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Re: Much Ado

Posted by Steve Eddy on September 30, 2002 at 15:06:45

In Reply to: Much Ado posted by Jon Risch on September 29, 2002 at 21:39:54:

On another topic, I am curious as to how this whole "braiding is better than twisting thing" fits in with your idea of subjective cable (or audio in general) anarchy.

Excuse me? I made absolutely no such declarative statement of fact as "braiding is better than twisting." I simply said that I subjectively preferred the braided cable over the twisted quads.

Which is wholly in keeping with my Zen Hedonism.

I made no attempt to assert my subjective preference as any sort of objective reality, nor did I attempt to assert it as having any inherent superiority to the subjective preferences of others.

So I fail to see how you come to have the notion that I'm somehow at odds with myself.

I mean, you get all bothered by other folks sharing their experiences with materials and geometries, yet you seem to be doing the very same thing with this braided wire wrap wires, in terms of saying that braiding is a superior alternative to twisting. Oh, I know you are not hard selling it, in fact, you are going out of your way to appear to not be doing so, and yet trying to bring some enthusiasm to it as well.
Clever, that "It doesn't suck" comment, but still, a bit contrived, eh?

What the !@#$% are you talking about, Risch?

I have NEVER had ANY PROBLEM with ANYONE sharing their experiences with materials and geometry.

Where on earth do you get this nonsense?

You show me one post where I have ever had any such problem with anyone along such lines. And none of your usual weasel tactics. Put up (a URL and only a URL) or shut up.

YOU'RE the one who has problems with people sharing their experiences with materials and geometry.

Oh, everything's fine as long as their experiences are in keeping with your own. You've no problem with that. But the moment someone's experiences aren't in keeping with your own, you kick down the door like Crusader Rabbit, calling their experience into question and offer up a whole littany of reasons why they SHOULDN'T be having the experience they're having.

It's interesting that you refer to my outlook on things (i.e. that one should simply go with whatever subjectively satisfies them the most, regardless of any objective specs or anyone else's experiences) as anarchy.

Anarchy implies lawlessness. And I can see where that could be looked down upon by someone who regularly attempts to establish themself as "the law" when it comes to what others should be satisfied with.

The ONLY reason I mention this at all is the seeming dichotomy between your stance on others sharing their experiences with DIY cables, and your insisting on subjective anarchy, and yet now, you seem to be having your own feelings of the "need to share" regarding this braiding of wire wrap wires. Otherwise, why the beef about the patent, and the multiple posts re braided wire wrap wires?

The "seeming dichotomy" is nothing more than your own delusion. When you can show that I've ever had a problem with anyone sharing their experiences, then we'll talk about seeming dichotomies.

The beef about the patent was simply a beef about the patent. I've had a number of beefs about patents here in the past. Why are you trying to tie this beef into this particular delusion of yours? As Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

The sad part is, many cable DIYers have been there 20 years ago with twisted and braided wire wrap wires, and moved on already to more advanced designs.

More advanced or more superfluous? Who ultimately decides?

And contrary to this notion of yours that I just fell off the turnip truck, I've already been down this road and began the journey over 20 years ago.

And somewhat like yourself, I too was obsessed with objective specs. And for a time it seemed to work (with plenty of reinforcement from the status quo). But as I grew older, I became more introspective and began questioning how I had previously been looking at things (not simply on matters of audio, but other areas as well).

One question I asked myself was whether my seeming to prefer that which was objectively better was because it WAS better, or simply because I'd managed to convince myself that if it was objectively better, it simply MUST sound better.

So I began looking at the whole objectivist construct and realized that it shaped up as something out of an epic from Greek mythology or some fantasy role playing game.

The objectivist construct is that of a demon slayer on the road to some preordained destination, taking it as an article of faith that we'll all be happy once we get there even though we've never actually been there to really know.

The objectivist construct is an aversarial one. Much of the satisfaction comes from slaying the demons, knowing that once slayed, one is that much closer to the destination. It gives a sense of power and control as well as justifaction.

So I decided to try a different approach.

Instead of a preordained destination to someplace I've never been and seeing demons at every turn intent on preventing me from reaching that destination, the only destination I concerned myself with was my own personal satisfaction. This made more sense given that my personal satisfaction was a destination I was already quite familiar with.

As for the demons, I simply stopped giving them any particular consideration with regard to my personal satisfaction and put an end to the whole adversarial element of the objectivist construct.

I found it rather liberating.

Instead of spending time working on slaying the demons, anticipating the next demon, and wondering if there were any demons I may have overlooked, I spent more time simply enjoying music. The only thing I had to consider was whether I was satisfied with the end result however that result may have come about.

So I went back and started covering old ground again but this time without the prejudicial demon filter. And I found that I got rather different results. Without all the demons chattering away in the back of my mind and being concerned solely with ultimate personal satisfaction, I no longer found any particular correlation between objective specs and what ultimately pleased me in the end.

Anyway, I'm not saying that this approach is the only valid approach. Simply that it's my approach and I offer it only to help others understand what my perspective is.

Like many things, it gets re-discovered by folks, and enjoys a renaissance. No right or wrong really, just a matter of how much time and money one is willing to spend to try and acheive audio nirvana, and how many side trips along the way are considered acceptable.

Side trips? This presupposes that there's only one road to audio nirvana. And as witnessed by your behavior here, you seem to assume that that one road is the road you happen to be traveling on and that anyone not traveling that same road is either taking a side trip or is just plain lost and in need of your assistance to get them on the "right" path.

There are many roads to audio nirvana and none of them are inherently superior to any other. All that counts is that we reach our respective destinations.

It's this intolerance of yours that insists YOUR road is the ONLY valid road that I find so distasteful.

se

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