why do we argue?


I suppose it's human nature?

Not everyone can get along,at least all of the time.

Squablles occur in the best of families,sometimes over big issues, sometimes over small ones.

So why should the audio "family" be any different?

Some forums have gone to great pains to cleanse their sites and free them from confrontations between audiophiles who can't see eye to eye, or perhaps we should say, ear to ear.

But where's the harm in all that squabbling? Really?

If someone finds it offensive, then why continue to read it, like a moth drawn to the flame,if you think it's going to harm you, don't enter.

No one is making you.

Then if you feel you have to post your objections to objectional comments(who made you the boss?)then you are not the solution ,you're just adding to the problem.

Like bringing gasoline to put out the fire.

You're going to be on one side or the other,or perhaps you are the "let's kiss and make up type" "can't we all be friends?"audiophile who has only everyone's best wishes at heart.

There's always a "mom" to come between two fighting brothers isn't there,and you know she can't take sides,calling a truce is her job.

But until the real issues have been addressed, the argument is never over.

It's always there under the surface,just waiting to boil over given half the chance.Power cords one day, fuses the next, and demagging lp's? Please!

It usually starts in audio forums when some chump posts that a piece of something that cost more than it should, made an improvement that someone who wasn't there to hear it says it didn't.

Get the gist?

I did it, I heard it, I was there,who are you to tell me I didn't hear it, and how dare you call me dillusional?That's the response to the first response from the folks who know it just can't be real.

Surely if I am half a man, I'll have to make some sort of reply.And reply to the reply and on and on again and again.

I'll have to try to proove that I heard what I heard, but you need scientific proof.

Obviously I can't provide any, I am a chump, not a scientist, I bought the snake oil didn't I?

So on and on it goes and intensifies until enough is enough and two or more members of the family are banished from the fold.

The community all the better for it, or so it tells itself.

But is it?

If everything in this hobby is scrutinized to the point that if there isn't a scientific white paper to back up the claims, how much of what we take for granted today would be lost to the audio community at large?

Zip cord,stock giveaway cords of all srtipe would be all that we would have.There'd be no equipment stands or various footers, no isolation devices of the electrical and mechanical persuasion,no spikes,no fancy metals,in short there would be no aftermarket anything.

It would be a 100% snake free world,a totalitarian utopia for the less than feeble minded audiophiles that there are so many of. Those foolish folks who thrive on fairy dust need to be saved from their own foolish and wasteful ways.

At least that's the way I've seen it from my perspective.

I know it's too late to save me.Salvation passed me by decades ago.
lacee
We could always argue about whether cables make a sonic difference or whether tubes or transistors are better, right? And at the root of every one of those threads is a more basic question - the one Lacee raised- about group behavior that applies to a lot of the spirited debate as well as the mud-slinging that goes on here and on almost every internet chat board. And there are a lot of interesting questions relating to the "philosophy" of home music reproduction that transcend the "is X product better than Y product" types of questions. I'm good with all of it.
Actually, Dan wrote:

"Why do people want to get philosophical in a hobby forum? :-) "

Note the smiley face. I know I missed it at first.

Actually, I find our Chimp-like DNA (this is a scientific fact I believe the # I have read is 95%+ similar) a much more compelling topic than why we argue. Possibly even more entertaining as well! :>
I have been making this observation for years re other related subjects/discussions and it should be made again: 77 (!) responses to the OP, and not ONCE, not a single time is the word "music" mentioned.

We get very personal about our music. That is a good thing, and is a testament to the power of music. While IMO some put too much emphasis on the technical aspects of the hobby, the connection to the music is inevitable since without it there is no way to talk about the tweaks and all their (sometimes) questionable effects. Nobody likes to hear that someone else is hearing something in our music that we aren't or can't. So, it is a very human response to get defensive and argue at the proposition.