Propeller Head Plaza

A real loony article.

64.13.14.96

In Reply to: RE: My question is, once warm, does the 845 sound more like a Marshall...or a Fender? posted by AJinFLA on May 04, 2008 at 18:19:46

Thanks for posting the Interesting article. That it's mostly bunk is why it's interesting. We can ignore the misplaced sexuality and fetish bit, that seems to be a universal problem with Psy folks which they try to project upon the rest of us. It probably goes down well at their conventions however, but I digress.

The second paragraph tells the story...

"The symptoms of this preoccupation are well known: an inclination to attach enormous significance to audio equipment’s capacity to induce sonic pleasure and an inordinate emphasis on the sensuality of the reproduced sound, with a consequent tendency to relegate the music itself to a secondary position. We can also recognize in this obsessional interest a need to amplify very small differences between audio components out of all proportion to their true value. These audiophiles are prone to convert such differences into preferences, and institute them as rigid ideals."

Let's examine this steamy morsel...

"...an inclination to attach enormous significance to audio equipment’s capacity to induce sonic pleasure and an inordinate emphasis on the sensuality of the reproduced sound..."

YES! You bet! Damn tootin'. Absolutely, positively, SPOT ON! That's exactly what it means to be an audiophile. But not only isn't it a bad thing, it's everything. If our pleasure center isn't being excited, why bother? I know, to a Psy person this sounds like sex, but that's OK, so does everything. Well, it's not sex, but it has been known to accompany sex with pleasing results.

"...with a consequent tendency to relegate the music itself to a secondary position"

That’s somewhat true, and it's appropriate to do so. What the esteemed author fails to realize is that music is only part of the picture. Actually a small part. Sound itself goes far beyond being merely the medium of music, in fact it can be argued that music itself is a perverse use of our sense of hearing. Hearing and smelling are such old senses and so crucial to survival that they have low level access to our brains. They can generate emotions and hence actions bypassing thought.

Hearing is far and away the fastest sense we have providing almost instantaneous localization information regardless of which direction we currently have our sensors pointing. We, rely upon our hearing to tell us in real time when it’s safe to relax, to eat, to sleep and it can switch us to flight or fight in milliseconds, even from a sound sleep. All this makes it an excellent path to spoof our brains, it’s a wide bandwidth channel with direct access to our emotions.

So the author has it backward, it’s the sound that matters, not the music. The aspects of music that survive arbitrary instrumentation and low fidelity transmission are the cruder ones. They can be fun, but can’t provide nearly the whole experience. Especially not for some people, and I am one of them.

“We can also recognize in this obsessional interest a need to amplify very small differences between audio components out of all proportion to their true value. These audiophiles are prone to convert such differences into preferences, and institute them as rigid ideals."

Having now established a basis, we can take care of this blather in short order. ‘Obsession’, ‘very small differences’, ‘true value’ are merely ignorant value judgments by the author. Ignorant in that he ignores the fact that he isn’t the standard of creation and that others may value things to which he is numb.

Enough. It’s a foolish, demeaning article that more than anything else merely exposes the author’s biases and limitations. By and large he is wrong about everything except one thing:

I DO love my stereo!

Rick

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup:

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?

Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
	Remember my Moniker & Password (What's this?) Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:

Message:	(Posts are subject to Content Rules)

Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:	Automagically notify you when someone responds.

To view your new posting or follow-up, click on the RELOAD or REFRESH button on your browser.