Sound Advice: 'Cost no object' on audio gear?

"03-19-15: Mapman
in a sense it comes down to what information is needed to make a sound recommendation.

I think specs are enough to do that. That and measurements if available are all you have to go by to decide what is a good technical match or not. Specs are the only metrics one has to decide what to try when it comes to picking an amp for speakers or siource or preamp to use with an amp. You make a sound recommendation by matching specs."

There's no other way to say this, but you couldn't be more wrong. There's no way in hell you're going to look at a spec sheet and tell what the amp sounds like. Specs are supposed to aid you in your selection, not make it for you.

I don't understand this next quote.

"Does not mean the results will be exactly what the doctor ordered. That takes listening. But that is a completely subjective determination at that point not on based on anything other than how each thinks something sounds which is not a reliable indicator alone of what another will think."

You're kind of saying the opposite thing here. The fact that you need to listen to an amp to evaluate its subjective qualities, suggests that the specs are not nearly enough to be accurate. I agree.

Zd,

We are in agreement. Maybe I didn't state it clearly.

I'm just saying that it IS possible to make a recommendation without hearing a particular product based on specs.

ALso that if I hear and like a combo does not mean someone else will and vice versa.

So its an exercise in problem solving that can be tackled in different ways to make progress effectively towards ones end goal.

Alright, I'll give it to you. A recommendation can be made by looking at a spec sheet. Its not something that I would feel comfortable doing myself, but I won't try to force my way on someone else.

By the way, I've been reading up on brain surgery. I know that I can do it just as well as any doctor, so if anyone needs some work done, I'm the guy to see. I'll do it for half of whatever a doctor quotes you.

The point is spec sheets can be and often are useful tools for identifying viable candidates that will most likely PERFORM WELL TOGETHER case by case.

What sounds best, especially after a certain point, is purely a matter of opinion.

Of course some specs and opinions are better than others. The game is to try to find the good ones.

So one can choose their poisons I suppose, but it is what it is. Hopefully the specs reflect that to some reliable degree.

FWIW I also hesitate to recommend something I have not heard but I will do it if someone needs an opinion bad enough in lieu of anything better.

For example if a product or company fits teh bill on paper AND has many positive reviews out there or has been around for awhile and is a proven commodity, there is lower risk. I might cite that with the qualification that I have not heard if someone finds that useful.

Again its all in the information available and how well one is able to synthesis it.

Whether anyone listens or not is a matter mostly of trust, which ideally must be earned.

But yeah, in the end nobody ever knows exactly until they hear it. i will never recommend that anything necessarily sounds the best other than IMHO.

ZD, I might trust your recommendations for hifi gear but I"m afraid I will pass for now on the brain surgery although I'm sure anyone would find some room for improvement there if they looked. :^)

I agree with your last post, but you did say this.

"Specs are the only metrics one has to decide what to try when it comes to picking an amp for speakers or siource or preamp to use with an amp. You make a sound recommendation by matching specs."

To me, its sounds like a pretty rigid statement. If you didn't mean it as such, that's fine. Sometimes our posts don't always come out the way we intend them. But one thing I'll add to the specs issue is that I don't always trust them. When you are talking amp specs, there's no set standard the industry uses to measure in the first place. If, for example, you took 5 different amps from 5 different manufacturers all rated for the same power and measured them all the same way, you'll get different amounts for each amp.

So I think we both agree that specs can be used as a guide, but for best results listening tests should also be done.