On 28 Oct 2004 13:19:17 GMT, ohawker (Andy
Evans) wrote:

Now, if you are using the word better in a purely subjective way, good
for you - but it makes for problems on Usenet, because that isn't the
common usage of the term.

You present this as an 'either or' which I think isn;t exactly the case. We
have IMHO, and using vinyl/valves as a rather uncomfortable diptych (I use
valves but rarely vinyl, others vinyl and ss):

a) I 'prefer' the sound of vinyl/valves
b) I think valves/vinyl are audibly closer to the analogue source, in
subjective terms and in terms of fidelity to known acoustical sounds
c) I think that the present state of engineering, or at least 'general purpose'
engineering (leaving out niche specialists) would claim that solid state and
digital audio has better technical measuremants

Which, of course throws us back into the lions den of 'this measures better'
and 'this sounds more like a piano to my ears'. While engineering is
indispensible to audio, just as mechanics is to driving a car, an amplifier
does nothing until you put sound through it and a car does nothing until it's
driven. Listening is as much part of the audio experience as driving is to
cars, and musicians have a case for relevance in audio just as Schumacher has a
case for relevance in motoring - whether he's handy with a spanner or not.

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

We still have the basic problem here, which is that maybe genuinely -
someone feels that a valve system produces a more "lifelike" sound.
The problem is that it is hard to see this in terms other than a kind
of self-justification of a simple preference for the sound of valves.

The reasoning behind this is that it is (I hope you can agree) easily
demonstrable that CD and SS together produce an output which is -
objectively - far closer to what the pianist produced than vinyl and
valves can even hope to be.

So the problem as I see it is that we still have a situation where
purely subjective preferences are somehow, whether deliberately or
not, being translated into quasi-objective assertions of actual
superiority. Although I must say that the wording of the claims is
often not that blatant.

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com