New Yorker piece on audiophiles

[Wes]

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/taylor-swift-wins-with-fearless-taylors-version

 

[Rockdog]

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/taylor-swift-wins-with-fearless-taylors-version

Pass the molasses.

 

[Mart68]

Speaking of audiophile writing, I was just reading a speaker review and came across this paragraph:

"They are one of the most involving loudspeakers on the market and music comes across with feeling and great emotional connection. That is probably the most important aspect of their design. That level of emotional connection with the music."

This is the kind of audio writing that drives me nuts!
.

Yes me too. And regrettably this is a tendency that has spread from the 'professional' reviewer to the reports of the ordinary enthusiast. 'Emotional connection' is now the marker that separates the good equipment from the also-rans and it is just completely meaningless.

Exactly what parameter of the design of the DAC, what particular quirk in the frequency response of the loudspeaker, did the designer manipulate in order to create this emotional connection which others did not do?

Could he tell you if you asked him? He might bullshit as he's got product to shift, but if he was honest? Of course not.

I think the professional writers know this is nonsense but they are paid to write a puff-piece and what else are they going to say? 'Doesn't sound appreciably different to the competing item I reviewed last month?' They'd be out of a job. So it's understandable. The problem is that this tendency to write nonsense then influences the reports of the ordinary enthusiast too.

 

[Mart68]

My favourite is power cable reviews. I can imagine the feeling a staff writer must have when the editor says to him 'I'm sending you the new 'Quantum Five' $1000 power cable, give me 500 words on it.'

What to say? What do you write to fill up that 500 words when there is literally nothing you can say of any meaning? And you can feel that when you read the review, you can practically see the the writer sat at his desk, cup of coffee gone cold, staring out the window, still three hundred more words required to complete the piece.

I suppose it's better than working in a warehouse but it must be very hard nonetheless.

 

[ahofer]

My favourite is power cable reviews. I can imagine the feeling a staff writer must have when the editor says to him 'I'm sending you the new 'Quantum Five' $1000 power cable, give me 500 words on it.'

What to say? What do you write to fill up that 500 words when there is literally nothing you can say of any meaning? And you can feel that when you read the review, you can practically see the the writer sat at his desk, cup of coffee gone cold, staring out the window, still three hundred more words required to complete the piece.

I suppose it's better than working in a warehouse but it must be very hard nonetheless.

Review a few inches at a time.

 

[SIY]

Review a few inches at a time.

I need to ask my wife about this.

 

[mhardy6647]

I need to ask my wife about this.

rimshot!

 

[Mart68]

 

[rdenney]

My favourite is power cable reviews. I can imagine the feeling a staff writer must have when the editor says to him 'I'm sending you the new 'Quantum Five' $1000 power cable, give me 500 words on it.'

What to say? What do you write to fill up that 500 words when there is literally nothing you can say of any meaning? And you can feel that when you read the review, you can practically see the the writer sat at his desk, cup of coffee gone cold, staring out the window, still three hundred more words required to complete the piece.

I suppose it's better than working in a warehouse but it must be very hard nonetheless.

Run it through a battery of tests and don’t make comment.

Rick “no, not a good answer” Denney

 

[JeffS7444]

Cripes! Having an emotional connection isn't of course something possessed by a speaker, and it doesn't tell me a damned thing about the sound of the speaker at all.

A foolish attempt to elevate materialistic urges to the status of a higher and nobler personal quest? I see the same thing with some popular photography bloggers who are forever looking for hardware which will allow them to enjoy the process of picture-taking more, sometimes by reducing the number of features ("distractions") so that they can be more thoughtful and contemplative. And manufacturers have a pretty good idea about how to push their buttons:

 

[Zensō]

My favourite is power cable reviews. I can imagine the feeling a staff writer must have when the editor says to him 'I'm sending you the new 'Quantum Five' $1000 power cable, give me 500 words on it.'

What to say? What do you write to fill up that 500 words when there is literally nothing you can say of any meaning? And you can feel that when you read the review, you can practically see the the writer sat at his desk, cup of coffee gone cold, staring out the window, still three hundred more words required to complete the piece.

I suppose it's better than working in a warehouse but it must be very hard nonetheless.

I suspect many of these reviewers received high marks in their creative writing courses in college.

 

[MrPeabody]

What a terrible article. I wasn't able to get very far before I had more than I could stomach. What I really did like, though, was reading some of the comments in this thread, where many people explained why the article was B.S., and in doing so revealed skill at writing and communication that was at least the equal of the dude what wrote the annoying article.

The dude made any number of outrageous claims, but with each of them he did it in an authoritative, matter-of-fact tone and then moved on to the next thing without a pause, as though the claim he had made was true by virtue of his having written it. The perfect snob, in other words. I hate to say this, but it is an attitude that is all too common and all too apparent in audio circles.

One comment about MP3 and sound quality. Correctly stated, the goal for all lossy and non-lossy encoding schemes is to obtain the highest quality of sound relative to the bit rate. That's not what I wanted to say about it. What I wanted to say is that people as old as me easily remember the era when FM was still novel, and where AM radio was still the band and modulation scheme through which the great majority of people did the great majority of their listening to electronically distributed music. As we all know, the quality of AM was pretty bad in numerous technical respects, i.e., limited bandwidth and poor S/N ratio. My sense is that even though the typical music streaming service on the Internet, using MP3, is not of perfect quality, it is still likely head and shoulders better than the horrible quality of old AM radio. I still remember hanging out at the local swimming pool in the summer, where AM top-40 radio constantly blared over a lousy PA speaker. Even though the sound quality was pitiful, everyone enjoyed it, and I don't recall ever encountering any discussion about the poor quality. Given that a typical, modern, MP3-based streaming service is much, much better, maybe it isn't as bad as we sometimes make it out to be.

 

[CSG]

A foolish attempt to elevate materialistic urges to the status of a higher and nobler personal quest? I see the same thing with some popular photography bloggers who are forever looking for hardware which will allow them to enjoy the process of picture-taking more, sometimes by reducing the number of features ("distractions") so that they can be more thoughtful and contemplative. And manufacturers have a pretty good idea about how to push their buttons:

As an amateur photography enthusiast with nearly 60 years of experience, I've said on a photo forum based around Fuji cameras (which I own and like) when it comes time for the latest upgrade that if the first gen or second gen of the camera took good images, does it not still? I own three of their cameras, two first gen that I bought new that took marvelous images. Now, while they're on the third and fourth gen cameras (which have different features, better VF, etc.), did my first gen cameras stop taking good photos? Clearly no. I see no reason to upgrade. I think it's pretty much the same as I feel about audio. Just because a manufacturer came out with a new model of my integrated, which may have some additional features, did my amp suddenly stop sounding good? No.

 

[Wes]

The New Yorker appeals to a certain audience. It is a fine magazine for what it is.

I suggest that other magazines be created for audio reviews, each of them with a distinct stylistic flair: The Brooklyner, The Sugar Hill Hop of Hip, The East Village Cable Other, and The Queens Speakah Kvetcher.

 

[JeffS7444]

I've said on a photo forum based around Fuji cameras (which I own and like) when it comes time for the latest upgrade that if the first gen or second gen of the camera took good images, does it not still?

Fujifilm knows who the bigger, more-frequent spenders are, and they're no slouches at purple prose:

Pure Photography
Something different is here. This camera turns anticipation into reality.
The texture of titanium stimulates your senses, while the unique viewfinder prompts discovery and creativity.
It brings back the desire to interact with the world through a camera,
while attaining an understanding to record it as your own for eternity. The X-Pro3 is the definition of pure photography.

You sure you're not shortchanging your life experience by not buying a new camera?

 

[MattHooper]

A foolish attempt to elevate materialistic urges to the status of a higher and nobler personal quest? I see the same thing with some popular photography bloggers who are forever looking for hardware which will allow them to enjoy the process of picture-taking more, sometimes by reducing the number of features ("distractions") so that they can be more thoughtful and contemplative. And manufacturers have a pretty good idea about how to push their buttons:

That digital photography is such a big hobby almost puzzles me. For me I've suffered a similar muting of my interest in photography to that of digital music. Digital music became so common and ubiquitous, on every device, streamed everywhere, on all the time, that it started to devalue music somewhat, in my own experience. Similarly, we are utterly flooded with images these days, everyone has a camera in their pocket, I've got too many digital photos on that device and on my computer I can't even be bothered to organize, the internet is flooding my brain with images all day long, too many to process. So for me it's harder than ever to "notice" a photo in a way that makes me stop and contemplate it.

It was entirely different for me in the days were each photo took real work to realize (I actually took photography/film in University and spent tons of time in the dark room).

 

[Leporello]

6moons has a hilarious review of a Kondo preamplifier: 6moons audio reviews:Kondo Ongaku KSL M-77

If you want to choose any particular audiophile criteria, you can tick all the boxes and anything else (with the exception of the M1000) will struggle to keep up. But as I write these words, I'm conscious that in doing so I'm completely missing the point. I can almost hear that box saying "please, that is not important. If you want to describe me, try again." The last time I was up at Definitive Audio, I was saying something and Kevin Scott suddenly said, "You've changed, Edward". Of course I sort of coughed and denied it in the way one does when caught off guard but inside something was saying "abso-bloodly-lutely I have". And so it is. In non-trivial ways. Music is an important part of my life and the way I experience it. By extension, the way I experience other aspects of life has changed too. What I've found with the M77 is that it quietly allows for, and encourages, a focussing of my inner energy much more deeply into the core of what the artist is trying to communicate. Each musical experience is far more profound and satisfying.

Then, after a predictable tea ceremony analogy:

I can think of no better analogy for the way the M77 operates. It seems to allow some of those same spaces and inner energies to connect with the music and at the same time organizes the emotional flow of the musical experience so they seem to reach more deeply. How does it affect me? I've found I relax more deeply and bits of me I didn't even know existed are now coming out into the open and are ready to become an almost active participant in the musical experience as it is unfolding. It's something about being focused and at the same time relaxed into each note or phrase, almost as I imagine meditation could be. I hunger less and am paradoxically far more satisfied. The only reason I can imagine this is happening must be because the M77 is focusing the various energies in the musical piece in ways that somehow make more emotional sense and reach deeper inside me.

 

[pozz]

Probably better pitching them a whole new article that demolishes the tired old crap that articles like this always trot out, plus the story behind this site, and how audio is being disrupted. It's a better story, but not knowing the New Yorker quite possibly not the one they want to print.

I contacted their editorial team. We'll see what they say.

 

[CSG]

Fujifilm knows who the bigger, more-frequent spenders are, and they're no slouches at purple prose:

You sure you're not shortchanging your life experience by not buying a new camera?

If you saw how many cameras and lenses I've acquired, you wouldn't ask that. Of course, there was this Leica M10...
More seriously, I'm fortunate at this stage of life that I can afford certain things I couldn't 30-40 years ago. Problem is, I no longer really want them. Like I've tried to teach my sons, it's better to know you can write a check for a Ferrari far more than it is to actually own one. I think the change happened when I left California in 1994 for Idaho. Retired, in the countryside, and no one left to impress.

 

[Robin L]

. . . Digital music became so common and ubiquitous, on every device, streamed everywhere, on all the time, that it started to devalue music somewhat, in my own experience . . .

Arthur Schnabel, the pianist/composer better known for the first recorded complete Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle than for his astonishingly difficult musical compositions, said the same of recorded music. The idea that one could hear a work at any time meant to him that people had more opportunities to be distracted, ignore the music, not give it the attention it deserved. It's a two-way street and there's plenty of people who wouldn't have become musicians without first listening to records. Those with the time, energy, mental space to take on new and different music tend to be younger.

Interesting thing about this forum, there are more opportunities to hear music that's new to me at this site than any other, and usually in better sonic representation than the music I was collecting on LPs when I was a "yout". I don't take advantage of this musical resource as much as I would have when I was 20.