Comments on Profile Post by Woland

Thumbs up to tube hybrid vs solid state. This is a 4/4 consensus now.

Tube rolling makes a difference (it barely does to me and others)

Two big thumbs up to HQplayer and its Sinc-MX filter (replacing Schiit's Super Combo Burrito filter internal in Gungnir). Less enthusiasm for other HQplayer filters.

I don't trust musicians for appreciation of hifi/audio at all. One thing is that their profession causes hearing damage.

That I can grasp, but because I am not a musician, the next thing on my list I see but don't understand: they listen to music differently. I've seen musicians listening to nth-generation cassette copies that hurt my ears, but they were still totally getting it. Whatever their it was.

@Thad E Ginathom I don't trust engineers for appreciation of hifi/audio at all. We hear from them a lot more than musicians.

@Thad E Ginathom What's great about highly trained musicians is their highly trained listening and skill at articulating what they hear.

Glenn Gould sent a several groups of people a highly-spliced tape, and asked them to identify the splices. Professional musicians were the worst at it.The best was a librarian with no musical training.

I would think a classical musician is less likely to have hearing loss. I guess it depends if they play in a loud orchestra.

@loadexfa a lot of instruments are loud enough to damage hearing from home practicing.. flute & violin are played at room-filling volume but held pretty close to the head.

@Claritas I'd like to read more about this.

@Thad E Ginathom pretty condescending, but ill give you that most musicians/artists shouldnt be in the field in the first place, so it can be accurate. Lets say most people dont know anything. Just go to your local amusement park lol.

@Cellist88, I was telling myself off for the generalisation, which I readily accept. Of course, there are two circles: of musicians and audiophiles, which I have squished together, when they are overlapping. Of course there are those that belong in both

What I won't do is assume that because someone is an musician they are a good reference for hifi listening. They need to be an audiophile (or maybe a sound pro) as well. And they may very well not be. No offence intended to musicians. Or audiophiles.

"The Grass is Always Greener in the Outtakes: An Experiment in Listening" in The Glenn Gould Reader, pp. 357–368 (originally published in High Fidelity, August 1975).