Art Dudley Listening

of this caliber and scope –I humbly apologize for both military terms– would have not even been conceivable before AD 2019. I resign.

I haven't felt engaged with AD's writing for some time now. Politics don't help matters.

Art's comments and writing get under your skin because he speaks the truth. You can always tell when someone/thing hits a nerve because the truth friggin' hurts doesn't it Lee and Ok?

Has it already been three years since the rabbit pic column?

Man, tempus fugit!

Anyway, whose dick? It reads to me like Art thinks that both the X axis and the Y axis of the hobby are both his dick. That’s some sword fight!

I think the real issue is that men tend to like toys like these more than women do, in general. This is a hobby about sound and toys, not music.

“The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.”
― Jean Renoir

Toxic masculinity ...... Hegemonic masculinity (Wikipedia) :-) .........

Totally agree Art. And nicely articulated, as always.

Of course not everyone will agree, but they're just a bunch of xxxxx xxxx ers :-)

If you want a breath of fresh air have a wander round the Roon Forum - singly the most civilised audio forum there is. In fact up there with the best whatever the subject.

Phil

Nice to hear Art's call for more civil discourse amongst audiophiles and request that women be treated with respect. Those are laudable thoughts. Here, for your consideration, are reasons why I am skeptical this is the dawn of a new age:

“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
― Mark Twain

Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.
― Robert Heinlein

He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
― Groucho Marx

to know that people who dream of a civilized audio world are more than ready to call their straw-opponents nothing less than idiots and dickheads.

...by changing the spelling of the people in the music store to an 'n', instead of an 'ssh'. (But the lizards...right...I get it now.)

It took becoming a reviewer for people to refer to me as "Lasagna", something that hadn't happened since grammar school.

Everything sounds the same if you're not listening.

Cheers

Michael (Lasagna) Lavorgna
Editor
Twittering Machines

"Listen to the Music" .......... The Doobie Brothers :-) .........

need to shut the * up.

I truly love reading your writing in most cases.

But.

This piece seems, unfortunately, in the vein of "audiophiles picking on other audiophiles for not being the right type of audiophile."

We get that you aren't a big "imaging/soundstaging" guy, and of course you ought to enjoy what you enjoy. But audiophiledom isn't some purity test and people can enjoy whatever they enjoy. I don't understand the need to denigrate soundstaging (depth or otherwise) or "bass." We all care about sound and audio gear around here and it's a glass house we live in when we want to cast stones at the aspect some other audiophile likes about sound or equipment.

I think the same goes for casting the desire some have for maximizing soundstaging or bass with "penis size." That is frankly lazy pop psychology. It's what many people resort to to when they just don't really want to spend the time trying to understand another viewpoint, and imagine instead cartoon characterizations.

In my experience (55, life long audiophile) I've found audiophiles to generally be driven by real passion and enthusiasm, vs some superficial "dick measuring" or "just out to impress others" motivation. Sure, some can be very enthusiastic about showing off their system, but usually this is an expression of their fundamental enthusiasm for the hobby. There's a reason they got in to high end audio in the first place.

I've seen the charges of "dick measuring"thrown around, but I've never actually met anyone that truly fits that caricature, whose purchases weren't based on their actual enthusiasm for their hobby.

Sorry if I'm being a bit gruff, but in a world that seems to be growing ever more divisive, audiophiles finding reasons to diss other audiophiles - because one audiophile may not be sharing the same criteria as another - is something I"m tired of seeing in the community.

Then there is the second subject in your piece. You mention a person who sees his "duty" to educate audio enthusiasts in the foolishness of preferring LPs over CDs or music files, and to save them from spending money on expensive electronics."

As we don't have access to this fellow for his side of the story, it seems at least some skepticism may be in order as to whether that was an accurate characterization or what he may have actually said.
It does seem to be something of a caricature.

But either way, that character seems a stand-in for the general phenomenon of "objectivist" types who bemoan nonsense in high end audio and who wish to knock down what they see as b.s. in the high end. So this would often entail taking on the claims about high end cables etc.

If you really mean to speak not only of that individual, but generally ask "why would anyone care?" it just seems a failure to put on the shoes of the "other side" and think their position through, because the answer seems rather obvious.

The only way you can understand the motivations of such people is to understand their assumptions or position: e.g. that for instance "expensive AC cables" or whatever are snake oil. Many "out to save others from buying" such snake oil believe they have good technical reasons on their side for their conclusion, and often good methodological reasons (e.g. the problems of sighted bias used to determine that AC cables make a sonic difference).

So now, understanding that assumption, you may as well be asking "Why would any reasonable adult care about the truth?"

And...that's a weird question, isn't it?

Say you were about to buy what you thought to be a diamond ring for your fiance at a jeweler. Unbeknownts to you, the jeweler takes advantage of your lack of knowledge about gems and sells you a fake diamond instead. You paid $8,000 for a diamond when what you actually got could have been had for 40 bucks. Now, are you going to actually say "Well, as long as I'm in the dark about the scam, I think I bought a real diamond and my wife is made happy thinking she has a real diamond ring...that's all that matters!"

Nobody really would accept that, and a jeweler who tried to use that excuse for scamming you if you find out - "hey, YOU thought it was real and were happy, what's the problem?" - would likely find a fist in his face.

People do care about the truth. We don't really want to be deceived.

If someone knowledgeable about diamonds had been there seeing the jeweler taking advantage of you, and they pointed out that you were about to buy a fake stone, and explained to you how you can know the fake from the real one, would the rational response be "mind your own business, I'm buying a diamond here!"

?

The scenario where knowledgeable people want to promote what they know about audio gear, and educate people about audio myths and why you might not be getting what you think you are getting for your money, is perfectly understandable and, frankly, I welcome it.
More knowledge is always better; informed choices are always better than ill-informed choices. Some people are trying to arm us with information that will help us know when we are being taken advantage of by neato-sounding technical stories, which may take advantage of many consumers lack of understanding.

And part of this "education" will also have to do with pointing out the liabilities in how most of us evaluate gear - purely subjective, no controls for bias, which allows practically anything anyone can claim to be "validated" by some portion of audiophiles. So the whole "if someone takes home X component and finds they like it, why would anyone have anything to say about that?" line of reasoning just fails to address this problem. If you use a method prone to error, then you can just as easily end up via that method believing you are buying "that fake diamond" as you would under some form of sales pressure. There are various ways you can be deceived in to not actually getting what you thought you paid for (e.g. some objective change to the signal in your sound system).

So an"objectivist" may say: "Look, I know you believe you took home that beautiful looking AC cable and were convinced it made such a sonic difference it was worth the $5,000 to you....but unfortunately, given the dubious nature of the technical claims made for the product and how robust sighted bias can be...it's pretty likely you could have got the same actual performance from a vastly cheaper AC cable."

This is a reasonable, skeptical statement. It's not a personal attack as many audiophiles seem to take it. Being informed about the controversial nature of a high end product and about the problems of sighted bias is a form of potentially useful information.

This doesn't of course entail that we all have to turn out product buying in to some science experiment. That's just impractical for most of us. We can go about using as much subjectivism as we like (and I often do). But personally I like to do so in something of an informed manner, having some understanding when I'm wading in to possibly spending money on something that may not actually change anything audible in the signal of my system. And I truly appreciate the efforts many people who have sought to "educate" us audiophiles about the controversial claims within high end audio. I know I have saved some good money in some cases by either being persuaded by "save your money" arguments or even via my own blind testing of some products. So...if you ask me, I say: more power to those White Knights :)

If, btw, you end up reading these comments and I have misunderstood your point, I would be happy to have my errors corrected.

Cheers (from a true fan of your writing!)

Art is apparently a male who flatly believes it is wrong for YOU to enjoy great soundstaging and good bass as according to Art these qualities are of no importance (huh?---how WEIRD) to our hobby.
Art's systems have NEVER had great soundstaging OR good bass.
And he is PROUD of that fact.
I even suspect Art doesn't KNOW how to get great soundstaging OR great clean bass. These qualities aren't even ON his list of things to DO.
Oh.
And Art LIKES to parade his virtue as a "known" "character" who has the inside track on our hobby because of his "virtue signalling" and ability to assault those that won't bow to him.
Art LIKES to divide the world into those that worship his narrative---and those cretins that haven't yet recognized his moral superiority...
I'm a little sick of his posturing.
I GET that Art knows a lot about obscure pieces of kit.
And for that I am grateful and have USED his knowledge to improve my systems.
His insights into LOMC transformers have been a revalation to me personally.
And I love his passion for long since obsolete pieces of kit that we all owe a debt of gratitude to.
I was even slightly amused at his reconditioned Quad fetish and love of early Altec drivers. And let's not forget the idler wheel Thorens rebuilds...
But I keep feeling "slimed" by his posturing of moral superiority.
I don't WANT to be sold a phony narrative about the superiority of all things ART and the inferiority of all things well engineered...
Good grief, Art is just a HiFi equipment reviewer.
Not some sort of wizard of Oz.
Wait.
Perhaps Art really WANTS to be the Wizard.
Oh my.
I sense smoke and mirrors.
Bah.
Humbug.

(The) Art of listening, keeps evolving :-) ..........

You still hanging around these parts, I see.
Yes I agree to finding Art "light entertainment" and his prose amusing on occasion.
I just got fed up with Art's desire to DIVIDE our little band of hobbyists into those that like him, treasure details over the big picture.
Art loves the "old ways" as if they are signs of a superior intellect.
I know all about them having started with my first systems back when stereo radio meant ONE FM radio playing the left channel next to ANOTHER AM radio playing the right channel.
I personally use the old ways as a guide on how far we have come.
Then I find something newer and perhaps (occasionally) better and use it to build a total system that has strong bass and a great soundstage.
I believe in "having it ALL."
That includes all the "life" the old ways had in them.
AND adding modern better built longer lasting designs.
AND having FULL BANDWIDTH.
AND having it sound "just like a real band in your room."
Art can suck it if he doesn't like my approach.
Let him stick to his precious approach to our hobby.
Sometimes he finds real gems.
But once in a while I have had it up to here with his "precious" side trips and his condescension.
We're all here to learn how to have more fun AND make our playback a thing of joy.
Not play power trip games...
No?

Well said. Concerning guitars, I suspect that you, like I, frequent establishments where your scenario doesn't play out too often. Out here, for me, it's Sevie Coyle's Mighty Fine Guitars, Schoenberg's, etc.

Best wishes to you (miss you in Fretboard Journal!)