sasaki@harvard.ARPA (Marty Sasaki) (10/09/85)
Mr. Pierce fails to see any reason to read magazines like "The
Absolute Sound". There are several reasons (please note that the
points that I am making apply to other magazines as well):
o The Absolute Sound is entertaining. Maybe it's just a phase
I'm going through, and maybe I will outgrow it, but I enjoy
reading the Absolute Sound. I read magazines for one of two
reasons, for information, and for entertainment. Sometimes I
get lucky and get both.
o The Absolute Sound has articles about the history of recorded
music. Often these trace a composer, or a record label, or a
producer, or an orchestra, etc. I've only been seriously
listening to music for the past 15 years and these pieces give
me some historical context.
o The Absolute sound has lots of record reviews (and a few CD
reviews as well). I can't afford to listen to all of the disks
that they listen to. Even if I could afford to, I wouldn't
want to, it would take too much time.
This doesn't mean that I agree with all of their record
reviews, but I can get an idea of a recording by reading the
review. If I have a record that they review, then I can
compare my impression of the recording to theirs and can get a
feeling for how our tastes differ. I then know how to
interpret their reviews. This isn't foolproof, but it works
most of the time.
It is for these reasons that I read The Absolute Sound and Stereophile
and occasional issues of Hi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi Answers.
What I don't like about these magazines (which is also what I don't
like about this news group, at times) is the need to be right, ie, the
need to have opinions be viewed as facts.
All of the audio "truths" are really just opinions. I believe this to
be true because we hear with our brains. The placebo effect has
influenced many golden ears. Trust in measurments has influenced many
engineers (early transistor amplifiers, and perfect CD players).
Listening to car stereo systems and boom boxes have caused many people
to buy truly awful systems (my opinion, who is to say?).
Before someone flames me as being a hypocrite, let me admit that I am a
hypocrite. It is much easier to deal with things as abso!ute truths,
but that doesn't make me right.
If an audio system was playing an LP in the middle of a forrest and no
one was around to listen, but there was a set if electronic
instruments measuring the audio system, would there be music coming
out of the speakers?
--
----------------
Marty Sasaki net: sasaki@harvard.{arpa,uucp}
Havard University Science Center phone: 617-495-1270
One Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (10/12/85)
[] I'm sorry Marty, but this is one of the many areas that I do agree 100% with Mr. Pierce about. If you want entertainment, read Superman comics. They are probably more accurate. How can you believe the history and the record reviews when the stuff about sound, physics, etc. is so distorted? I think you would find T$S - The $ensible Sound more readable. Surely for'history and reviews there are other mags. Dick -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg