GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Macondo vs. the “industry sponsored speakers”

Post Subject: Reactions from the "Man in the street"Posted by jessie.dazzle on: 10/31/2008

Romy wrote :

"...It is rather the absence of a proper competitive evaluation scale that would allow Macondo “compete” with others loudspeakers and to confront alternative views of acoustic systems implementations. I hear/read what people talk about acoustic systems and I truly like communicate with them in different language. Even the few Macondo’s critics that I heard were from complete idiots who have absolutely no understanding what the deal with.

The irony is that regular people out there do not truly interested what Macondo is all about..."

People don't get to hear what might be possible with audio that has not been conceived in accordance with the character of today's typical hifi, but this may not mean that they would not respond to it if given the occasion.

I find this situation fascinating, to the point that I have taken to occasionally grabbing "the innocent victim off the street" and sitting them down to listen to what I'm building. (This usually happens after meeting someone who eventually asks what my interests might be. To that I might say "audio", but rather than going into detail, if I know the amps are warm, I might invite them to see and hear the project). It usually goes like this :

There is no intro to the "demo"; I don't explain anything until after they've listened and given me their perceptions.

Once in place in front of the horns, and before they hear any sound from the system, they are invariably prompted to utter a disclaimer which can be summed up as follows :

"...Ok so, you have to understand that I don't have your ears, and that I may not be capable of hearing what you undoubtedly hear... I'm not at your level, you know, just a "man off the street", etc..."

To which I usually respond something to the effect of : "You can tell me about it after listening"

I very much value the perceptions of non audio-obsessed people. I have no idea what an audio-obsessed visitor might say (I don't really know any locally), but my experiences with "regular people" have, up to now been quite positive. Most surprising is that post demo, they seem to genuinely sympathize with my decision to have temporarily put my life and living space on hold (Translation : I've got quite a mess going... Navigation around the mid-bass construction zone is best done after having convinced one's self that he is in fact not man, but sand-carb!).

jd*

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