fritz@hpfclk.UUCP (fritz) (08/09/84)
I think the name of the publication that Dick is referring to tells a lot. This "objective" Linn/Naim mouthpiece is called (s'welp me!) "BIASED" ! Gary Fritz
rcd@opus.UUCP (08/25/84)
(Comment on an advertising series from Audiophile Systems, U.S. distributors
for Linn and Naim products.)
---
The third lie, as they state it, is:
Trust me, I'm an expert.
They go on to note that it seems that there are many "experts", yet they
all disagree. From that point, they go into their discussion of the "hi-fi
hierarchy" and how most experts disregard it. Further, they claim that for
most experts considering speakers in particular, "their evaluations are
based on faulty observations of equipment used under improper conditions."
They focus on the "single speaker demonstration" credo.
---
There's no dearth of self-proclaimed "experts" on hi-fi. Yet it should be
fairly obvious that a real expert does not become so by his own
proclamation. It should be similarly obvious that one false expert doesn't
imply that there's no such thing as an expert (in the same way as, with lie
#2, overuse or misinterpretation of specs doesn't make all specs useless).
Actually, there's considerable agreement among those who are WIDELY
regarded (as opposed to self-proclaimed) as experts. Of course, experts
and specs alike can only provide guidance in choosing audio equipment. The
final decisions have to come from your pocketbook and your ears. The
guidance is necessary to help you get down to a collection of manageable
size before you start listening and price-comparison shopping. All of this
ought to be obvious.
But, once again, Audiophile Systems diverges from the fairly obvious (with
some hyperbole, but it's advertising, after all) straight to the fringe.
The "Hi-Fi Hierarchy" that they feel is so important is basically a ranking
of the importance of components, namely as follows in decreasing order:
turntable
tone arm
cartridge
preamp
amp
speakers
and it is their contention that it is a waste of money to improve one of
the lower items on the list until the higher items are the best possible.
Of course, this is first-order bull - but they seem to expect you to
believe it against your own experience. After all, they're experts, aren't
they? [Didn't we just come full circle somehow???] Most experts disregard
the hierarchy because it quite demonstrably doesn't work, either in theory
or in practice.
(Aside: It's interesting that they can rank turntable - tone arm - cart
when even they know and state that these three form a closed, coupled
mechanical system.)
The other shot that Audiophile takes at the "experts" is to assert that
their speaker evaluations are faulty and done under improper conditions.
This is a broad generalization, but they do give one specific example:
When you listen to speakers, they claim that you must only have one set of
speakers (those under audition) present in the room.
Now, I know we've been around this one in the past in net.audio, and I
don't want to stir it up too much again. I have been to a Linn-Sondek
dealer and I was given the demonstration in which an extra speaker was
brought into the room to observe the effect. I tried to unbias it a little
bit by closing my eyes during the demo. (This is in no way scientific; I
realize that.) There was NO effect that I was able to hear, although I
DID notice an effect due to the salesman moving around in the room (near
the wall, between the speakers).
The effect of a smallish extra speaker did not have any noticeable
effect. It is quite possible that a large number of speakers in one room
will have an adverse effect, of course--but that's quite different from
the advice that Audiophile gives you. They would have you remove ALL
speakers from your listening area; in fact, all transducers that convert
electricity to sound INCLUDING electronic doorbells, telephones, and
digital watches. They ignore the magnitude of the effects, and they dodge
both measurement and controlled listening. The only apparent justification
for their views is their expertise--so as I said, we've come full circle to
where the people decrying bogus experts are purveying their own brand of
"trust me" expertise.
What's worse, the sort of expertise that Audiophile (who is really acting
only as mouthpiece for Linn-Sondek) is putting forth is contrary to what
almost everyone else says. In other words, THEY are the experts who
disagree the most with the other experts.
(Aside: The mechanism postulated for extra-speaker interference is that
the speaker stores energy and re-radiates it out of phase. A calculation
of the magnitude of the effect for plausible situations is left to the
reader. An interesting sample problem is to compare the maximum magnitude
and delay of a small [<5"] speaker with that of a typical single-thickness
window. It is also interesting to note that their principle is ignored
in the case of the two speakers interacting with one another and/or the
components of a multi-way speaker interacting with one another--even though
the latter problem is one that bedevils some of the best speakers.)
--
Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086
...Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.