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I Prefer Tubes & Women Like Halle Berry

Posted by thetubeguy1954 (A) on January 31, 2007 at 07:54:35

I've been thinking quite a bit about the topics of debate that always resurface on audio forums like Audio Asylum. Without fail this year we'll revist Subjective Listening vs Objective Measurements, Tubes vs Solid State, Analoge vs Digital, Do or Don't Wires Make An Audible Difference etc.

In the past I've been invited to visit different people's homes who told me how life-like their audio system was. Unfortunately when I'd arrive as I'd listen as the owner would enthusiastically say listen to those highs or that bass and be thinking about how bright and harsh the highs were or how boomy the bass was. Even these days as a member of Central Florida Audio Society I've been to other members homes who have audio systems I really liked, yet I still prefered my system overall to any of theirs! Is mine better than theirs? I don't believe I could honestly answer that question with a yes. Mine isn't better than theirs it just has a different set of strengths and weaknesses.

So far no manufacturer has made any audio component that replicates live unamplified music 100% perfectly. Every audio component has it's own set of strengths & weaknesses. Each of us decides for ourselves which strengths we absolutely must have & which weaknesses we can accept. Even if we could find two people who agreed on the same strengths & weaknesses an audio system should have, they might disagree on what the order of priority those strengths and weaknesses should have.

Each individual responds differently to the strengths & weaknesses of any given system. Timberal accuracy, PRAT, soundstaging (height, width & depth) midrange accuracy and transparency. For me, these are paramount for strenghts. I can accept attenuation at the freq extremes and loss of ultimate dynamics quite easily if my strengths are met. Others have different strengths, weaknesses & priorities than mine. Although their system will "sound" different from mine, does that mean my system is better than theirs? That question gets more & more difficult to answer for me in light of the strengths & weaknesses and priority of those strengths & weaknesses arguement.

I now believe it is wrong of us to believe someone elses system isn't as good as ours simply because their priorities are in a different order than ours/mine. Audio systems are like women. I get weak in the knees for tan/olive complextions, jet black hair, with eyes so dark you cannot see the pupils. To me Halle Barry, Salma Hayak, Gloria Foster = (Merovingian's wife in Matrix) or Catherine Zeta-Jones are stunningly beautifil. Still I can see where men would be attracted to Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, Jenna Jameson or Reese Witherspoon but I'd take any of those raven haired beauties first. Even if I found another man who liked raven-haired ladies our priorities would most likely be different. I like non-smokers who wear very little makeup. Those attributes might not matter to another man. Thus we could both agree on the strengths of raven-haired women, we might disagree that smoking or wearing a lot of makeup is a weakness. Trying to figure out someones taste audio system is just like trying to figure out another person's taste in women. What he sees as beautiful, you or I might not.

I know some smartass will say I'm only stating the obvious, but if that's true why do we constantly revist Subjective Listening vs Objective Measurements, Tubes vs Solid State, Analoge vs Digital, Do or Don't Wires Make An Audible Difference etc. debates over & over again?

Thetubeguy1954

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