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In Reply to: Comments on the comments :-) posted by David Aiken on April 12, 2007 at 23:37:06:
Did you know, David, that aspirin was dismissed early in the game for much the same reasons as many other 'unexplained' things are? Placebo effect, etc.
"X-rays are a hoax!" Said Lord Kelvin in 1900. X-rays were discovered 5 years earlier, BUT you know the 'experts" ;-)
Follow Ups:
John,History seems to be full of things that work which either weren't supposed to when they were developed, or which worked despite the fact that the reasons given, though believed at the time, were completely and utterly wrong. Life is full of things that don't work when you try to use them, despite the fact that the science behind them is sound (it really is annoying when things break down
). Someone once said something like "the lesson of history is that we don't learn the lessons of history". Wanting to assess whether a product actually does something by deciding whether the explanation given for it makes sense or not is something we should have learned not to do, but it is such a tempting approach. It seems to be a lot harder to adopt a more practical 'suck it and see' approach if, in the end, you're going to have to rely on your own senses and your own judgement and make the call not only on whether or not it's worth the price if you're satisfied that it does work, but also on whether or not it actually works at all. We don't seem to mind making a mistake about value and the cost benefit side of things so much as we do about whether or not the thing actually works. Get the value side of things wrong and all we have to live with is being thought a tightwad or a cheapstake. Make a mistake by thinking the thing doesn't work when it does and we're thought of as overly cautious. If we make the mistake of thinking it doesn't work when it does, then we're stupid or gullible, and poorer to boot. That's the mistake we don't like.
Of course, some of us are happy to recognise that occasionally we're all stupid so proving it every now and then isn't a problem :-)
Because for 35 years I've been spending a fortune on components that cost more and more, but mostly sound the same. I've spent a small fortune on tweaks too. Probably more than most people here.
I'd love to hear a night and day positive difference for less than a hundred bucks.
Now that would be sweet.
If I may invoke the "F" word, I bet you're having fun...Why not just try the Bybee's? It clearly won't be your last tweak, but may be an interesting stop on the journey...
I've tried every other tweak, that's for sure.
Since I returned to tubes I'm much happier with the sound of the music I listen too. More life and closer to live sound.
I abandoned tubes for the second time in the mid-'90s. I was tired of persistent tube/equipment failures, heat and noise. There were some good tubes being made then, but most were poor. Today the quality and reliability of tubes in general is excellent. Tube gear has much lower noise now too.
The heat in the summer months is still an issue but I have other amps I can use. I sure like the tube glow on a cold New England winter evening!
I'm pleased to hear that tubes have become more reliable. I've studiously avoided using them for the last 35 years just because of their reliability problems and constantly shifting operating point. But in my youth, that's all I used. Actually, that's all there was. It tickles me that 6SN7's have become a cult as it was my favorite dual triode, which I usually followed with a 6V6 or 6L6 beam power pentode. Ah, nostalgia... I don't know as I miss the glowing filaments but I really used to like the gas discharge regulator tubes in purple and orange.What caught my eye in your post was that it sounded as though you felt that 35 years of tweaking was for naught. I hope that's not really the case and that you simply get pleasure out of puttering with your stereo.
It took me around 17 years to get a couple of systems set up that I was really happy with, and for the last 15+ years about all I've done is to listen to them for thousands of hours. Definitely a good return on investment. Now I'm starting to putter a bit for fun, not out of any sense of need. I'm enjoying the transition to computer based audio, it's something new and it's cheap and entertaining to mess about with.
So if if you decide to play with the Bybee gadgets, whatever they are, I hope it's out of a love for tweaking rather than hoping to fix a disappointing system... And do tell what you find, although I'm happy and contented, perhaps I could be even more happy and contented.
Rick
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