I don't believe you guys understand the level of trial and error that is the history of electronics. The very nature of it being a technology means it's under constant change. Why this constant state of change? Well because it evolves due to the scientific principle and the method there applied. It's important to note that a significant portion of the underpinning physics going on that drives our wonderful technology is barely understood. Take for example a white LED. We use them all the time today in flashlights etc right! Do you guys realize that we don't have ANY scientific assertion that explains how it works! It's these realities that allow progress to occur. For our TVs and stereos to evolve and improve as time progresses. Technology such as this is build upon the foundation of countless forebearers many countless trial and error attempts. Sure test equipment can be used as tools to help guide us in this subjective reality but they are not the be all end all of applied scientific principle. The aliased nature of the data-sets produced by such equipment make them inherently poor at quantifying such relativistic axioms as Hydrodynamics, Acoustic Theory and Aerodynamics. All of these are THEORY and our subjective reality granularity dictates, as it pertains to the human sense hearing, that no test equipment could ever possible hope to discern what good old wet wear can do or field testing. Have we come a long way... YES bigtime... specially in acoustic theory the last 20 years using DSPs etc and recent maths but we are still no where near a complete and unified theory nor do we possess any test equipment with the granularity to do so... yet

Out of all the technological applied endeavors go, boat hull design, speaker design, mike design and even yes... transport design due to it's analogous nature dictates that test equipment will NEVER and I mean EVER discern what the human ear or field testing can do... EVER and as for components making the difference. I personally have replaced something as simple as a capacitor and notice a major sonic change. Heck even using different hook ups IE cables can produce a noticeable sonic change. Have you guys not ever change out cables and noticed a change in the sound for god's sake !?!

Listen there are two camps in this fundamental debate regarding the technology of sound equipment. Those that, for example, say lamp cord is same as expensive speaker cables and those that claim their speaker cable makes a "huge" LOL difference. All I know is I find my self using the phrases "within reason" and "law of diminishing returns" lots with people when discussing these things. Those that say you can't tell the difference what so ever either have bad hearing or... they are "tone deaf" LOL Within reason means YES any person with hearing can tell the difference between a piece of shit 18ga one conductor copper the other ALUMINUM Chinese CRAP one wold pickup in a Canadian Tire with the Belden 1313A SKU I use for my installs. Would a person discern my 1313a from a piece of silver clad boutique cable? probably not! Can I tell the difference between my 1313a and say some magnet wire with corks or cat5e Gordian knot like lunacy? YES YOU CAN! Is it worth the effort? Well that's another story!

All I know is the truth lays somewhere between both camps as it always has...

Solid-State

Last edited by SolidState; 08/20/09 05:39 PM.