Why do Guitar Website members get so hirantic about Hi-Fi issues?

DLM

the_jaffa said:

Is hirantic a word?

If it is, a cursory Yahoogle suggests freemasonry.

WiresDreamDisasters

It's my job to understand sound.

goldtop

Rocker said:

It always amazes me that (guitar) people on guitar websites such as this, get so wound up about hi-fi issues.  It is a fact that guitar and hi-fi have at least one thing in common: music.

But that's it. Hi-fi fanatics have fetishised it to the point they listen to equipment; music is secondary.

Accuracy, +/-0.5dB curves, etc do not matter. If the music moves you, the system is doing its job. And 99% of stereos do the job. Same with amp modellers, pickups, stomp boxes, etc.

RustySpanner

I dislike cults and religions. 

When certain HiFi manufacturers tell me there is only one way to listen to music, only one true upgrade path and that I should trust them rather than my own ears, I tend to get a bit narked. 


However, I do like to experiment with (cheap) cables and supports, because they make a big, cheap difference. 
Try a couple of granite slabs under floorstanders on a suspended wooden floor and tell me I'm wrong....

60cycles

goldtop said:

Accuracy, +/-0.5dB curves, etc do not matter. If the music moves you, the system is doing its job.

Really? That simple huh?
It's not a one and zero situation; am not focusing on the specifics you mention, am keeping the jist of your statement and am telling you that you only think they don't matter.
Yes, you're moved. And that's great, that's the intent.

Who told you you wouldn't -or cannot for that matter- be moved to such a greater extent, that going back to your current system would be literally impossible? That you'd end up wondering just how could you ever have listened through it all this time and were you deaf or something?

"Does its job, am O.K. with it" is one thing.
"Does its job, am O.K. with it, ergo better is hype, cult syndrome-ridden or a lie" is quite another.

And statistically speaking, you really do have no idea of how much <insert adjective, case depending> your 'x' favourite song could sound like.
Empirically? That same ole song you've listened to a thousand times from the same recording, you think you know it. And all of a sudden you realise you were only scratching the surface. You can suddenly hear elements you never could before, it's like it's playing live inside your head, at a level you didn't think possible from a machine.

This is me describing and keeping it at layman's terms for the sake of the conversation.
Sound, in both nature and means of travel, diffusion, propagation, etc. etc., is governed by actual laws. Physics.
When something's governed by physics, stats and numbers tend to matter.

This without taking it to the other extreme, forget 'audiophiles', 'voodoo' and 'magical properties'. In the off chance you feel like replying with a strawman

@RustySpanner

Yet again, relative.
Careful with absolutes in life ^^

Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) had like many others, a philosophy to their approach; and they also wouldn't shy away from stating it.
For them, a system did its job when it got out of the way. When i) you could no longer pinpoint any single component's inherent characteristics and ii) the end result was reproduction, not translation.
I live by that.

octatonic

the_jaffa said:

Is hirantic a word?

It is a perfectly cromulent word.

WiresDreamDisasters

octatonic said:

the_jaffa said:

Is hirantic a word?

It is a perfectly cromulent word.

How very pusillanimous of you to say so!

goldtop

60cycles said:

goldtop said:

Accuracy, +/-0.5dB curves, etc do not matter. If the music moves you, the system is doing its job.

Really? That simple huh?
It's not a one and zero situation; am not focusing on the specifics you mention, am keeping the jist of your statement and am telling you that you only think they don't matter.
Yes, you're moved. And that's great, that's the intent.

Who told you you wouldn't -or cannot for that matter- be moved to such a greater extent, that going back to your current system would be literally impossible? That you'd end up wondering just how could you ever have listened through it all this time and were you deaf or something?

"Does its job, am O.K. with it" is one thing.
"Does its job, am O.K. with it, ergo better is hype, cult syndrome-ridden or a lie" is quite another.

And statistically speaking, you really do have no idea of how much <insert adjective, case depending> your 'x' favourite song could sound like.
Empirically? That same ole song you've listened to a thousand times from the same recording, you think you know it. And all of a sudden you realise you were only scratching the surface. You can suddenly hear elements you never could before, it's like it's playing live inside your head, at a level you didn't think possible from a machine.

This is me describing and keeping it at layman's terms for the sake of the conversation.
Sound, in both nature and means of travel, diffusion, propagation, etc. etc., is governed by actual laws. Physics.
When something's governed by physics, stats and numbers tend to matter.

This without taking it to the other extreme, forget 'audiophiles', 'voodoo' and 'magical properties'. In the off chance you feel like replying with a strawman

@RustySpanner

Yet again, relative.
Careful with absolutes in life ^^

Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) had like many others, a philosophy to their approach; and they also wouldn't shy away from stating it.
For them, a system did its job when it got out of the way. When i) you could no longer pinpoint any single component's inherent characteristics and ii) the end result was reproduction, not translation.
I live by that.

Yes. It's that simple. Music is the ends, the system is the means. Hi-fi fanatics have, sadly, made the training of their ears the highest priority. It's A Good Thing if you are paid to be an audio engineer, but A Bad Thing if you are a hi-fi buying consumer. The bad news about it is that the human brain is so smart it will let you go one forever doing that. You will feel rewarded by detecting a slight dip that you later find is exactly where the crossover frequency is. Clever boy. You'll discover a room resonance that once you hear, you can never unhear. But so what? Do you move home or invest in the analysis tools that Audio Science Review's senior members believe are required to fix the problem?

This is a classic "you can't see the forest for the trees" moment.

Many years ago, when I had more hair on my head than sprouting from my ears, I did hi-fi. I was Paul Messenger's lodger, and a panelist on a long A/B blind test for one of his definitive HiFi News and Record Review books. (I can tell you that one of the much-vaunted 'suspension systems' for a very well-regarded record deck were four squash balls.) We spent many hours listening for details that were there or missing compared to the reference source. I was one of those people bothered about the whole green-pen on edge of CD thing. I've heard astonishing room-filling detail from a wardrobe-sized 1950s Lowther horn-loaded speaker playing an old jazz record via a tiny amp. All is remarkable but irrelevant.

Luckily, I dug myself out of this $pendy rabbit hole and came to the realisation that nine-tenths (guesstimate) of music is the performance, the rest is the audio engineering of the material.

Time and money spent on esoteric equipment was time and money that could (IMHO, should) be spent on gigs, records, etc.

Rocker

Hirantic is a word that is used frequently in the part of Ireland where I live, the Midlands.  Basically it means: exceptionally irrational and way over the top reaction to something or someone.  Or a similar reaction to an idea or concept.  An example is the reaction of people to the awarding of a dubious penalty in a derby football game.  Another example is the reaction of usually level headed people to the idea that a Russ Andrews mains cable can improve the sound of your hi-fi system.  And there are thousands of other examples i can mention......

JezWynd

the_jaffa said:

Is hirantic a word?

An internet search reveals Rocker’s title as the first result and the second is in Japanese script; so I’m guessing that the answer is... no.

EricTheWeary

octatonic said:

the_jaffa said:

Is hirantic a word?

It is a perfectly cromulent word.

The use of which embiggens the smallest man. 

CHRISB50

the_jaffa said:

Is hirantic a word?

Some say its use is as contrived as a lot of opinions on hifi. 

carlos

Projection.