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The Science of Persuasion in the Audio Industry | Tentative

NorthSky

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I've read a post in another audio forum of the Open Public Internet, and I thought it was quite interesting, by Amir himself. Here's the main quote:


"I have to cite Damasio himself from preface to later revisions of his book:

"Based on my study of neurological patients who had both defects of decision-making and a disorder of emotion, I advanced the hypothesis and emotion was in the loop of reason, and that emotion could assist the reasoning process rather than necessarily disturb it, as was commonly assumed.

[…]

Finally, I never suggested that emotion was a substitute for reasoning, but in some superficial versions of the work it sounded as if I was proposing that if you follow your heart instead of your reason all would be well.

[..]

Reasoning does what emotions do but achieves it knowingly. Reasoning gives us the option of thinking smartly before we act smart, and a good thing too: it is apparent that the emotions alone can solve many – but not all – the problems posed by our complex environment and that, on occasion, the solutions offered by emotion are actually counterproductive."

Starting at the top, we see that he himself is data driven. His entire thesis relies on researching patients who have lost the ability to feel emotion. Without that data he would be nowhere. The rest is scorning those who abused his work making it look like we should just be emotions beings.

The last bit is what we are dealing with in this thread and hobby: "complex environment." With vast majority of audiophiles not being engineers or scientist and hence not knowing what ticks inside these devices, this hobby is very complex. Data brings clarity to it, cuts through emotional influences that color and distort it, and helps us have a compass that shows us the true north with respect to our ultimate goal of fidelity.

On the other hand emotions are responsible for the unprofessional conduct, specifically name calling and such which we have witnessed in this thread. If you cherish those, then fine but I do not.

Finally, I am familiar with this work because it is at the heart of marketing to consumers. We (marketing) want to sway consumers using their emotions instead of letting them use logic which may cause them to buy a different product. Apple is incredibly good about this. They put a lot of money in the box that their product comes in. No one uses the box after they buy the product so at first it seems like wasted expense. But research shows that you emotionally capture the user with this good "out of box experience" (OOBE), and from then on, they are likely to be less critical. It is what brand advertising is about, etc.

Of course marketing is the enemy of what we are trying to do here. We don't want to buy an audio product based on marketing and appeal to our emotions instead of the device performing well. So be aware of Damasio work, very aware, but not in the context of deciding what is or is not a good audio product." - Amir
_____

I highlighted the part I find most interesting and with definitive truth attached to it, in a balanced assessment.
In my oppinion it applies to many audio products; loudspeakers, DACs, amplifiers, preamps, cables, turntables, CD players, etc.

I want to put the emphasis on "balance", in the sense of overall accurate/fair analysis. And in the ultimate goal of sound quality performance and stable operation over a reasonable amount of time. Because in electronics some parts are due to failed over time.

Now, a good presentation we all love. Example: If a product is attractive and pleasant to the eyes and well built inside out it will have already a very high percentage of its selling power...persuasion. ...Generally, and for most people.
Of course there are exceptions influenced by monetary budgets and others like awareness.

This is a discussion, not the bible in audio. A discussion about marketing, persuasion; the tricks and specs, the truths and deceptions, the all system operations and overall ultimate sound quality real life performance.

Everything is important, all details, retails, prices, comparison between various audio products selling the same set of audio applications, be it a mechanical system reproducer (speakers), a phono preamp, a CD/SACD multichannel player, an A/V receiver, a Music Server, a pair of headphones, a Blu-ray player, a turntable, a separate DAC, a Surround Sound Processor (SSP), a TV (4K OLED or LED or QLED), a 4K front projector (PJ), any electronic product even including Computers, Tablets, Smartphones, ...all.

How are we persuaded and how effective is it. How do we make the right choices, who do we trust, how do we keep perpetually in touch with everyday's reality, how do we apply the rules of common sense, how to pick the right audio products that fit/match our system (other components of the chain) @ home so that everything is impeccably synergistic; meaning it works optimally to a balanced drum rhythm. ...Without losing a single beat.

And, how do we evaluate all the details for all the different features for different people.
And, who's ears and eyes are the most accurate for the most objective set of evaluations.

Is the power of persuasion taking over the power of calibration?

This is a free discussion, for everyone, with or without experience, valid or not opinion, in search of ...
No money is required to exchange ideas and opinions, rich and poor can share, what do you think sells today?

This is a tentative. It is not the laws of the bible written in stones ten billion light years ago by the last inhabitant living on the lost continent under the Indian Ocean. There is nothing to fear, everything to gain and all.


 
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