Have we lost civility and respect on Audio forums?

The inability to accept that one might be wrong goes hand in hand with an emotional investment in one’s beliefs. 

The forum is about stereo music and those boxes of wires we pay exceedingly higher prices to buy ...which reproduce that music. Let’s face it, in the large scheme of all things, not of very high importance. So when a poster starts acting like an ahole, it reveals much more about the integrity and intelligence of that individual. It’s the main reason people leave the forums. The negativity is just not productive and too ugly and offensive to want to be part of the audiophile community.

Personally, this forum has been way more considerate this year than in the past.

One of the pickles is we're dealing with 90% opinion and 10% facts.

A big percentage of that 90% opinion is stated as a fact, and when you have a blizzard of contradictory 'facts' swirling around, a lot of feathers get ruffled.

There is also in some cases where with some people you have to accept that they will always want to so called win an argument. But when you have made an investment in equipment with low noise floors that have been tested to a -140 db. When your equipment is designed and has been measured to reduce distortion. When you can run a program that reads and measures  the distortion  in the second and third harmonics in each Dac chip and you have a program that can make adjustments in real time to limit the distortion. Then you put it in a good listening environment.   Then you matched it up with the right cables and a great source and source materials there are those that don’t have that kind of system and have an emotional investment in their own position will never accept your findings.  We as audiophiles have to accept that they don’t hear a difference because they just don’t have your system. We can accept that they can’t hear in theirs. Their system is not built to hear the differences possibly. But one someone tells me that I can’t hear a difference in a my system that they have never heard in person I pretty much have 0 interest in their opinion. I didn’t want to brag about what I have or what my equipment has been measured to do. Because no matter what I say some people will get offended. In my system there is a scientific and audible difference in what I’m hearing because of the highly resolving systems with cables that match that throughout.  When I didn’t have the experience in the this hobby I used to feel the other way but when I grew in this hobby so did my ability to purchase better equipment along with the knowledge to put things together. In closing one thing that we as Audiophiles must accept. If you like it I love it for YOU! You can be right in hearing or not hearing it in your system but you shouldn’t let someone who hasn’t heard your system and doesn’t know the specs or design of your equipment tell you anything that they deem as fact. They might not have enough experience in listening and picking out differences. They are a random person on the internet that you know nothing about. It’s ok to peacefully disagree and move on. ENJOY THE MUSIC EVERYONE! ENJOY YOUR SYSTEM