The worst sentence in audio writing


. Literally, hearing new details and delicacy in music I’ve heard a thousand times before.

I read this sentence from another thread but didn’t want to pollute it with this thought or to harp on my own opinion about the gear being discussed.

What I did want to do was point out that this sentence is one of the worst, most fraudulent sentences in all of audio, and we have all read it from a dozen different reviewers.  Anytime I read this I shudder. It’s not that I don’t believe the reviewer who writes this, it’s that I do. To understand why I hate this sentence you have to know my own personal values in audio.

  • Smooth frequency response
  • A laid back presentation

In order to make gear which has details never before heard the gear must exaggerate some sounds to the detriment of others. There’s no such thing as a neutral piece of gear that also makes you hear things yo have never heard before.

It’s a type of con, in that sure, you get new details, but they never talk about what you are giving up. The beauty of this con is that there’s all sorts of frequency response tricks and distortion gimmicks which will make you feel this way, each different, each not neutral. Each time we experience this "never before heard details" is like a new hair cut. It isn’t better, it’s different and that is exciting.

erik_squires

It depends, but every single time I've read this from a reviewer they equate "different" with "better."

If you're an actual reviewer different is in fact better because at least it give you something to write about! 😋

This is not unusual in audio.  It often happens when the noise floor is reduced.  The micro dynamics and micro detail - reverb tails, high frequency detail instead of white noise, differences in timbre, subtle mouth and throat noises... you know: breathiness - these all add up to "hearing things I've never heard before!"  It is that other phrase often hated: "There was just more there, there."  😁

I like it when a reviewer commits themselves to what they heard. If I agree, then I'm happy to find agreement, and if I disagree I've learned something, if only the limitations of the reviewer...:) What I don't like is pandering and a lack of clearly stated opinions...neither is helpful.