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Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,658
Joined on 10-12-2006
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Post #:
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5
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Post ID:
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24743
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Reply to:
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24741
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Content vs. Context vs. Majority Rule
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I appreciated a couple of things, probably for different reasons than Q put them forward, I think. For one thing, I more or less discount his timelines, and also the idea that certain audio components reached a high-water mark as "complete" achievements. For one example, it appears to me that SET amps took quite a while to reach their best development, at least until we had decent capacitors and more dynamic recordings. However, I find insightful his remarks that the best late 30's drivers appeared and disappeared before there was recorded media to fully exploit them, and it seems like he appreciates the irony of the "missed opportunities" of the "staggered development" of various audio components, even if the details seem somewhat arbitrary.
As for Q's remark about the press and the public missing the the shift in paradigms, one needs first to buy into Q's notion that the pursuit of ideal sound quality was pervasive, in the first place, while it may just as well be said that real "progress" in audio has always been more or less random, not to mention the fact that most audio consumers wouldn't know a good component (or what to do with it) if it bit them on the ass. Personally, I find "nostalgic" the fact that hardly anyone talks intelligently about sound quality in reproduced Music, for any reason, ever, especially in terms of how that might be reasonably (let alone systematically) achieved via audio components. Still "more nostalgic" is the fact that the previous situation never slowed anyone down (including Q, of course).
For me, Q's remarks seem to be steeped in vague (perhaps even contrived) nostalgia that - of course - becomes another way to sell things. Still, the context of Q's own behavior only adds spice to his expressed thoughts, albeit one is -once again - forced to think for oneself in order to get the most from others' remarks. And, after all, any truth clear and bright enough to actually light the way will yet be missed, ignored, dismissed, perverted, exploited, reviled, etc., etc., by the majority.
Paul S
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