MattHooper
Grand Contributor
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2019
- Messages
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I understand the allure that leads people to cable-mania and the various snake oil tweaks.
I think my sceptical side has allowed me to avoid what I believe to be the most egregious and implausible tweaky stuff. But I still get it.
There’s more than one way of thinking about the audio hobby. There’s the approach that tends to attract the ASR crowd, which is to simply seek neutral playback gear. You don’t want your gear to have any personality or character or sound of its own. You just want it to get out of the way and once that’s achieved, you’re not really gonna think about it.
But then there’s other people who see audio as a way of playing with sound, of seeking something bespoke, of having a sort of creative input, selecting components in a way they believe is pursuing “my sound” - the one that pleases them.
Nothing wrong with that at all in principle. It’s the same type of motivation you have all sorts of hobbies where people like modifying things to make them their own. It’s sort of the equivalent of putting flare on your bike when you were young, that leads up to perhaps somebody who’s really into modifying computers or modding cars or whatever. It’s an expression of one’s, creativity, and personality to a certain extent.
Of course, this impetus can lead to snake oil ideas like “ everything makes a difference” and so imagination starts leading the way.
But in principle, nothing inherently wrong with it IMO.
I have a foot in that old school approach. I like the idea of playing with sound (no surprise given my vocation as a sound designer for film/tv), and have used the hobby to indulge that to a degree.
I don’t really want a cookie cutter sound, commoditized to the point where if I walked into any other audiophile’s place I’d hear exactly the same sound. I like some creative input. I like striving for a certain sonic qualities that turn my crank which are really satisfying when I achieve them. I like the idea of having some level of “ bespoke” quality to my system, modest as it might be. I like coming home from listening to some other audio system turning mine on and thinking “aahh…now that’s my kind of sound!”
Ultimately, I’m glad that I don’t believe in things like AC cables and power, conditioners, and high-end cables. I’m glad that I have not put money into those things and had it to put into other aspects of my system. Sometimes I wonder if I would like it if those things made audible differences.
On one hand, maybe, if that offered another way to play with the sound of my system.
But in the end, I’m glad I don’t think so, and don’t need that rabbit hole to go down.
I think my sceptical side has allowed me to avoid what I believe to be the most egregious and implausible tweaky stuff. But I still get it.
There’s more than one way of thinking about the audio hobby. There’s the approach that tends to attract the ASR crowd, which is to simply seek neutral playback gear. You don’t want your gear to have any personality or character or sound of its own. You just want it to get out of the way and once that’s achieved, you’re not really gonna think about it.
But then there’s other people who see audio as a way of playing with sound, of seeking something bespoke, of having a sort of creative input, selecting components in a way they believe is pursuing “my sound” - the one that pleases them.
Nothing wrong with that at all in principle. It’s the same type of motivation you have all sorts of hobbies where people like modifying things to make them their own. It’s sort of the equivalent of putting flare on your bike when you were young, that leads up to perhaps somebody who’s really into modifying computers or modding cars or whatever. It’s an expression of one’s, creativity, and personality to a certain extent.
Of course, this impetus can lead to snake oil ideas like “ everything makes a difference” and so imagination starts leading the way.
But in principle, nothing inherently wrong with it IMO.
I have a foot in that old school approach. I like the idea of playing with sound (no surprise given my vocation as a sound designer for film/tv), and have used the hobby to indulge that to a degree.
I don’t really want a cookie cutter sound, commoditized to the point where if I walked into any other audiophile’s place I’d hear exactly the same sound. I like some creative input. I like striving for a certain sonic qualities that turn my crank which are really satisfying when I achieve them. I like the idea of having some level of “ bespoke” quality to my system, modest as it might be. I like coming home from listening to some other audio system turning mine on and thinking “aahh…now that’s my kind of sound!”
Ultimately, I’m glad that I don’t believe in things like AC cables and power, conditioners, and high-end cables. I’m glad that I have not put money into those things and had it to put into other aspects of my system. Sometimes I wonder if I would like it if those things made audible differences.
On one hand, maybe, if that offered another way to play with the sound of my system.
But in the end, I’m glad I don’t think so, and don’t need that rabbit hole to go down.
Plus, I really need to get me some "ultra-quiet" insulated wires - I think I can hear my neighbour's voices through my fifty dollar pair.
