Should you voice an opinion if you never heard the gear

Kingrex

Kingrex

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Seattle Washington USA
I guess I'm maturing and trying to watch what I say. As such, It is starting to bother me when people say things like, a PC can't sound good, it has to be a Mac. Or USB is no good, it has to be Ethernet. Maybe a MM cartridge is nothing compares to MC. What bothers me is the people who make these statements seem to do so because they did a lot of reading, came to a conclusion, bought something and liked it, The problem is they now say everything else is crap, It's really a disservice to the whole audio community to make broad statements that have no personal verification behind it. Most have never heard "A Good EXAMPLE " of what they bash. They may have heard a bad installation. I heard a Micro Rendu with Ifi PS and thought it was not so good. I would never say from that experience Ethernet it no good. I still say I assume a Signature Rendu SE is probably a very fine player. I have repeated statements from others that Windows 2016 sound better than Linux. Ok, bad on me. Maybe I should just say I have had 7 and 2016 and much prefer 2016. I gather Linux done right is good on my machine. When I have it upgraded I will probably pay for a duel boot to judge for myself.

Anyhow, my point, to me it seems disrespectful to start blathering on like an expert with no actual experience or knowledge of what your talking about. It would be more prudent to just say, I have this and it sounds darn fine. I did this to that and got the following results. Those are helpful comments. The alternate makes sharing and reading threads in these forum kind of unfun. Nothing of a benefit to help me improve my system. And that is why I am here. I am looking for real knowledge. I'm not hear to listen to unsubstantiated opinions.
 
Kingrex - I think the one thing you will find with Audioshark, which is kind of ironic, is that the people on here have heard a lot, do have a lot of experience, yet still know enough to realize everything matters - room, power, etc. and really are pretty tame when it comes to blanket statements. Can USB beat Ethernet? ABSOLUTELY! The USB implementation on the Lampizator beats their Ethernet implementation for example.

I get a chuckle out of reading some of the other sites because many of the folks have no clue what they're talking about. They simply read what someone else wrote and then regurgitate. Or when someone says "all horn speakers sound bright and forward" and then proceeds to assume every horn speaker in the world sounds the way they remember the 1969 Klipsch Horns they heard once, 45 years ago. Frankly, they don't know what is right or best for you in your room and with your speakers. There is no substitution for experiencing things yourself.

I'm amazed every day when a customer walks into the store and prefers X over Y. The next guy walks in and picks Y over X. It all comes down to personal taste. There is nothing wrong with one person liking a forward sounding system that has "bite" and another liking a rolled off, laid back, veiled system.
 
When I don't have any personal experience, I relay what I read or heard, or point them to a thread here like I just did with the So Many DACs thread. Someone wanted to know if Vintage DACs sounded as good as today's, I pointed them to the MSB :) Someone thought it was $85 because they missed the K and got all excited.
 
Shadowfax said:
When I don't have any personal experience, I relay what I read or heard, or point them to a thread here like I just did with the So Many DACs thread. Someone wanted to know if Vintage DACs sounded as good as today's, I pointed them to the MSB :) Someone thought it was $85 because they missed the K and got all excited.
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LOL. You should hear some of the calls I get. One guy called wanting a VPI Avenger TT. His wife was in the background saying "tell him we want the good one. Get the good one."
When he found out it was over $10,000 there was lots of "woooo boy...wow...just to play old records?" I said to him, "I wouldn't play old records unless they're in good shape", he said, "well, what kind of records should I play?" - "new ones" I said. He couldn't believe they were still making records.
 
Kingrex.......I agree with you about not being interested in unsubstantiated opinions. A lot of what gets regurgitated on forums is hearsay, and often parroted as fact. It gets old and boring quick. I prefer to gain my understanding of equipment performance from first hand experience. Even when you read of others first hand experiences, you are still seeing it through their filter, their opinion, and hence not the same as what may be your experience with the same gear. Nothing beats hands on experience.
 
Mike said:
LOL. You should hear some of the calls I get. One guy called wanting a VPI Avenger TT. His wife was in the background saying "tell him we want the good one. Get the good one."
When he found out it was over $10,000 there was lots of "woooo boy...wow...just to play old records?" I said to him, "I wouldn't play old records unless they're in good shape", he said, "well, what kind of records should I play?" - "new ones" I said. He couldn't believe they were still making records.
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That's a riot, Mike.

I can't believe you can buy any of 7 or so TTs at Marshalls Home Goods as well as a few at Bed Bath & Beyond.
 
I agree 100% that you should not blabber information across the forums about a product unless you have first hand experience with it in your system! This means that if you stepped into a room at a audio show and spent 20 minutes listening to unfamiliar music does not make you an audiophile expert on that equipment. What do they call that "drive by reviews?"
 
I see it lots where people have no experience and make comments. I generally won't comment unless I've heard it in one or more of my systems or systems belonging to friends which I'm familiar with. Even going to audio shows, I've heard things I like or don't care for but with a different room and different system than I'm used to I can only offer basic generalizations as to what I liked or did not like.
 
jdandy said:
Kingrex.......I agree with you about not being interested in unsubstantiated opinions. A lot of what gets regurgitated on forums is hearsay, and often parroted as fact. It gets old and boring quick. I prefer to gain my understanding of equipment performance from first hand experience. Even when you read of others first hand experiences, you are still seeing it through their filter, their opinion, and hence not the same as what may be your experience with the same gear. Nothing beats hands on experience.
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So true Dan, everyone has a filter. And as Mike said, some like it bright with bite and other roles with veil. There is nothing like hearing it for yourself. Even more so in your own system.

Of course I still read alot. I do find good nuggets that I apply to my system. I don't think I would be where I am at without the solid experiences people have shared here and on other sites.
 
AJ Soundfield said:
Youtube is my holy grail
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I agree, I love to see them unbox it and talk about the packaging without commenting on the sound. There is nothing quite like the sound of $250,000 speakers coming from my $35 Harmon Kardons. Glorious.

How can we talk about something we listen to with out ever hearing it? I try not to form a bias based on one event like a show but its a starting point. I've been able to find forum members with similar equipment that allow me to hear their systems to help make more informed choices.

Dave
 
I cannot believe anyone is even considering making an objective opinion on the sound quality of a component by listening to a YouTube video.
 
Kingrex said:
AJ, Why do you like YouTube. I have never understood how I should interpret what I hear on YouTube. I get it to show how to do something. The video asking me to listen to a new speaker, amp whatever, how do I interpret that.
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Looks like sometimes emojis are needed...
 
My sarcasm detector went off when I read AJ's post, but it could have been a false alarm, he, is, a bit strange.

Kingrex said:
AJ, Why do you like YouTube. I have never understood how I should interpret what I hear on YouTube. I get it to show how to do something. The video asking me to listen to a new speaker, amp whatever, how do I interpret that.
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Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I get accused of using too many emojis, so I leave one off what should have been obvious...
 
Well you never know. Showing off gear on YouTube Is pretty pervasive. I always wonder when people are all serious stating something such as listen to how these speaker cables differ.
 
Well, my statement about a MQA phone not ringing was a joke also, just in case anyone's wondering.
 
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