From: kurts@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com (Kurt Strain)
Newsgroups: rec.audio
Subject: Re: Science versus TechnoBabble and Golden Ears
Date: 16 Oct 92 16:25:48 GMT
Organization: Outpost 1T

In rec.audio, kucharsk@solbourne.com (William Kucharski) writes:

>   While reading article <23900@alice.att.com>, I noticed that
>   jj@alice.UUCP (jj, really disgusted curmudgeon) said the following:
>    >This is part of why the US HAS no audio industry.
>
>   Uh, I know it's hip and trendy in this thread to bash the Golden Ears, but
>   in reference to the comment above, try the following exercise:
>
>   1) Pick up a copy of the October, 1992 issue of Stereophile.
>   2) Scan through both the "Recommended Components" and the advertisements
>      within, and note the number of companies located overseas.
>
>   As opposed to mass-fi, the locale of high-end audio manufacturers breaks down
>   more or less as:
>
>   	90%	United States
>   	 5%	Europe
>   	 3%	Canada
>   	 2%	Japan
>
>   Just my quick $.02...

Well, according to JJ and company, those American high-end products are all
based on voodoo science and don't really count as valid audio components.
Only Japan's rational scientific approach produce REAL audio at valid
prices.  Maybe there's a connection between this type of thinking and 
JJ's persistent presence as the annoying caucasion posting to 
soc.culture.asian.american.  (He was brought to my attention by an asian-
american co-worker.  She asked, "why does this JJ guy always post here?"
I said, "maybe he's trying to get a job with Nakamichi and wants to learn
more before he goes there, in the meantime boosting the political agenda
for Japanese goods." Hey, I could be wrong.)  My audio system is predominantly
US made.  Where's JJ been all this time?  Listening to bad stereos, I presume.
He's supposed to come off as an expert in audio and he can't even evaluate
a stereo for sound quality?  My wife, the winemaker, wouldn't have her job if 
she were like that.  I don't consider JJ an expert on sound reproduction
as a result.  At least Dick Pierce has voiced opinions on commercial equipment.

Of course Bob Meyers falls for the Japanese rational audio thinking process,
a kind of one-dimensional approach where only proven facts can be thought
of, else you should be convicted of a thought crime.  I guess that's what
they mean by rational.  If they don't understand it, it can't be rational.
I guess they feel obligated to uphold their feeling of how the world 
works, and defend what they don't experience as voodoo.  Well, if that's
the case, there's no more to talk about it because I've read all the rational
science on this net and I didn't learn a thing from it.  That would
leave you with nothing more to talk about.  

Peter Wood seems to be filtering what I say by calling me "Subjectivist 
Only" guy.  I must not be clear enough and simple enough for people to
understand what all I've written here.  I guess your modelling process is
just as I suspected, kind of how Ronald Reagan modelled the world.  Black
and white.  Good guys and the evil empire.

By the way, since you put it that the bumble-bee analogy is an example
of bad science (which is what I agree with), then I think the analogy
is quite appropriate.  People have passed the double-blind tests over
and over and still the conclusions are thrown out because more don't
hear and don't want to.  And we still have to put up with the crap that
serves to diminish our own industry.  I think it's criminal to use 
one's so-called expertise to destroy what's left of an industry in this
country, and it especially pisses me off when the experts claim to know
more than they do.  I guess they just get a power trip or something.  
I have no other understanding except maybe they just can't face up to 
the fact that they don't understand it.