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It's not just reasonable, it is the ONLY thing we can do....

Posted by dado4 on June 17, 2003 at 19:49:59:
Lets be clear here; I am talking about the reviewer's report itself, not any possible physical phenomena that may have sparked his comments. This is all we have to go on. His word as to what he heard.
We (meaning anyone other than the reviewer himself) have no way of testing the veracity of this communication. Since he is reporting an internal experience (what he heard) we have no means to determine if the report is true (he is relaying what he actually heard), exagerated (he is relaying more than what he actually heard) or false (he is relaying something he did not actually hear). That is my point.....we can't tell. Given this starting point, the only logical action on our part is to take him at his word and assume he is reporting his experience as acurately as he can (that is, he is not deliberately exagerating or lying) We can test his report agianst our own experience or we can attempt to correlate it to some measured parameter. However, even if we find that we did not hear the same thing or that no physical parameters correlate to the report, we still cannot call the report false. All we can say it that we did not experience the same sonic qualities or that we could find no metric that tracks his description.
Price really does not enter into this evaluation. Lets assume the worst case; the reviewer, let's call him Spam Toelick, deliberately lied about or colored his experience in order to boost the sales of the product, possibly to receive some kick back from the manufacturer, whom we'll call Marital Infidelity. The consumer reads the review and desires to see improvements in his system that line up with Spam's descriptions. He decides to go and listen for himself (maybe a dealer demo, or perhaps he orders it online from Audio Dictator to take advantage of their 30 day return policy). Let's assume he hates it. He does not hear anything like what Spam went on and on about. He now has information he did not previously. He may decide to avoid all Marital Infidelity gear. He may decide to ignore all Spam Toelick columns in the future. Whatever, one thing is for sure, he is not buying this piece of gear. Spam failed in his quest to sell more Marital Infidelity gear. OK, now lets assume he liked it. He thinks Spam was right on the money and he gladly pays the dealer and takes it home (or does not send it back to Audio Dictator). So now what? Has the devious Spam won? Has he succeeded in pawning off overpriced junk on a gullible consumer? I am sure Spam thinks so, maybe even the designer over at Marital Infedelity is rejoicing at another sucker hoodwinked. Sounds vile dosen't it? Ah, but wait. Remember our consumer actually liked the piece of gear and he obviously liked it more than the amount of money the dealer was asking in exchange cause he bought it. All of Spam's evil schemeing has resulted in one thing.....a happier listener. You, me, Spam, and a hundred other geeks who spend their evening composing anonymous essays about audio gear amy think the dude is crazy, that he got taken for a ride, that he pissed away his hard earned cash. But while we wring our hands and wail in lamentation, this poor dupe is enjoying hi music just a little bit more than he used to.
Thanks,
Rob