New Thread on Steve Hoffman website that says Audiogon sucks

packmanjim,

Snobbery often seems to go hand in hand with feelings of superiority and exclusivity, doesn’t it? Yes, in the end you should always trust your own ears / heart.

I thought it was a great idea when the SHF introduced the condition that all posters had to reveal what their systems comprised of in order for sone perspective from where they were coming from.

Some would have liked to have gone further and seen published results of hearing tests. SH always maintained he had taken great care of his hearing and if I remember correctly used quite a few Audio Note components in his main system.

http://www.stevehoffman.info/gear.html

I hope Steve is doing ok.

The Steve Hoffman music forum is the best out there. Especially if like me you want historical information and you're a Beatles fan.

The problem is that we fans seemingly can't agree on anything when it comes to sound quality. To compound things we sometimes get carried away by anticipation and fall for the emperors new clothes syndrome.

Eventually though a kind of consensus does emerge.

@harold-not-the-barrel ,

"Now we have legions of arrogant novices, snake oilers and all kinds of besser wissers trying to be so darn smart here."

"This thread is just another symptom of that cancer that eventually will destroy great forums, and whole civilization in the end. Unless we want to stop it."


Good points for sure, but aren’t you forgetting reader responsibility? One of the main points of any forum is to read various points of view and then to draw your own conclusions.

Since all we have to go on are words it should be second nature for us to always ask basic questions eg

What are the poster’s intentions?

What are they trying to sell us?

Are they factually correct or trying to ’blind us by science’ or careful omission?

Is the argument balanced, or are we only hearing one side?

Who are they trying to help?


In fact doesn’t all the information we encounter from third parties (where trust is not automatically given) need to be treated in this manner?

As for civilisation being destroyed by this ’cancer’, I am reminded of that Gandhi quote when asked what he thought about Western civilisation,

“I think it would be a good idea."

In other words, we’re not quite there yet, not in the political realm and not yet even here on Audiogon!

@peterm 13, you might not agree with the way it's run but surely you wouldn't disagree with the fact it's an absolute goldmine of information, would you?

@constitutionalist,

"For years I have seen members purged from the rolls, not for posting obscene or indecent posts but rather just taking a moderate, conservative approach, an I feel compelled to offer some resistance to Hoffman’s need to stifle free speech, which is what he has done for many years, so I am the crusader interested in seeing this change after so many years of heavy censorship from him and this Jerry the Gort, who absolutely does not need to be a moderator, I can assure you."


I can’t say that I’ve noticed this, but then I tend to dip in there once in a while or if I’m looking for the sound quality lowdown on a particular album.

In any case perhaps we should cut the host some slack from time to time?

You must admit there are some incredibly knowledgeable posters on that site.

And yes Steve Hoffman is not infallible. I was quite surprised to find that when I side by side compared Steve’s mastering of Nat King Cole Story collection to the box set put out by the Bear Family that I preferred the latter.

Shocking, but true!