Well ..This Is Interesting...What Do You Think.?? Food For Thought..Or BS?

Gotta love Bob Carver.  This is a great hobby.  Looking at, reading about and dreaming about top end equipment I will never be able to afford and wouldn’t buy even if I could is part of the fun.  Don’t get me started on cables that cost more than my car.  Most people spend to their budget whatever floats their boat be it stereo equipment, cars, boats etc.  My main stereo is much more expensive and definitely sounds better than my first one I put together when I was a kid.  I trust my ears and suggest others do the same.  I have chosen equipment that I auditioned that cost less than other equipment because it sounded better in my system, in my room listening to the music I love with my old guy ears.  It’s okay to dream even if it’s just a dream. 

It's extremely interesting, but like pretty much every aspect of audio ignores the fact that absolutely none of the equipment we enjoy listening music and speech through makes any sound at all. Just as everything is invisible in the dark... suck the air out of a room and you'll hear nothing. All any of this equipment does is generate vibrations in the air that surrounds us. It's our brains that construct the music etc. It's all neurological. A person can be hypnotised to think they hear a trumpet whenever they see a kazoo played.  It's only the fact that we all share an evolved 'neurotypical' perception that we can agree on anything.  I've worked in environments where literally nobody else can hear the whining of the photocopier in standby mode. It drove me insane... needless to say I am probably not neurotypical, but I can enjoy more from music than your average Joe. 

I just watched the video in full.  Forget about the Carver challenge, the real value of the video is its well explained survey of the vagaries of component interaction, particularly the amp - speaker interface, where the reactance of the speaker creates a unique sound signature with the amplifier in use, more so if the amp has a low damping factor.  Also interesting that the declining hearing acuity of older enthusiasts (mea culpa) is played up. If we believe in accuracy, the load invariant amp with minimal SINAD is best, as someone named Amir contends. Straight wire with gain. Keep your transfer function!

To the original point (modestly priced electronics perform as well as high priced gear), I came to that conclusion several years ago.  I finally had to admit to myself that my own pretensions and desire for bragging rights constituted a big part of my buying decision-making.  Over the last few years, I have started using some of my old Heathkit, Onkyo (pre- their disastrous decision to focus on HT), Luxman, and Concept receivers and separates.  And I don't think I've given up any quality in sound quality.  I still have some (what I consider to be) high end gear on a three of my larger systems (Everest DD67000, Tannoy Westminsters, Apogee Studio Grands, but vintage on Salon 2 and a bunch of smaller scales systems, and I can't hear any difference except for the larger dynamics of the big floor standing speakers.  Now I'm going to start looking for some of Carver's old stuff.  I gave a Carver Receiver to one of little brothers in the early days, and he's still loving it.  I don't remember what happened to mine, but it's not in my storeroom.  I kept all of the separates when I started the transition back to vintage receivers, so I can go back up the scale if the bug bites me again. 

Bought my Carver amp at Crazy Eddie's in Brooklyn back in the "cave days".Eddie was a s..m bag Carver was a genius.High end is a scam.The fun is spending as little as possible and getting a great sound system.Anyone with money can buy anything and the industry comes up with layer after layer of hyperbole to lie about what their equipment can do.Most of it is backed by vapor science.The real meat of the matter is what is going on psychologically with this subset of mostly white men with high disposable incomes that succumb to this nonsense.Theres a hole in their emotional lives that is filled in by faceplate and knobs.Bizarre indeed.