>> Exotic audiophile cables are luxury goods. The manufacturers and suppliers of >> luxury goods invest a lot of time and effort building positive associations >> that their customers pick up along with the product. > > They are being lied to.
Lied is too strong. Marketing is about creating a positive subjective impression by misleading and building associations that do not exist objectively. A few magic cable companies cross the line and make false objective statements (lies) but they are the exception rather than the rule. Most cable company bumpf is too vague and incomprehensible to be pinned down to something concrete as can be seen from Opaqueice's example above. > Basically you are saying ignorance is bliss and ends justify the means. Not in the slightest. Ignorance is a requirement to be an audiophile but it does not seem to lead to bliss. Once sound quality is above a fairly modest threshold non-audiophiles will hear only the music - bliss. Audiophiles on the other hand will divert some of their attention to the sound of the equipment, what other people think of the equipment, etc... - not bliss. If audiophiles could fool themselves into really believing in the magic then maybe it would lead to bliss but if you read some of the postings from audiophiles preparing to test their abilities to perceive audiophile magic it is clear that only a small number are true believers. Most have doubts when they get called, bluster and then back out. >> So why don't you enjoy being smarter than an audiophile believer? > > I am not that shallow. I would suggest that there is a big difference between wishing to be seen as smart when talking to an audiophile and actually being smart. The latter is something almost wholly beneficial and to be enjoyed. It is not shallow. >> Don't you feel you have grown wiser from the experience? Isn't that worth >> some mild embarrassment and a bit of money? > > I have to pay and be embarrassed because we allow these con masters to operate > and that's a good thing? Being wiser is a good thing. The price is a bit of embarrassment and some money. You don't think the pros outweighed the cons for you with audio cables? People value knowledge differently and audiophiles are obviously at the opposite end of the spectrum to those that are interested in how the world works. They tend to believe that everyone should perform experiments for themselves to determine the performance of audiophile products. This type of thinking started to wane centuries ago when we emerged from the Dark Ages and people wanted to do something about educating themselves and their children in order to better cope with the world around them. > Lets con kids and teach them a lesson, those idiots can be talked into > anything. Indeed. One has the choice of expecting society to remove all nasties or teaching kids how to recognise and deal with the nasties. When it comes to harmless silly luxury goods like magic cables I know which I prefer. > We are so lost that we need to ignore the truth in order to be 'happy'. I am not sure happiness has much to do with being an audiophile. To me it looks more to do with raising social status. Comparing equipment is really important to audiophiles and they consider themselves to be sophisticated when it comes to appreciating musical reproduction. Unfortunately their basis is a set of "flat-earth" beliefs which are largely recognised as such by the mainstream which is most unhelpful in this respect. > When someone exploits that we shouldn't be quiet. Unless you don't care of > course, more power to you. I think we may view the situation differently and consequently care about different things. Although a close call, on balance I think audiophile cables and the audiophile industry are a good thing. The downside is that it encourages faith over evidence. Using this to flog luxury goods like audiophile cables that are poor value in terms of technical performance is not a problem in itself because it is harmless. This is mostly certainly not the case in other areas where faith over evidence leads to substantial harm and I do tend to get a bit worked up. But I will stay on topic here. The upside is that the developed world has a home audio industry with all the benefits that derive from this. After the boom of the 60/70s producing home audio in the developed world to be sold on technical performance was no longer really viable and companies that continued trying to do this largely ceased trading although many of the brands still exist today. The home audio companies in the developed world that were successful switched to using a strategy based on marketing perceived performance which was only possible because the home audio consumer press also changed dramatically in order to allow such an approach. The mainstream audiophile industry was born and after a year or two people like Noel Lee recognised that it could not only be used to shift uncompetitive home audio products (in a technical sense) but also de-commoditise products like cables. -- honestguv ------------------------------------------------------------------------ honestguv's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=45323 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
