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Old 29th Jan 2020, 9:40 am   #1292
Radio Wrangler
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Default Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers View Post
From the 4th Edition of the Radiotron Designer's Handbook, 1952, page 603:

"The purpose of high fidelity reproduction is to satisfy a particular listener, who is primarily interested in the emotions arising of what he hears. The complete process involves sensations and emotions which cannot be treated objectively and must bring in personal preferences and differences of opinion"
All fine and dandy with me.

But while they're doing this, they also make loud claims of rightess and accurate reproduction of the original sound which is somewhat amusing. But it's when pseudoscience gets wheeled out as justification for claimed perceptions that it gets silly.

People don't realise that in matters of personal taste, no justification or explanation is necessary. "I just like it" is factual and unassailable. The attempts at justification seem like signs of insecurity.

I built myself a silly amplifier many years ago. It's performance is far over the top in some respects. I built it this way for fun. It required no further justification. I enjoyed designing it. It still works and sits in the corner of my living room. It works sufficiently well that it vanishes. It is totally unimpressive. It wouldn't have made a good commercial product. It's hard to sell something imperceptible.

The Emperor didn't buy his new clothes because he liked the look of them, he bought into the lifestyle advertising

David
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