He’s controversial, he’s opinionated and he’s a classic NY character, but whether you like him or not, he’s helped to promote vinyl/analog more than any single person I can think of, offhand.Without a doubt. And I DO like him, even though I only think I know him since I have never been in the same room with him but have read his columns for 25 yrs or more. As a fellow Jew, I think I have incite into his "NY character"
Blocking the propaganda
I have a friend who lives in the boondocks who is without question the foremost expert in this Country on a certain vintage turntable. I will leave the particulars out so as to avoid making him the focus of this discussion or letting someone else figure out who I am talking about. He said something to me recently that I always knew on a certain level but have not seen "transparently" until his comment. His statement is this; "audio magazines including Stereophile are useful for birdcages and if you run out of toilet paper and nothing else". This was in the context of discussing Mike Fremer's preference for 9" arms. I have concluded that he is absolutely correct, but only for those who have the guts to really dive into audio with open eyes and willing to expend the effort to focus all of their attention and for lack of a better word, devotion, to figuring out the truth for themselves. This person I speak of has unquestionably done that. He has engineered his own products that make his turntable of choice as good as it can get. He thinks outside the box. Convention or "accepted thought" mean nothing to him. The analogy that comes to mind is wine. I know of many who will not buy a wine unless some critic has given it a 90 or above. When someone points out how silly it is to rely on published numbers from someone they don't know, they claim that they rely on experts and numerical ratings because they lack the patience, time and resources to taste wine options for themselves. What it boils down to is intellectual laziness. I intend to filter out 100% of what I read in magazines and even audio boards as absolutely unreliable. I have no doubt that I will fall short, but it is a lofty goal nonetheless. We all ought to forge our own trail(s) with sweat and effort and open minds and avoid laziness. Apologies to those who don't appreciate sermons.
Showing 5 responses by fsonicsmith
There are a couple of large threads praising that speaker here on Audiogon. Are all those people fools or propagandists?And one example does not make any case for anything anyway..I don't have the patience or ability to tolerate straw man BS. I didn't so much as insinuate that we-myself included naturally-are fools for reading and relying upon the critics. And your use of "propagandists" is a misplaced. But please don't throw me a grenade, I like you sir. Sorry if I hit a nerve. |
And for people who are newbies, thinking all the stuff written is 'propaganda? Foolhardy to an extreme. Plenty of folks really care about helping others to learn, and care about what they write.Well, let's examine that. That speaker manufacturer with the seven or twenty one tweeters in the middle of two woofers in a cheaply constructed box with auto paint colors has suddenly been advertising heavily in Stereophile and after four or five months of their advertising what do they get, but a positive review. Hmmm. |
Now get your lazy a** out of here and start learning audio from the ground up, and no, we don’t want to know what, if anything, you learn.I learned something about you tomcy6. I learned to put you on "ignore". But if you had something known as "reading comprehension" you would have noticed that not once did I use the word "ignore". I talked about filtering out as unreliable. These are a read because we are interested in the hobby. It is not that we are being forced to purchase anything but what is on display in the magazine. amg6-absolutely! I read and participate on this Board because I love the hobby. And there are things to be learned on this Board. I would not have investigated Reed tonearms but for Chakster on this Board. I did not accept everything or even anything he had to say as gospel, but I investigated Reed arms on my own because of his enthusiasm. I learned that Equi-Core products were a fraught with shipping and fulfillment problems on this Board. But nothing should be accepted carte blanche. |
@fsonicsmith - I think in some ways you overstated your "filter" and drew the ire of other members. For example, you acknowledged learning about a tonearm via the forum, but then did your own research. If so, you are still finding value in the forum as a starting point.You're absolutely right. Right that I went too far and that it drew ire for that reason. It was a poor choice of words on my part. I went overboard in trying to convey the premise which is that in the modern world, we think that we are too busy to pull up our sleeves and dig into how things work and why for ourselves. Too busy to figure out for ourselves what is and what is not important.That we tend to rely on Motor Trend or Car and Driver for rating cars while we don't expend the effort to learn how to change the oil. Or continuing with cars, that we buy an expensive sports car but don't take a professional driving course on a track to learn how to properly drive it. I reported the comment by this turntable technician and how it made me think differently. When you disassemble customer's turntables and rebuild them from the ground up day after day and install different tonearms and listen and design and machine your own custom parts, you develop a knowledge base that is truly independent. In particular, this turntable technician taught me that the choice of cartridge is far less important than proper alignment. On any given deck, he can make the table sound better with a simple vintage Shure cartridge than most of us can with some megabuck cartridge. |