KellenVancouver
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- Nov 16, 2021
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This forum is focused on technical reviews of audio (and related) equipment with its goal being impartial objectivity. To my way of thinking, objectivity and reality are synonyms. We can distort reality through subjectivity, but objective reality persists. Period. And this forum is where the veils of subjectivity get peeled away to expose the accuracy of objective reality, as evidenced by measurable outcomes. This is far and away the primary reason I'm attracted to audiosciencereview, and individually benefits me so that I may focus on purchasing the BEST audio equipment in any given audio category. I suspect that attraction is likewise shared by many other participants here.
But it occurs to me that objectivity should result in a singular answer to a question, not multiple variants. For example, 2+2=4 achieves objectivity. There is only one answer to 2+2, not multiple variants. When a question elicits multiple variants, then that seems to imply elements of subjectivity. Variant answers indicate feelings, biases, or beliefs are distorting objectivity. Isn't that what we are trying to get away from? An objective answer to a question should be singular, not plural.
If the above perspectives about objectivity are true (and they are only perspectives being shared; I am not presuming "ultimate" truth), then the logical consequence of that line of reasoning leads to an interesting outcome. If the question is which item of equipment in each audio category is objectively the BEST for us to invest in, then that question should be answerable objectively with only one result. So there should be a BEST turntable, a BEST amplifier, a BEST speaker, a BEST streamer, a BEST dac, etc. For you long-standing participants in this forum, can you objectively answer those questions?
I suspect not.
I suspect answers to BEST in each category would diverge wildly. Despite everyone's professed adherence to objectivity in this forum, I highly doubt even ten audiosciencereview members could agree on BEST in any one category, much less 20,000+ members. Perhaps the only way to achieve singular objectivity in the audio world is to reduce down to tiny little questions, such as distortion, or SINAD, or similar, but that scarcely serves to answer which is the BEST piece of equipment in a given category that deserves our money. Which seems to imply that, for that ultimate decision about where to invest our money, objectivity in the world of audio science has either not been achieved, or is unobtainable, and what unfortunately remains is the dominance of subjectivity.
But it occurs to me that objectivity should result in a singular answer to a question, not multiple variants. For example, 2+2=4 achieves objectivity. There is only one answer to 2+2, not multiple variants. When a question elicits multiple variants, then that seems to imply elements of subjectivity. Variant answers indicate feelings, biases, or beliefs are distorting objectivity. Isn't that what we are trying to get away from? An objective answer to a question should be singular, not plural.
If the above perspectives about objectivity are true (and they are only perspectives being shared; I am not presuming "ultimate" truth), then the logical consequence of that line of reasoning leads to an interesting outcome. If the question is which item of equipment in each audio category is objectively the BEST for us to invest in, then that question should be answerable objectively with only one result. So there should be a BEST turntable, a BEST amplifier, a BEST speaker, a BEST streamer, a BEST dac, etc. For you long-standing participants in this forum, can you objectively answer those questions?
I suspect not.
I suspect answers to BEST in each category would diverge wildly. Despite everyone's professed adherence to objectivity in this forum, I highly doubt even ten audiosciencereview members could agree on BEST in any one category, much less 20,000+ members. Perhaps the only way to achieve singular objectivity in the audio world is to reduce down to tiny little questions, such as distortion, or SINAD, or similar, but that scarcely serves to answer which is the BEST piece of equipment in a given category that deserves our money. Which seems to imply that, for that ultimate decision about where to invest our money, objectivity in the world of audio science has either not been achieved, or is unobtainable, and what unfortunately remains is the dominance of subjectivity.