GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Prices in High-End Audio.

Post Subject: Describing odorsPosted by steverino on: 1/15/2014

This is an interesting thread. Romy is correct that the hifi industry is not user defined or driven really. Manufacturers have a standard vocabulary that they are able to use indiscriminately to describe the sonics produced by a given product (detail, soundstage, liquidity, balance, dynamics etc).Absent an extended in-home audition, the user has no way to accurately assess the claims. A big part of the problem is that hifi dealers don't sell complete systems anymore, only components. If people had to buy cars in the same manner there would be similar confusion. Which of 25 different brakes should I put in my custom car?? The performance is also greatly affected by the in-home placement. A car/truck is meant to operate on particular road/surface conditions. The general public is familiar with the set of driving surfaces and which type of vehicle is appropriate. Most people have no clue or can't afford the expense of creating the appropriate sonic environment for the system.

Second, people have more trouble describing auditory sensations than they do visual objects. Odors are the most difficult to describe to another person except by shared experience (it's like X). Since there is no set of complete systems which are generally known, it is difficult to even put sonics in those terms.

Third, there is no standard criterion or recording that we can use to assess a hifi system or component. Recordings even good ones are all over the place in terms of their sonic character since we are unable to capture completely accurately even simple auditory tones.

Fourth, in cases such as these it is very hard to proceed deductively and you end up inductively sifting through large amounts of discussion to find some general consensus. Another approach is to see what products more frequently show up in the used market at a given price level and how quickly given used components sell. But these are very coarse methods forced on people because of the above factors.

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