Why do many discussions about sonic performance disintegrate into technical discusions?

I think this, quoted from above, sums up most of it:

"I think that audiotroy is talking about two separate topics here:

1) Threads that go off the rail, off topic what the OP is asking about.

2) Whether technical jargon should be discussed in the forums.

Forgive me if I misread you, as I'm not exactly sure which thread you are referring to, but that is what it looks like to me."

Beyond that - and not defending arguments, flame wars, or pedantic back and forth, technical details result in the sound.  Often, an observation that "A sounds great" is really only true in a specific context - due to technical stuff :-)

So if we understand what is REALLY going on, we can have far better understanding of what will result in great sound.

That said, finding the root cause, while holding all the other factors constant is really, really hard.

G

@hifiman5   There was a decent amount of contact and engagement between the 'ancient' Greeks and the 'less ancient'  "~India~"

@innaI believe Elizabeth was referring to the far east...specifically China, India, Pakistan. Not mush contact between classical Greek society and those folks!

Here's a highly summarized version, courtesy of Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece%E2%80%93India_relations):

For the Greeks "India" meant only the upper Indus till the time of Alexander the Great. After "India" meant to the Greeks most of the northern half of the Indian subcontinent. The Greeks referred to the Indians (people of present-day India and Pakistan) as "Indói" (Ἰνδοί), literally meaning "the people of the Indus River".

Ctesias in his work Indika (Greek: Ινδικά), records the beliefs and view of the Persians about India.

The Greek explorer Scylax, in about 515 BCE, was sent by King Darius I of Persia to follow the course of the Indus River and discover where it led.

Alexander the Great and his army fought the Indian army of King Porus at the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great and later in another Greek invasion Chandragupta Maurya of India defeated Seleucus 1.

Part of today's India became the Indo-Greek kingdoms founded by the successor of Alexander the Great. (Greek conquests in India)

The Greek ethnographer and explorer of the Hellenistic period, Megasthenes was the ambassador of Seleucus I at India. In his work, Indika (Greek: Ινδικά), he wrote the history of Indians and their culture. Megasthenes also mentions about the prehistoric arrival of God Dionysus and Herakles (Megasthenes' Herakles) in India.

In addition, the epic poem Dionysiaca, mention about the God Dionysus expedition to India.

Arrian, in his work Indica (Greek: Ἰνδική) has written about India.

Dionysius was also a Greek ambassador at India, sent by Ptolemy Philadelphus.

The Heliodorus pillar is a stone column that was erected around 110 BCE in present-day central India in Vidisha near modern Besnagar, by Heliodorus (Greek: Ἡλιόδωρος), a Greek ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas to the court of the Shunga king Bhagabhadra. The site is located only 5 miles from the Buddhist stupa of Sanchi.

The Greek historian Apollodorus and the Roman historian Justin, affirm that the Bactrian Greeks conquered India. Justin, also describe Demetrius I as "King of the Indians". Greek and Indian sources indicate that the Greeks campaigned as far as Pataliputra until they were forced to retreat following a coup in Bactria in 170 BC.

The Greek sophist Philostratus, in his work Life of Apollonius of Tyana (Greek: Βίος Απολλωνίου του Τυανέως), mention that the Greek philosopher Apollonius have travelled to India.

The King Phraotes received a Greek education at the court of his father and spoke Greek fluently.[1]

Diodorus, quoting Iambulus mention that the king of Pataliputra had a "great love for the Greeks".[2][3]

Eusebius mentions that according to Aristoxenus, Indias went to Athens and conversed with Socrates.[4]

Buddhism flourished under the Indo-Greeks, leading to the Greco-Buddhist cultural syncretism. The arts of the Indian sub-continent were also quite affected by Hellenistic art during and after these interactions.

I did't know the Greek-Indian contacts were so extensive for centuries. To add - Persia, also being part of Indo-Iranian civilization, had complicated relations with Ancient Greece, often confrontational but not only. Significant part of Alexander The Great's army settled down in Persia, and not because they really had to. Persia was militarily defeated by Alexander but not quite conquered in a usual sense.
Chinese civilization is a totally different thing.  

Did the Egyptian's create the sub-woofer? I did wonder what the pyramids were for. Not alien after all...