is possible that where a difference exists, it might be heard." So where's the problem?