The pain of being a member of ASR

[delta76]

Despite ASR has gained big popularity over the years, the world we live in is still full of audiophools. Many of them are, sadly, our friends. It's not enough to unfriend them over their belief in things that we believe are non senses/snake oils, but it's sometimes painful to see what they do or hear what they say about audio.
Today a friend of mine reach out and told me that he got a new silver USB C to USB C, and claimed it brings a lot of clarity to the sound. the harshness he had before was gone.
If I hadn't been on ASR, it was probably fine for me. But now it is so painful to read what he says

It was never a better time for this gif

 

[AdamG]

Despite ASR has gained big popularity over the years, the world we live in are still full of audiophools. Many of them are, sadly, our friends. It's not enough to unfriend them over their belief in things that we believe are non senses/snake oils, but it's sometimes painful to see what they do or hear what they say about audio.
Today a friend of mine reach out and told me that he got a new silver USB C to USB C, and claimed it brings a lot of clarity to the sound. the harshness he had before was gone.
If I hadn't been on ASR, it was probably fine for me. But now it is so painful to read what he says

It was never a better time for this gif
View attachment 330903

Challenge him to a friendly Blind Test. Make it just a friendly bet. Offer to come over to his place and do some blind swapping of USB cables and he gets to tell you what one is connected. If he can get 9 out of 10 then he can hear the difference. If he can’t, well he can’t. Randomly switching out USB cable should be pretty easy to do. You just have to come up with a method that will blind him to knowing what cable is connected. Dark room or maybe just as simple as a good blindfold. Good luck and make fun with it. You don’t want to lose a friend over this. At least I don’t think you should anyhow.

 

[Killingbeans]

I normally just smile and nod. Especially when talking to "authority figures". Nothing good will come from talking reason to them. They will automatically perceive it as a personal attack, and I'd rather avoid the conflict.

Instead I vent to my bluetooth speaker/soundbar loving "normie" friends. Ironically, they have much more of the "open mind", that people in the hobby often claim to have

 

[Deleted member 21219]

We can't control what other people do or say. We can only control our reactions. In my opinion, a "just and noble cause" has been the reason behind more misery in the history of the human race than anything else.

If they're your friends, just let it go. Good friends aren't a dime a dozen, y'know.

Jim

 

[Purité Audio]

Tar and feather him.
Keith

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Response: Smile and say, "Great, I'm glad you like it."

 

[Puddingbuks]

I have had to put up with many many individuals throughout my life who made al kinds of nonsense claims over a wide variety of subjects.

- people believing that the government poisoned us all with planes, the chemtrails
- people believing in different gods
- people claiming that the government / big oil has devices which can make energy out of nothing
- people who believe in miracles, like a miracle cure against diseases
- people who say evolution theory is just a theory (well you know man, that’s just your opinion)
- people believing that big pharma is withholding a cure for cancer to continu making money

I smile and move on.

 

[sweetchaos]

 

[DVDdoug]

Or tell him, "My ears aren't that good", or maybe that it shouldn't make a difference, or that most people won't hear the difference.

But you could save him a lot of future money (and foolishness) if you do the blind listening test so he'll be more skeptical of his own hearing.

 

[DSJR]

I'd go with the 'Glad you like it' vibe myself - but knowing me, there's some 'do as I say, not as i do' in there as well.

I asked a simple question as regards USB cable differences a couple of days ago and got educated responses that actually, some USB cables are S*** and others not, certainly when it comes to power transmission as evidenced in a recent review here. The difference here though is that the OP's pal no doubt spent a lot of money on a 'silver wired' one, when a properly specified copper one can be got for not very much money and would be identical in terms of data transfer!

 

[HarmonicTHD]

I think ASR needs to provide a “counseling corner” to the regular ones ;-).

Reading the nonsense and either responding or actively ignoring it sometimes takes some considerable energy out of you.

This thread might be a first good start

 

[Keith_W]

I had a friend whom I met 30 years ago when we were both in university. We both loved hi-fi and shared the same interests, but he was always the opposite of me. My system was all digital, his was vinyl. I shot with Canon, he was Nikon. I shot with digital, he remained with film (even buying a medium format camera). I was PC, he was Mac. And later I was on Android, and he was on iOS. I cook using modern techniques, he was a strict traditionalist. I liked Italian cars, he liked German (he was right on this one though, DON'T buy an Italian car!). And of course, our differences extended down to politics and religion.

We used to have ridiculous arguments and vicious disagreements about everything, down to insulting each other's intelligence, especially if we have had a bit to drink.

Needless to say, when my outlook on this hobby became more objective, we had arguments about that, too. But despite our ... er ... robust disagreements, we remained good friends. I don't care if people disagree, I care that they can construct intelligent arguments and back it up with logic, reason, and evidence. At least we had that in common, even though in my opinion many of his stances could not be backed up by evidence.

Our disagreement on motorcycles was ended when he sadly he passed away almost 10 years ago from a motorcycle accident. I thought it was unsafe and he would make his wife a widow, and I wept real tears when I was proven right in the most awful way. I still feel emotional thinking about it.

I don't have friends like that any more. Most people seem sensitive to disagreement, and as soon as they ask me about my system, the jig is up.

 

[ahofer]

Typical day on ASR:

A. This DAC is much more transparent/these cables definitely sound better/the difference between these amps is night and day

B. That's impossible/highly unlikely/did you do a blind test?/assertions are worthless why even say this?

A. WTF?/doubles down/accuses ASR of being hostile


Everyone is throwing turds in each others' punch bowls. But this is the ASR punch bowl. I don't waste my time at Audiogon, but if I wanted to prattle on about some way my eyes and brain tricked me and get huzzahs, I'd go over there.

 

[rdenney]

Challenge him to a friendly Blind Test. Make it just a friendly bet. Offer to come over to his place and do some blind swapping of USB cables and he gets to tell you what one is connected. If he can get 9 out of 10 then he can hear the difference. If he can’t, well he can’t. Randomly switching out USB cable should be pretty easy to do. You just have to come up with a method that will blind him to knowing what cable is connected. Dark room or maybe just as simple as a good blindfold. Good luck and make fun with it. You don’t want to lose a friend over this. At least I don’t think you should anyhow.

Nobody wants to see their money spent foolishly. Another way to do this same thing is to buy one yourself (from Amazon if possible for reasons I shouldn't have to go into), and then invite said friend over for advice on choosing between several cables. Then, conduct the blind test when it isn't his money at stake. Make it really blind. Ask him to take notes on what he hears as the differences. Don't tell him which cable you are using, and switch them randomly. One of the questions he is asked to answer is which cable is he listening to.

Provide adult beverages and goodies. Be appreciative of his participation. Then, conclude by saying, "Interesting--I was expecting a clear distinction but I'll tell you I can't hear the difference. Maybe it's just me. Let's look at your notes. Wow, it looks like they sounded the same to you. Gee, thanks! That helps me to clarify what I'm hearing, I really appreciate it! Interesting that this $10 Best Buy cable can't be distinguished from this $xxx silver cable--I wonder what I did wrong?" Put it all on you, and listen for the excuses.

Of course, if you have the sort of system the reviews here would lead you to, he will probably reject the whole system as having insufficient resolution to detect the differences.

Rick "Probably best to just serve the goodies and listen to music" Denney

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

Today a friend of mine reach out and told me that he got a new silver USB C to USB C, and claimed it brings a lot of clarity to the sound. the harshness he had before was gone.

And you know for a fact that the original USB cable was not defective in some way? Did the new one have a ferrite ring and the old one not? Just saying that the general case might not apply to every specific case.

It doesn't bother me when people on the internet are wrong, it doesn't bother me when people are happy with their audio. I don't need to change minds. I don't need to puncture people's placebo generated happiness.

Smile, nod, glad you like the change! That's enough before I move on.

 

[ahofer]

Smile, nod, glad you like the change! That's enough before I move on.

My philosophy as well, unless they are dropping in to make the nonsense argument here.

 

[JayGilb]

Today a friend of mine reach out and told me that he got a new silver USB C to USB C

There is a possibility that his previous cable was inadequate for powering an audio device, but highly unlikely if being used only for data transfer.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Today a friend of mine reach out and told me that he got a new silver USB C to USB C, and claimed it brings a lot of clarity to the sound. the harshness he had before was gone.

As we "know" it is probably just subjective bias on his side. But, you don't know, because you have not hear it.
Instead of asking him to do a blind test, why not ask him to hear the difference yourself, ask for a blind test so you will be sure that you will not be influenced by your subjective bias.
When you cannot hear a difference, most likely, it will maybe entice him to do the same experience. Let the blind test for him come from him.

 

[DonR]

I am not sure this forum would be of any use if it didn't raise a few hackles. We don't want a self-pleasuring echo chamber like some of the subjective forums seem to be.

 

[Anton D]

Challenge him to a friendly Blind Test. Make it just a friendly bet. Offer to come over to his place and do some blind swapping of USB cables and he gets to tell you what one is connected. If he can get 9 out of 10 then he can hear the difference. If he can’t, well he can’t. Randomly switching out USB cable should be pretty easy to do. You just have to come up with a method that will blind him to knowing what cable is connected. Dark room or maybe just as simple as a good blindfold. Good luck and make fun with it. You don’t want to lose a friend over this. At least I don’t think you should anyhow.

One of the most fun activities in the hobby!

Great answer.