Stereophiles editor Jim Austin publicly disagreeing with Kal Rubinson

[ahofer]

I'm going to guess that many, if not the vast majority, of folks who spend time/energy posting on forums (such as this one) in order to correct perceived audio disinformation, are NOT also simultaneously going to bunk medical science and anti-conspiracy forums to support truth in those areas. WHY?

In theory, we should all be feeding people in Africa and spending every last penny on malaria nets. But we aren't. WHY?

Utilitarianism doesn't scale.

edit: Here's the conversation I was thinking of re. utilitarianism: https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/william-macaskill/

 

[preload]

I am nearly convinced that Chinese food is the superior food for flavor and variety. I worked a upscale Chinese restaurant as I went through college. I washed dishes there for 2.5 years and after the first day the chef and owner Ken advised me that if I do not stay for the free lunch and dinner with the staff I would not be working there for long. So I said OK and I never missed a meal and what meals they where! I ate crab 3 times a week, duck all the time, a huge variety of different entrees and the most delicious soups and steamed fish. I have never eaten as well in my life and considering that I made decent tips from the waitresses for helping them when they where over run with customers, got full time or more hours and was paid on time every time I had little to complain about.

That would have been my dream job. I'll work for food.

 

[restorer-john]

When I was servicing gear as a tech every once in awhile speaker or RCA cables came in with issues and most of the time it was teeth marks that gave away the story. One set of them was very expensive and the owner was peeved that his cables where ruined and he wanted to know if we could make something from them and we simply said there are teeth marks all along the cable and there is nothing to salvage. I had a ferret but it left the cables alone and went for the woofers. So I made from 1/2" wire mesh for fencing grills that kept the ferret from the woofers. I almost killed it but I held myself back and simply locked it in it's large cage till I rectified the issue with the metal grills.

My cat Julio has been making a meal of speaker cables. Everytime I cut, re-terminate and put them back, he gets to them again. This morning I lost it- he'd pulled off the covers and munched on some cables I just rebuilt last week. I've cut off maybe 3M per side- they are basically too short now.

Anyway, he's outside on the veranda and in my bad books.

 

[Doodski]

That would have been my dream job. I'll work for food.

I scored with that job. It was entry level but I was young and just needed to pay the bills, feed & educate myself. The restaurant and the chef Ken took care of the feeding me for 2.5 years. I feasted everyday on traditional Chinese food. There was no hiding it we all pigged out and it was expected of us to feast and leave nothing remaining on the lazy susan.

 

[ahofer]

My cat Julio has been making a meal of speaker cables. Everytime I cut, re-terminate and put them back, he gets to them again. This morning I lost it- he'd pulled off the covers and munched on some cables I just rebuilt last week. I've cut off maybe 3M per side- they are basically too short now.

Anyway, he's outside on the veranda and in my bad books.

We need a shrink wrap fitting that is seasoned with ghost peppers.

Shoot, maybe we could argue that high heat content in cable wrapping increases the spiciness of your tunes, has synergies with blander speakers, and sell it at a huge mark up.

 

[Doodski]

My cat Julio has been making a meal of speaker cables. Everytime I cut, re-terminate and put them back, he gets to them again. This morning I lost it- he'd pulled off the covers and munched on some cables I just rebuilt last week. I've cut off maybe 3M per side- they are basically too short now.

Anyway, he's outside on the veranda and in my bad books.

Whatever you do don't exterminate the cat...lol. You'll regret it later.

 

[restorer-john]

Whatever you do don't exterminate the cat...lol. You'll regret it later.

There's not much that makes me angrier than having carefully terminated, heatshrunk and identical lengths of cables covered in bite marks. The copper instantly goes black/green from the cat saliva and if he bites test cables, they are basically useless. He ruined a set of four XLR cables I had made recently and I nearly handed him back to the RSPCA!

So, every cable is covered, bagged, hidden etc. I have threatened to leave a permanently live 240V cable sitting there as a trap, but I couldn't do it. It might kill him. He's my little buddy and yes, very naughty at times. I figure if we want a semi-tamed wild animal with sharp teeth and claws like needles, we have to put up with damage.

 

[Doodski]

semi-tamed wild animal

Some are convinced they are still wild and tolerate us. The idea about some hot sauce or some sort of bittering agent might work for a repeat offender cat.

 

[restorer-john]

The idea about some hot sauce or some sort of bittering agent might work for a repeat offender cat.

I tried one of those anti-cat bittering agents with my last cat. I still have a reminder that didn't work:

My Hakko silicone soldering station iron-lead...

 

[Doodski]

I tried one of those anti-cat bittering agents with my last cat. I still have a reminder that didn't work:

View attachment 244293

My Hakko silicone soldering station iron-lead...

Wowzer. That's a cat hack job for sure.

 

[JSmith]

I thought cables tasted just like chicken...

Nah... they taste like tasty wheat.

On this rabbit tangent, maybe cable companies can start testing their cables by seeing if rabbits can chew through them and if they find them tasty. Then they can claim they have been real world tested, rank them by chew time and taste appeal. To further claim listening impressions, "the cables that tasted better sounded better" and "the cables that were harder to chew through lifted veils" etc. etc.


JSmith

 

[Ken1951]

One needs to fill in the ASR quiet time with something flavorful and intriguing for subject matter. Food is a good subject.

Beats the hell out of "you guys never listen to music" trolls!

 

[Killingbeans]

But let me ask a follow up question, which is where I was actually going with this - we all have finite amounts of time and energy to spend on things. I'm going to guess that many, if not the vast majority, of folks who spend time/energy posting on forums (such as this one) in order to correct perceived audio disinformation, are NOT also simultaneously going to bunk medical science and anti-conspiracy forums to support truth in those areas. WHY? It doesn't seem rationale/logical for these individuals to spend their time/energy on correcting misinformation about something of little consequence (audio tweaks) vs misinformation that could be far more costly to society and the health and well-being of the country/planet.

It's because the audio hobby is something we hold near and dear to our hearts. As you say, we have a finite amounts of time and energy to spend in our lifetime. It's natural to focus it on things we are passionate about. Besides, it takes expertise in a field to keep it somewhat clean from BS. All corners of science have their own fights against misinformation, and they all have their own more or less unsung heroes who have the specific knowledge needed to keep the worst avalanches of nonsense at bay.

Putting a spotlight on the ridiculousness of audio tweaks might not be the most noble of causes, but at least I can participate without talking too much out of my behind

 

[Somafunk]

I suppose, yes. Perhaps I'm just not willing to engage. I'm aware that cables really don't make a difference unless they are frayed or a cat was chomping on them. BTW, I once had a cat that would chew on various cables in the house, even lamp cords. Sometimes right through them - I could never figure out how that cat never fried!

Rabbits are worse. Trust me.

Nah, chinchillas are the worst, I had two of them and they loved cables, houseplants, skirting boards, leather sofas and basically anything that couldn’t escape from their gnashers, not the easiest thing to catch either as they seem to operate in a 4th dimension when it comes to movement as they bounce off walls, land, reverse direction, bounce off other walls appear on the table then whooomph!…….disappear at will.

 

[xaxxon]

Primare A35.8 8-channel power amplifier

Back in 1999, while reviewing the Wazoo integrated amplifier from Bow Technologies, I learned that its designer and company founder, Bo Christensen, had previously founded another audio company. That's how I discovered Primare. Over the years, various products from Primare have appeared at audio...

www.stereophile.com

This comment is amazing:

> you're not telling us what it sounds like, you're telling us what the combination of your ears, eyes, brain and all the sighted cognitive biases that entails thinks it sounds like.

 

[Axo1989]

Nah, chinchillas are the worst, I had two of them and they loved cables, houseplants, skirting boards, leather sofas and basically anything that couldn’t escape from their gnashers, not the easiest thing to catch either as they seem to operate in a 4th dimension when it comes to movement as they bounce off walls, land, reverse direction, bounce off other walls appear on the table then whooomph!…….disappear at will.

I didn't know they were kept as pets, very cool animals (I guess Scotland would be a better climate for them than Sydney). But as it happens:

The chinchilla is the traditional animal model for most types of research related to the ear, specifically, hearing loss and otitis media. The chapter discusses all the different experimental models such as the models related to aural diseases, models related to hearing loss, and the models of aural pathologic conditions associated with hearing loss. The chinchilla inner ear anatomy and ear physiology are similar to humans. The chinchilla ear has three turns in the cochlea, a tubotympanum that shares similar anatomy with that of humans. Chinchillas have been used to develop models of single pathogen-induced otitis media and are the predominant host and considered the gold standard. Several new areas of research using chinchillas are being developed. Chinchillas continue to be important models for ear-related research and play critical roles due to their specific attributes, despite the trend toward mouse models.

No more text at that link sadly. But when we run a poll for ASR mascot, I'm voting for them.

 

[preload]

There is a third one seen in this thread: apologize for it by claiming it’s not your money to spend and matters very little by comparing to fraud elsewhere where it can be deadly.

But that's just the thing - it's not your money! Why does it matter to you if people want to spend their money on things they think will make their system sound better but actually don't? Did they ASK you to help them understand controlled, blinded listening tests? Do you really think the vast majority of audiophiles outside of ASR really care that much about controlled, blinded listening tests?

What do you think would bring the average audiophile more joy and happiness: a) spending $1,000 on a cable that makes them perceive an improvement in their sound system (irrespective of an actual improvement), or b) you telling that audiophile that he just wasted $1,000 and that you can prove it, and that he should call up his friends to tell them he was wrong about the $1,000 cable and he got fooled.

Whereas, when misinformation in other domains threatens the health and well-being of your family and your neighbors, that *IS* your problem.

You see the difference?

 

[Deleted member 21219]

Whereas, when misinformation in other domains threatens the health and well-being of your family and your neighbors, that *IS* your problem.

You've mentioned this vague threat before. Could you tell us what, exactly, is this "misinformation in other domains" that "threatens the health and well-being of your family and neighbors?"

Jim

 

[preload]

In theory, we should all be feeding people in Africa and spending every last penny on malaria nets. But we aren't. WHY?

Utilitarianism doesn't scale.

edit: Here's the conversation I was thinking of re. utilitarianism: https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/william-macaskill/

Ah, but I'm not making the utilitarianism argument, which would be that people in general should be spending time fighting misinformation of greater detriment to broader society instead of audio misinformation. My point is that people can choose to get behind whatever cause they choose to because it's THEIR time and THEIR energy - so if someone wants to fight audio disinformation and not medical science misinformation, that's THEIR right, and it doesn't have to be rational or make sense to other people. LIKEWISE, if an audiophile wants to spend HIS money to buy tweaks that HE thinks will make a difference after reading whatever information source he chooses, that's HIS right to do so, even though it makes no sense and seems wasteful to us.

 

[preload]

You've mentioned this vague threat before. Could you tell us what, exactly, is this "misinformation in other domains" that "threatens the health and well-being of your family and neighbors?"

Jim

Do you REALLY not know, Jim? If you really don't, use the search terms "misinformation and harm" in Google, and the first page of hits will be what you're looking for.