[Engineer]

"MiNe 109" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Arny Krueger" wrote:


(big snip)

This shows objectively that the wine drinkers enjoyed the high-priced
wines more. If you're analogizing to audio, the case is that audiophiles
may be fooling themselves, but they really are enjoying themselves more.

Stephen

I suspect that the wine business is a lot more logical than high-end audio.
The producers and marketers taste the stuff and then figure out whether it
is worth $10, $15, $20, $25, etc, per bottle - then it hits the shelves.
It's no surprise that a $25 bottle generally tastes OK and a $10 bottle a
bit rough... (as an engineer I've never been able to afford anything more
pricey!) There are anomalies, of course; sometimes you find a $10 bottle
that tastes "above it's price", but not often - the industry is smarter than
that! I do not think "high-end" audio is marketed this way, i.e. listen
and then price. I think they (producers, marketers) pursue all the "oxygen
free snake oil" they can find, then price the result so as to get the
biggest margin possible, then promote the heck out to it to sell it.
Result: some good audio at a too high price (the "oxygen free snake oil"
itself doesn't harm the sound unless it violates proper engineering
somewhere) but also some over-priced bad audio where the engineering has
been compromised by greed or simple ignorance, e.g. trying to violate the
laws of physics. ("Canna do it, captain".) Vote with your dollars in the
marketplace - "The ayes, er... sorry, the ears have it".
Cheers,
Roger