May not be HD compatible
For a country that prides itself on our high-tech superiority. our populous’ technical literacy is on par with its declining scientific literacy. While admittedly Best Buy — never one to let truth or fairness get in the way of selling an extended warranty — might have ulterior motives in sponsoring this survey, it sure feels right.
Survey Says: Best Buy Says You Don’t Know What You’re Doing With HD
Best Buy hired a firm to take a survey of the state of the American public’s knowledge of HDTV, and sad results are in. You don’t know what the hell is going on with your television.
Half of HDTV owners who responded to Best Buy’s survey “admit they are either not watching HD programming, or they aren’t sure if they are. Of these respondents, 35% didn’t realize they needed to subscribe to HD programming to watch HDTV.” Ok, this is sad. Just… sad.
The survey also suggested that ignorance about how to set up the HDTV was a source of embarrassment:
“While 41% of HDTV owners admit to knowing little to nothing at all about HD, they would not want to admit that to friends and family; Half (52%) of HDTV owners agree it would be difficult to admit their HDTV wasn’t set up right after showing off to friends and family. ”
The unsurprising news is that this survey is essentially a sales pitch for Best Buy’s overpriced cables and installation packages—both of which you can skip, along with the extended warranty… if you know what you’re doing.
Obviously, many people don’t, so do us a favor. Tell a friend everything you know about HDTV.
#62 omnicbex
“My suggestion: Get a LCD WUXGA (1920*1200) monitor that can take RCA, Component or S-Video, DVI, or even HDMI if that’s your bag…… ”
It would be nice if this worked as well in reality as it would appear to in theory but there are many reasons why this doesnt result in a superior quality image. There are more differences between PC monitors and Television monitors tha meet the eye. Color gamut and resolution to name a few. 1920 X 1200 does not equal 1920 x 1080. The image one way or another is scaled which results in a poorer image quality. When it comes to interlaced signals it just doesn’t work the same
>>but those others are respectable films…
You’re right, OFTLO. They’re respectable films, but the difference between watching them on a $199 TV and a $9999.99 super-duper bleeding edge Home Theater System isn’t worth a pile of spit. OK, it’s nice to see the hi-def nipples, I guess, but I’d rather see them in infinite resolution (IRL).
>>there is nothing on TV today, in my opinion, that needs any
>>technology that wasn’t available in 1990.
I concur. And as to the movies, the few they come out with that are worth watching, I go see in the theater. That way I get to spend $10 on a bag of popcorn and a soda, too. See, I’m a big spender!
#59 – Mark Derail
“Digital? Hey, we’re sending 0’s and 1’s, as PULSES. Even if the pulses are weaker at the other end, the bits will still make it. Any decent quality will do. Last time I checked, HDMI is digital.”
That’s utter nonsense. The signal is NOT pulses, it’s a square wave that goes back and forth from one fixed voltage and another – and the speed at which the signal changes from one voltage to the other is absolutely critical. The time from the lower voltage to the higher is called rise time, and that from the higher voltage back to the lower is, obviously, fall time.
Rise time and fall time are of supreme importance in digital electronics. As a cable gets longer, it is less and less able to carry high frequencies – and when high freqs are diminished – attenuated – the rise and fall times get longer. The nice neat square corners of the wave get rounded off. Longer cable = more rounding, until what started out at one end as a precisely timed digital signal is now a rounded-off sine wave, and which will cause the circuits at the other end to turn on and off at the wrong times, because the rise and fall times that are crucial to timing have been stretched beyond what will work correctly.
There’s considerably more to it than just that, but the point is made.
If – as you incorrectly state, Mark, that the “bits will still make it”, then there wouldn’t be any need for ever-more-expensive, ever-higher bandwidth Ethernet cables, such as Category 5 for 100Mb/s, and Cat 6 for 10 times that frequency, or 1Gb/s. If it were just “bits” and the cable didn’t matter, you could use lamp cord for 10Gb Ethernet, for pennies a foot instead of many dollars.
Cables carrying digital signal have fewer demands on them in only SOME aspects – in others, they must provide even HIGHER performance than analog. To transmit a particular frequency, if the signal is digital, the cable has to be MUCH better than if the signal were analog. A cable for carrying composite video – the yellow cable that runs with the red & white or red & black stereo audio pair we’re all familiar with – if carrying that composite video in analog form only has to be able to pass 100kHz – but if that composite video is digitized and then sent over a cable as digital, the cable will have to be able to pass roughly ten times the frequency, or 1MHz.
You really need to learn a lot more about signals and how they’re transmitted before delivering pronouncements on such things, Mark…
100k? 1M? WTF did that come from?
Must be the drugz… 😉
• • • • • • •
#xx – OFTLO
“I can (and should) make fun of Aeon Flux as well as the next guy (and I actually own a copy), but those others are respectable films…”
You laugh now, like a sheeple – because you’re expected to laugh. But AF is a considerably better movie than most people give it credit for, and for two good reasons: 1) It was skillfully, artistically and lovingly shot. Superb visuals, and the editing is of the same standard, daring and yet never calling attention to itself; and 2) the title role is played by one of the best actresses working today – who just happens to be gorgeous as well, by way of no harm.
10, 15 years from now, it will be (what am I saying, it already is) a cult classic which everyone will claim (falsely) that they recognized it’s value from the git-go. It certainly isn’t the first, nor will it be the last SF film to be panned and jeered at on release that is reassessed later and pronounced worthy – remember the same fate was suffered by Twelve Monkeys, Blade Runner, Dark City and Gattaca, just to name a few. No, it’s not Blade Runner, but it sure ain’t Freddy Got Fingered, either.
I like it more every time I watch it. And even if I hated it, Charlize Theron makes anything she’s in worth watching… 🙂
@2 Mustard: “When you’re watching the shit they show on TV, who gives a fuck if it’s in HD or not?”
Nice! I feel the same.
Lauren, geez, we’re talking the same thing.
A square wave that oscillates at a frequency … exactly what I said as a digital pulse. Synonymous. A signal that goes up & down that is timed. Since when do digital pulses vary?
Even weakened at the other end, the equipment receiving can still make out the crests. The noise will be out-of-phase and ignored.
And noise? On a shielded cable? C’mon! Even passing a 25′ footer over a Neon Ballast with a Monster or a shielded cheapie will suffer the same.
The big, noticeable difference, is on Analog signals, over distance. Below 10′ the cheapie gold tipped shielded cables found on eBay do the job perfectly, there’s just not enough distance for voltage drop to affect the signal in any significant way.
If there’s a source of interference that the cable will pick up like an antenna, it’s because it’s not shielded. They are easy to spot, basically speaker wire with RCA jacks at either end.
I’m pushing at 60hz 1920 x 1080p, digital images, videos, and games.
The TV image is better than my laptop’s which does 1920×1200 WUXGA – colors more vivid.
On a 25′ cable I paid 15$ plus shipping, that’s the fact, what gain would I have to tell a lie about this?
HDTV is actually just part of the ATSC, which will replace NTSC soon. ATSC supports many different resolutions, scan and frame rates and is digital rather than analog. ATSC use the MPEG 2 transport stream for broadcast. Off air ATSC HD is usually much better than cable at about 19 Mbit/s vs about 15Mbit/s with cable. Cable companies usually compress the hell out of the channels. I’ve seen them send 288×352 1 Mbit/s ATSC for channels like the History Channel . The only good streams I’ve seen are DiscoveryHD and INHD, nice and fat at about 38 Mbit/s.
Broadcast (off air) standards for HD:
CBS 1080i
NBC 1080i
ABC 720p
FOX 720p
PBS 1080i
I set up a Sony 34″ ATSC HD Tuner correctly at Frys and within seconds, literally, people started to stand around it and marvel, at PBSHD no doubt.
Sports are much better in 1080i by the way.
#68 Lauren the Ghoti
Aeon Flux is pretty good. I loved the animated MTV original. The movie has a few script issues but nothing I couldn’t overlook.
Charlize Theron while hot (edit: DAMN HOT) is not quite as good as Meril Streep or Judy Dench. She is good in her own right but she hasn’t earned the chops as of yet.
“Twelve Monkeys, Blade Runner, Dark City and Gattaca” All outstanding films. The last one has a special place because of my wife.
#70 Mark Derail
” square wave that oscillates at a frequency … exactly what I said as a digital pulse. Synonymous.”
Uh…………… NO. It isn’t which is obvious by this question “Since when do digital pulses vary?”
“And noise? On a shielded cable? C’mon! Even passing a 25′ footer over a Neon Ballast with a Monster or a shielded cheapie will suffer the same.”
Uh…………..NO again It just so happens I have a 35′ Monster cable that runs right past a neon ballast and I have 0 interference. I have one of your cheapy cables too 25′ and it delivers constant dropouts and pixel mashing.
“I’m pushing at 60hz 1920 x 1080p, digital images, videos, and games.”
Yes but if it is out of a PC it isn’t even using the full bandwidth. The audio from your PC isn’t coming from the HDMI cable. To truly understand the issues you have to be using the cable to it’s full potential. DVI to HDMI from a pc is not. Like I said try running a 7.1 TrueHD signal along with the 1080p video with Deep Color and let me know if you feel the same about your cheap cable.
“The TV image is better than my laptop’s which does 1920×1200 ”
LOL This shows that your judgment is defiantly not one to be trusted in such a matter. I have seen and own the best of the best HD projection and televisions. None of them are better for PC usage than my dell 24″ There are allot of reasons for this but lets just say you are fooling yourself into believing that.
“what gain would I have to tell a lie about this? ”
I don’t think you are lying I just think you are one of the people that the article is talking about. You cant tell the difference between a good signal and an average signal.
>>Lauren, geez, we’re talking the same thing.
>>A square wave that oscillates at a frequency … exactly what I said
>>as a digital pulse. Synonymous. A signal that goes up & down
>>that is timed. Since when do digital pulses vary?
Aw, give it up. In this case, the Fish Man is right. With enough capacitance in the cable, a nice crisp square wave can be transformed into a flat line with a voltage equal to the RMS of the square wave. Add in some spikes from outside interference through a poorly shielded cable, and the next thing you know you have something that makes as little sense as a George W. Bush speech.
I still maintain, though, that even with a superconducting cable, overpriced HD systems are a waste of money for watching 99.9% of the crap that’s available to watch on them.
#51
Ah. That’s good to know thanks.
#61
At the request of my wife (of course), I saw 300 in IMAX. It was incredibly grainy compared to Batman Begins which I also saw in IMAX which was extraordinarily crisp and clear. So, if 300 in HD looks anything like 300 in IMAX I’m not sure I’d be that impressed.
Regardless, movies are not so much the issue in buying HD because you can get them on DVD. The real question is whether broadcast shows in HD are better enough than a high quality TV in SD but with a digital signal ala DirectTV. From what I’ve seen so far, my opinion is that it is not better enough.
#68
No. Aeon Flux was considerable worse than most people originally thought. It was laughable bad compared to the original animated version which was superb. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a merciful 11%. Twelve Monkeys, Blade Runner, Dark City, and Gattaca by comparison were all excellent and many agree. Their Rotten Tomatoes ratings were 88%, 94% (Director’s Cut), 76% and 79% respectively.
That’s laughable, Best Buy of all stores is acting as the authority on HDTV’s? I guess you’d have to be a moron to actually take their adivce on HDTV’s anyway. They can take their survey of f-tards and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
>>They can take their survey of f-tards and shove it where the sun
>>don’t shine.
Well, that’s where most of the f-tards who buy HDTVs to watch crap on get their wares. Best Buy and places like that.
Lauren,
I think we simply aren’t going to see eye-to-eye on this. I’ve been working, so I didn’t get to respond to 34, but my point isn’t about accepting the higher resolution, but rather noticing it. If I’m watching a good film, say The Lord of the Rings or Blade Runner (both of which I saw in the theatre), I’m not going to be paying attention to the picture quality, but rather the film as a whole. if the picture quality is poor, I’ll notice and my enjoyment will be compromised. But ultimately, the difference between watching it in 480p vs. 1080p is going to be lost on me after a few minutes.
But for the record, Veronica Mars rocks.
– me –
#78, Max
Very good point. For the vast majority of people this will apply. Only the “techno snobs” would notice and demand the better.
HOWEVER, as someone pointed out above, it the “techno snobs” buying the bleeding edge in almost every field that bring down the prices for the masses.
NOTE: “techno snobs” is not meant as a derogatory name.
>>Only the “techno snobs” would notice and demand the better.
I’d be interested in knowing just how much they actually notice.
A BLIND comparison would be enlightening; one where they view and comment on the quality of the experience with the logos and the price tag$ removed from the equipment.
I have a sneaking suspicion that most of their discriminating snootiness may degrade faster than a square wave in a high-capacitance cable.
I give up.
Apparently Monster Cable is better than Generic quality built – both are shielded – both are gold tipped.
I’ve tried both over short distances and there is zero difference to me, in both analog and digital. I’m not the only non-expert to say the same.
Last I checked – Monster Cables were built in China, just like the Generics.
#80
Double blind studies of audiophile equipment have consistently shown that even the snootiest of audiophiles can’t tell the difference between a $2000 dollar stereo and a $100k stereo. Consistently and repeatedly over the last 20 years. The largest factor in how a stereo sounds is the room in which the speakers are placed.
I am sure you will find the same results with video equipment. Cables don’t matter if they are within specification. You ~might~ find a few people able to tell the difference between a component and hdmi cable, but I doubt it. The main feature of hdmi are for the content producers, not the consumers.
My guess is, most people will immediately see the difference between SD and HD video. I don’t think ~most~ people will be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on a standard television size at a standard viewing distance(say 40″-60″ with a couch or char 6′-10′ from the screen). On the other hand, I think it would become obvious at projector sizes(10′ screen with viewer sitting in front of projector).
You are right about the content being shit though. I watched bionic woman in HD last night. The CGI effects were blatant and obvious at HD resolution. Clearly the directors are still producing content intended to be viewed at SD resolution. While the movie I keep referencing (the one with the nipples) produced a seamless HD viewing experience.
Mr. Fusion,
That is absolutely true. In this case, however, I think it may be more the sports fans that are going to be the early adopters (if they can be called that at this point) rather than the techno snobs.
As for myself, I may eventually buy an HDTV, but it won’t be until my current TV dies, the standard is thoroughly hacked, I get one for free, or they get cheap enough so that my wife won’t notice. 🙂 And even then, I have serious reservations about the implementation of the technology with regard to content protection. I will either have a TV that I can use the way I want, or I won’t have one. This point is probably more relevant to the HD vs. BR vs. Download discussion, however.
– me –
>>Double blind studies of audiophile equipment have consistently
>>shown that even the snootiest of audiophiles can’t tell the
>>difference between a $2000 dollar stereo and a $100k stereo.
>>Consistently and repeatedly over the last 20 years.
That’s about what I would have expected. If you took away the status-symbol factor, I’ll bet that most of these exorbitantly overpriced audio-video-whatevero-phile companies would go out of business in a heartbeat, if they ever got started at all. The 0.001% of the population who can detect a difference (and some of them will find the difference for the WORSE, like your Bionic Woman/ HD experience) aren’t enough to sustain an industry. And when you subtract from that the number of X-philes who actually want to watch the shit they pump out these days….you’d be better of starting a sand business in Saudi Arabia.
#57 – Not to bring up the size of my penis but I really doubt your PC is even in the same league with mine. Then again I don’t own a computer that cost less than $10,000. My LOWEST graphics card alone probably cost more than you whole PC.
It’s not your penis… it’s your E-penis… And it wasn’t YOUR PC mine could eat, it was Lauren’s 🙂
(I’m just excited about the new gaming rig I assembled yesterday)
You obviously have never played WoW on a 120″ projection at 1920 x 1080
And I never will… But I’m happily play a good game on that screen 😉
#68 – 10, 15 years from now, it will be (what am I saying, it already is) a cult classic which everyone will claim (falsely) that they recognized it’s value from the git-go. It certainly isn’t the first, nor will it be the last SF film to be panned and jeered at on release that is reassessed later and pronounced worthy – remember the same fate was suffered by Twelve Monkeys, Blade Runner, Dark City and Gattaca, just to name a few. No, it’s not Blade Runner, but it sure ain’t Freddy Got Fingered, either.
I like it more every time I watch it. And even if I hated it, Charlize Theron makes anything she’s in worth watching… 🙂
Like I said… I own it… and really… I LOVE movies. I even found redeeming qualities in Freddie Got Fingered (which I don’t own). At least there was one 10 second clip that made me laugh in that otherwise deplorable mess.
I don’t think Gattica or Dark City are that good either, but I sure don’t hate them.
In fact, of all the fanboy collecting Sci Fi in the past decade, only Equilibrium is truly an unadulterated piece of plagiarized Orwellian shit…
#82 GregA
“Double blind studies of audiophile equipment…………………”
First….They are not the same thing.
Second….Wanna Bet
Third…. Any proof on that claim. You know like a real scientific study and not an audio magazine taste test?
Forth….It all depends on the person and it all depends on the room. For instance do you think your hearing is the same as a audio engineer?
“am sure you will find the same results with video equipment. ”
No you won’t
“Cables don’t matter if they are within specification.”
That has to be the most uneducated statement anyone has made yet. I hope you never need a zap from a pacemaker where someone with that belief is making the decision on components.
“I don’t think ~most~ people will be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on a standard television size at a standard viewing distance(say 40″-60″ with a couch or char 6′-10′ from the screen). ”
Yeah and I bet from 10 yards away you cant tell the difference between SD and HD. lol Just plain ridiculous to bring viewing distance into the debate.
“You are right about the content being shit though. I watched bionic woman in HD last night. ”
Well here we kind of agree. I saw it about 3 weeks ago and thought wow it was a much better approach than the first one but the script was really bad.
#85 OhForTheLoveOf
Sorry about that.
Lauren My E-penis is bigger and better than yours and my wife says they are too big and take up too much space. lol
“And I never will… But I’m happily play a good game on that screen”
LOL I don’t play it either LOL I just thought with it’s sale numbers I couldn’t mis LOL
I have to sit in the back row to play anything from a 1st person perspective or I get sick.
#57 pedro
LOL I see that now LOL
#87 – OFTLO
I don’t always grok a film the first time around, and both Gattaca & Dark City left me cold at first – but there was sufficient value for me to give ’em each a second chance – basically because I trust Uma Thurman and Jennifer Connelly both, not to mention the always-amazing Ian Richardson, to choose roles worthy of their talents – and with each viewing, those films’ depth and art become more apparent, and now they’re both indispensible parts of my collection.
• • • • • •
#82 – GregA
As per usual, you never let your profound ignorance of a topic prevent you from offering your value-free opinion.
“Double blind studies of audiophile equipment have consistently shown that even the snootiest of audiophiles can’t tell the difference between a $2000 dollar stereo and a $100k stereo. Consistently and repeatedly over the last 20 years.”
I wish I had a dime for every time over the last 40 years that I’ve heard the tin-eared and the envious spew this falsehood to their fellow ignoranti. It’s always been a symptom of feelings of inferiority, which are rejected by projecting one’s own inadequacies on others, to bring them down to one’s own level. “I can’t hear any difference – and since it’s impossible for anyone to perceive something I can’t perceive (i.e., “No one can be better at anything than I / I’m just as good as anybody else – and doggone it, people like me.” 🙂 ), they’re all lying or kidding themselves.” Give it up, son. We who know about such things know how full of it you are, and those who already agree with you don’t need any convincing, so you’re preaching to your own dysfunctional choir.
“The largest factor in how a stereo sounds is the room in which the speakers are placed.”
Thanks for the tip. I’ll be sure to write that down, coming as it does from someone who’s obviously either a) never even been in the same room with a properly set-up high-end system, let alone a studio, or b) is stone-deaf. Most of the greatest engineers and producers would pop their stitches with mirth if they heard you utter such horseshit. Speaker positioning is but one of a number of critical setup issues that can make or break a playback system’s ability to speak musical truth. It couldn’t possibly matter less, for example, where you place the speakers and how you treat the room – if the speakers are being driven by the wrong amplification. And that’s just for starters.
• • • • • • • •
#78 – Max Exter
“But ultimately, the difference between watching it in 480p vs. 1080p is going to be lost on me after a few minutes.”
That’s so – but it’s just that your perceptions have adjusted to the new standard. Of course you won’t notice after the novelty evaporates. But you’ll realize the difference quite sharpish when you switch back to the previous one – THEN the diff is even MORE obvious…
“But for the record, Veronica Mars rocks.”
I feel sorry for those who missed the boat, but they may someday see the light and watch it on Blu-Ray… 🙂
#89 – I am quickly learning to value your opinion of films even though we don’t see everything the same way. You seem to be one of those rare audio/videophiles who like movies and music as much as the gear you play it on 🙂
#82 – GregA
“Double blind studies of audiophile equipment have consistently shown that even the snootiest of audiophiles can’t tell the difference between a $2000 dollar stereo and a $100k stereo. Consistently and repeatedly over the last 20 years.”
I wish I had a dime for every time over the last 40 years that I’ve heard the tin-eared and the envious spew this falsehood to their fellow ignoranti.
There are two reasons I would rather debate religion and politics than to talk about audio and video. One is that my job is all about this stuff and at the end of the day, my will to care is sucked dry. And two is that no one ever got hurt discussing religion or politics 🙂
While GregA’s statement is grossly exaggerated, there is a lot of truth to it. And its the sentiment echoed by engineers, who are a higher order of authority than hobbyists (even frighteningly fanatic ones)…
The differences between high end gear and the specials in the Best Buy ads are very easy to both experience and measure. But when you start comparing gear in the same class, the differences get subjective (except it seems for flat panels… HPs 50 inch plasma sucks ass while Samsung’s looks pretty good.)
But when the zealous rants of audiophiles turn to cables, it all quickly descends into bullshit territory. That’s why Paul W Klipsch, when he was alive, used to wear a yellow pin with the word “bullshit” printed on it… …and that’s why I buy copper twisted pair at Home Depot.
It’s a very subjective business, so, your mileage may vary. If I seem jaded maybe its because I get tired of listening to 60’s burn outs describe listening to a Deep Purple record with amplifier X and speaker brand Y as a religious experience.
I mean Christ… It was Deep Freaking Purple on a record player. If you saw The Velvet Underground in a smoky New York basement in 1969, then talk to me, otherwise switch to decaf.
I once had to endure an hour long (very heated) debate between two guys… Guy one said guy two was full of shit because guy two was saying that you shouldn’t listen to music while wearing glasses because the reflections off your lenses color the sound.
I hate the home theater industry.
Give me computers, where our differences are settled in the Rocket Arena 🙂
>>For instance do you think your hearing is the same as a
>>audio engineer?
Who the fuck cares? Are you saying everyone should spend a lifetime of training so that their hearing is the same as that of “a audio” (sic) engineer, so that we have to buy $100,000 stereo systems and television sets to be satisfied, like Lauren the Fish Finger King? And then listen to pop music and watch Hollywood film crap on our .2 million dollar systems?
Pffft.
What a waste of time and money.
#91 – Dude! Fish don’t have fingers.
#91Mister Mustard
“Who the fuck cares? Are you saying everyone should spend a lifetime of training so that their hearing is the same as that of “a audio” (sic) engineer”
That wasn’t my point. I was refuting GregA’s statement “The largest factor in how a stereo sounds is the room in which the speakers are placed” with a question
My point was that it depends on the person more than anything. You could put two people in the same exact room and they will have 2 totally different experiences when it comes to what they hear.
I am not an audio engineer and I can most definitely tell the difference between a $2000 stereo and a $100,000 stereo. I can even tell the difference between a $2000 and a $20,000 stereo and I am willing to spend the money if I hear something I like.
If you cant hear it or don’t want to spend the money to experience that at home I don’t care but don’t come on and say there is no difference or that nobody notices because it just make you look stupid and inexperienced about the topic.
>>I can even tell the difference between a $2000 and a $20,000 stereo
So you say. If the price tags are on, it doesn’t count. Try (or post some links to) a blind test, showing that there’s a detectable difference for the better.
TIA.
>>Dude! Fish don’t have fingers.
They do when they have “women of a certain age” paying their rent. And their fingers stink. Of fish.
#90,
Not exaggerated at all. ABX testing conclusively proves that even stereophile s golden ear listeners can not tell the difference between amplifiers unless you compare against the lowest end devices. I dont care if you use tubes or neigh magical capacitors.
Furthermore, when ABX testing was done on Vinyl and CD’s, Once again using stereophile’s golden eared listeners, they picked CD’s as a superior format, without exception.
Further stereophile magazine testing on CD tweaks indicated that stereophile’s golden eared listeners thought two sources were different, when they were actually the exact same source… 58% of the time. (so much for those golden ears eh?)
The evidence that audiophiles are full of shit is so damning that Sterophile magazine has since claimed that double blind testing doesn’t provide useful results. Facts be damned. Reminds me of the time that a naked emperor claimed that there was something wrong with his subjects eyes.
I won’t even go into the ABX testing results of WMA vs AAC… But none the less, the compression techniques we have now, are a result of quality testing done with… you guessed it ABX testing.
Same thing for speakers, but once again, there is little difference between a $500 speaker and a $10,000 speaker. This is not subjective! This is testing done by golden ear listeners with ABX testing equipment.
The facts are conclusive, the number one influence on the sound your stereo makes is the room that it is in.
It is a shame that audiophiles now forswear things like… oh I don’t know… science, because people like LOG could use ABX devices to improve their own listening experiences by adjusting the rooms that they listen to it in.
If you feel differently, I say put up or shut up, there are numerous audiophile challenges around the web. All you have to do is prove that you can differentiate between things like… amplifiers and speakers and you win a pile of cash. I think even James Randi has an audiophiles challenge.