Article: Why We Need Audiophiles
Reply #917 – 2009-05-04 01:42:41
You are misstating what John Mahoney experienced. Actually, what I did was provide a quote from him.Whether it was a level of reproduction, or simply a different kind of reproduction is unknown. What I actually said, which you are misstating, was, "the author experienced a level of quality of reproduction in excess of all of his prior audio experience."None of us were there and there is no logical reason to believe that his description of his experience was a perfect description of what happened. The author was there and there is no reason to believe that his description of his experience wasn't a perfect description of what happened.It has to has any number of obvious flaws that have already been discussed, and there are no doubt far more. Why does it have to have any number of obvious flaws and where were they discussed? Why are you convinced there are far more flaws and exactly what flaws would they be? Perhaps you could enlighten us?What John Mahoney experienced was a combination of audio and visual influences and perhaps other sensory influences, that he may have never experienced before, or at least never experienced in that combination before. Since we don't know exactly what he experinced, we have no reason to strive to achieve the same experience. Spoken like a true virgin. Personally, since I have no reason to suspect that Mr. Mahoney was either exaggerating or lying, I can only take his words at face value and conclude that, subjectively at least, Mr. Fremer's stereo is impressive in regards to what appears to be an average or typical listener. Aren't you into experiencing things for yourself before making judgements? I'm sorry but exactly which judgment are you alluding too? You, on the other hand, seem to be implying that my judgment lacks experience. What exactly is your basis for that implication? Have you been in Fremer's place yourself, or are you just guessing about what it would be like? Are you suggesting that only in Fremer's place could high fidelity be experienced or that I would need to guess about what it would be like? I'm not very excited about listening to vinyl on a really high-resolution system. Vinyl has a lot of inherent audible problems, and listening to vinyl on a high resoltution sytem just makes them that much more obvious. It is quite pssible that in his brief exposure to Fremer's system, there was inadequate listener training for Mahoney to notice the known audible problems with vinyl that he would surely notice later on. All of which is completely irrelevant from my perspective. I'm not talking about the source, but rather the result. In fact, the fact that Mr. Mahoney was impressed by vinyl after listening to a digital player says something about the potential of analog reproduction.It is well known that when people are put into unfamiliar environments, they don't have the same insightful and detailed perceptions and memories that people who are far more familiar with that same environment obtain. Is it well known? Can you provide a reference, or is this just your personal belief? Personally, I've always heard that "familiarity breeds contempt."