Audiophily and audiofoolery notes: Difference between revisions
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There are many audiophiles that have preferences ''regardless'' over whether there is truth to it. | |||
I'm not here to frustrate over them. See [[Brandolini's law]]. | |||
And the audiophiles are happy ''regardless'' of reality, because that's how [[confirmation bias]] works. | |||
I am even a little envious of that. | |||
When it comes to audiophily, there are a lot of claims that are pure nonsense. | |||
But a lot more of it is ''based'' in something real, but on a gliding scale of misunderstood and/or exagerrated so most of them them | |||
that the actual statement is nonsense. | |||
Or it's real but has completely negligible effect | |||
Or it's real but improving it is contingent on rebuilding your house. | |||
Or it's real but it requires sitting unmovably in the perfect spot. | |||
Or it's real but it's such diminishing returns that the first 50 bucks makes more difference than the next 10000. | |||
: Because sure, the ''cheapest'' devices are only there to make a sound at all -- the cheapest of ''anything'' is generally not good -- but we've had decades to do refine "doing the thing halfway decently" so that it isn't that much more expensive anymore. | |||
Diminishing returns means | |||
: Do things still get better? A little. | |||
: Do things get more expensive? A lot. | |||
Or it's real but it's not the largest issue your setup currently has. | |||
This seems most valuable to me: figure out what the weakest link is. | |||
Most of us just guess, because a lot of things are hard to measure ''or'' reason out. | |||
But I'm gonna try. | |||
Because maybe it turns out the reverb in your room has more effect than most technical details and a piece of cloth fixes that. | |||
Or maybe not. | |||
I'd like to know. | |||
Because I don't mind a decent audio system -- it's just not my identity, or my moneypit hobby, and also I don't have the disposable income. | |||
People will differ in how much disposable income you want to throw at the diminishing returns. | |||
''I'm'' not, but if you're doing to do that, wouldn't you like to know what the money is best thrown at? | |||
Any salesperson out to sell you the thing with the bigger number is not going to think like that, so we're on our own here. | |||
As far as I can tell, | |||
: there are a handful of things you can get for ''free'' just by knowing them, | |||
: after which ''can'' usefully spend a few hundred bucks before the largest issue becomes your room, | |||
: and ''maybe'' a few thousand before it's your head (positioning and such), | |||
: and then ''in'' your head (believing nonsense marketing, or inventing your own). | |||
Beyond ''that'' point madness lies. | |||
And ''well'' before that, you will find the slippiest technobabble since star trek TOS, | |||
except in utter earnesty, about real-world physics that is entirely verifiable. | |||
'''Point is: this is only here to convince myself, not anyone else.''' | |||
And it is ''definitely'' in an opinionated according-to-''me'' page, | |||
and the list is too long to do thorough research on everything. | |||
'''Not everything is valued properly''' | |||
In my research I found a plethora of poop out there, | |||
so I am biased to be very critical stance by default - and to be fair, sometimes more than merited. | |||
The true stuff will often take longer to get to me, | |||
and some ratings may rise over time as I understand the subtleties | |||
people are not very good at explaining. | |||
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Latest revision as of 12:30, 27 April 2024