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Why has Audio (and maybe all hobbies) become so hostile?

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watchnerd

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How about classic pre-internet audio feuds fights like:

Mono vs Stereo
Tubes vs Solid State
Discrete vs Integrated Circuits
MOSFET vs Bipolar
Digital vs Analog

and my personal fave:

Do amplifiers sound the same?

AKA the Carver challenge

Audio has always been full of argumentative misanthropic dickhead nerds, as far as I can remember.
 

Foxxy

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I also feel the agressive anti-objective marketing has made a kind of schism. In the 70s, if you had excellent specs, everyone was ahhhing. HiFi meant the most accurate reproduction possible. And everyone agreed that measurements were invaluable. Well, cables aside, that madness started early.
So nowadays you have whole forums where measurement talk is basically banned, aside from "yeah, that is a nice frequency response".

It's kinda depressing.
 
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Sal1950

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Audio has always been full of argumentative misanthropic dickhead nerds, as far as I can remember.
Very true but audio is far from having an exclusive on this type of action.
Watched any of the news lately. :facepalm:
The world seems overrun lately with idiots and morons. :(
 

cistercian

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Very true but audio is far from having an exclusive on this type of action.
Watched any of the news lately. :facepalm:
The world seems overrun lately with idiots and morons. :(

All too true.
 

Sal1950

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murraycamp

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I agree. It's so easy to be rude or nasty when you don't have to speak to face to face.

Everybody is 6'6" 270 lbs. with a black belt in badass when sitting behind a keyboard.
 

Lbstyling

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Warrick Davis meets his internet troll:

 

Wes

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Internet anonymity is just part of it.

The problem is much deeper and relates to a more anti-science attitude by the general public. The rise of anti-vaxers, Qanon, anti-5G, anti-WiFi, and on and on...

We have failed to teach college students science (which is a method for understanding reality, not merely a collection of facts) -- the result is a large group of college educated people who took mostly liberal arts classes (due to weakening of science requirements), and who have also been taught in their liberal arts classes that every opinion is equally valid. They aren't.

There are numerous examples of the problems this causes. One of the worst was a wealthy woman living in the very spendy peninsula north of SFO (Tiburon) who explained that she was highly qualified to pronounce judgement on the dangers of vaccines because she had graduated from a very expensive liberal arts college.
 

watchnerd

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The rise of anti-vaxers, Qanon, anti-5G, anti-WiFi, and on and on...

None of this was in play back when audiophiles started arguing about cable audibility back in the 1980s.

The hobby has had a subjectivist wing that conflicts with the objectivist wing for 40+ years.
 

sergeauckland

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Internet anonymity is just part of it.

The problem is much deeper and relates to a more anti-science attitude by the general public. The rise of anti-vaxers, Qanon, anti-5G, anti-WiFi, and on and on...

We have failed to teach college students science (which is a method for understanding reality, not merely a collection of facts) -- the result is a large group of college educated people who took mostly liberal arts classes (due to weakening of science requirements), and who have also been taught in their liberal arts classes that every opinion is equally valid. They aren't.

There are numerous examples of the problems this causes. One of the worst was a wealthy woman living in the very spendy peninsula north of SFO (Tiburon) who explained that she was highly qualified to pronounce judgement on the dangers of vaccines because she had graduated from a very expensive liberal arts college.
That part I've highlighted I think is exactly why we're in the societal mess we're in. All opinions are NOT equally valid.
If I have a medical problem, I would trust the opinion of a doctor over a plumber, but if I have a heating problem, I'd rather listen to a plumber than a doctor. Similarly with any issue, there are experts who DO know more than laymen. The difficulty comes when someone sets themselves up as an expert and has a financial incentive to sell me something, then the layman has a harder job trying to see through the commercial bullshit. Which is where my particular bugbear comes in, that of our education system not teaching scepticism and critical thinking. Liberal Arts colleges should be teaching that as part of any philosophy, but clearly don't.

S
 
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