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Stereophile is a terrific view into a culture of pseudo science and science denialism, but with extremely low stakes: it's just rich people wasting their money.

Stereophile is a terrific view into a culture of pseudo science and science denialism, but with extremely low stakes: it's just rich people wasting their money. It's worth reading because the prose is actually quite good and you can also see just how people determined to believe things can ignore or dismiss rational arguments.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
“It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.” - W. C. Fields My first impression most "audiophile gear" and specifically on ShakiStones below is "well, that's so ridiculous it shouldn't be legal" but on better consideration, good for them. If someone is that dumb, they need to be relieved of their money before they do something dangerous with it.
- im_down_w_otp 7y ago
  Does this sentiment only apply to rich dumb people, or does the "good" of exploiting people's gullibility for profit also extend to taking advantage of the poor and vulnerable? I ask because I've often wondered if this trait of American culture, wherein we've decided that defending oneself against predators & charlatans is up to the individual and not up to society (and if the individual fails at this, then "good for" the predator), might be the key difference between the U.S. and other first world nations which tends to land the U.S. at or near the bottom of various social goods & services metrics (balanced against the relative cost and our relative wealth). Because if the bias is toward rewarding predators for having been successfully predatory, then the result of the incentive seems like it will be that the ecosystem will be dominated by predators.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- hsitz 7y ago
  The people who purchase these products may also end up quite happy, experience increased enjoyment in listening to their music (or should it be "listening to their equipment"?), and feel like they got their money's worth. If so, one way of looking at it is that nobody's been taken advantage of at all.
- smolder 7y ago
  I think the saddest aspect of the pseudoscience around high end audio is these nonsense gimmicky products dilute the market for actual premium audio equipment. Typical mass produced consumer stuff is often pretty awful, but there are so many disingenuous or foolish reviews of equipment out there, the lesson people learn is that anything more expensive than the current deal on massdrop or at best buy is just a waste of money. I have figured out through a lot of research and consultation with honest experts what gets you good bang for the buck in the "higher quality" audio space, and what is purely gimmick, but it should not be so hard.
ghaff 7y ago
I subscribed to it for a year or two ages ago because there was some deal and I think it came with an audio calibration disk or something like that. I think it was around the time people were arguing about using a green felttip on CDs. Yes, it was quite a window into the high-end audio mindset--something I can't begin to appreciate even when there are legitimate differences between gear (which, of course, there often isn't with high-end audio).
brigade 7y ago
Interestingly, it’s also one of the few sources of comprehensive objective measurements of high-end speakers and other equipment. They’re just careful to never let the actual measurements influence the glowing prose of their main review; at most Atkinson gets off a mild shot or two in the conclusion to the measurement section (“somewhat idiosyncratic measured behavior”, “even with its rather lively cabinet”, “don’t measure as well as they could”)
- johnvanommen 7y ago
  John Atkinson is what sets Stereophile apart from all the other mags. Basically Stereophile has tons of articles that are clearly nonsensical, like reviews of $100,000 tube amps. But they also do objective measurements of equipment, which most magazines do not. That data is an absolute treasure trove; it's one of the best places to develop insight into the engineering of quality loudspeakers.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago

“It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.” - W. C. Fields My first impression most "audiophile gear" and specifically on ShakiStones below is "well, that's so ridiculous it shouldn't be legal" but on better consideration, good for them. If someone is that dumb, they need to be relieved of their money before they do something dangerous with it.

im_down_w_otp 7y ago
Does this sentiment only apply to rich dumb people, or does the "good" of exploiting people's gullibility for profit also extend to taking advantage of the poor and vulnerable? I ask because I've often wondered if this trait of American culture, wherein we've decided that defending oneself against predators & charlatans is up to the individual and not up to society (and if the individual fails at this, then "good for" the predator), might be the key difference between the U.S. and other first world nations which tends to land the U.S. at or near the bottom of various social goods & services metrics (balanced against the relative cost and our relative wealth). Because if the bias is toward rewarding predators for having been successfully predatory, then the result of the incentive seems like it will be that the ecosystem will be dominated by predators.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
hsitz 7y ago
The people who purchase these products may also end up quite happy, experience increased enjoyment in listening to their music (or should it be "listening to their equipment"?), and feel like they got their money's worth. If so, one way of looking at it is that nobody's been taken advantage of at all.
smolder 7y ago
I think the saddest aspect of the pseudoscience around high end audio is these nonsense gimmicky products dilute the market for actual premium audio equipment. Typical mass produced consumer stuff is often pretty awful, but there are so many disingenuous or foolish reviews of equipment out there, the lesson people learn is that anything more expensive than the current deal on massdrop or at best buy is just a waste of money. I have figured out through a lot of research and consultation with honest experts what gets you good bang for the buck in the "higher quality" audio space, and what is purely gimmick, but it should not be so hard.

ghaff 7y ago

I subscribed to it for a year or two ages ago because there was some deal and I think it came with an audio calibration disk or something like that. I think it was around the time people were arguing about using a green felttip on CDs. Yes, it was quite a window into the high-end audio mindset--something I can't begin to appreciate even when there are legitimate differences between gear (which, of course, there often isn't with high-end audio).

brigade 7y ago

Interestingly, it’s also one of the few sources of comprehensive objective measurements of high-end speakers and other equipment. They’re just careful to never let the actual measurements influence the glowing prose of their main review; at most Atkinson gets off a mild shot or two in the conclusion to the measurement section (“somewhat idiosyncratic measured behavior”, “even with its rather lively cabinet”, “don’t measure as well as they could”)

johnvanommen 7y ago
John Atkinson is what sets Stereophile apart from all the other mags. Basically Stereophile has tons of articles that are clearly nonsensical, like reviews of $100,000 tube amps. But they also do objective measurements of equipment, which most magazines do not. That data is an absolute treasure trove; it's one of the best places to develop insight into the engineering of quality loudspeakers.