More on the Importance of Critical Thinking Skills in Audio

All truth passes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Here’s a blast from the past that may shed some light on the philosophical insight above.

I had an interesting conversation with one of our good customers a while back. He had recently been chatting with some of his audiophile buddies about Hot Stampers. Let’s just say they weren’t buying any of it. This is more or less how he related the conversation to me over the phone (which started out as an email, most of which is reproduced below).

First he told me how much he has been enjoying his Hot Stampers, then we talked about his audiophile buds.

The Hot Stampers have been phenomenal as always. No matter how many records I buy, none can hold a candle to anything in my Hot Stamper collection.

A couple of my friends happen to be longtime audiophiles. As still a relative beginner to the world of audiophiles, I had hoped that these audio vets would be fans of Better Records, if not regular customers.

Instead they seemed to be incredulous at the thought of Hot Stampers — even though they had never heard one!! Admittedly, they have more years of experience in this endeavor, but I thought, hey, at least I am willing to give a great sounding record a try, right? Perhaps over the course of many years, people believe they have it all figured out. [More on that subject here.]

Anyhow, even if they could ultimately be persuaded by playing a Hot Stamper from my collection, it just seemed like such a ridiculous attitude to dismiss something that you’ve never listened to. Don’t get me wrong — they’re nice people, but it certainly doesn’t inspire faith in their approach to audio. As such, I’m sticking with the Better Records advice, whether it’s a record or system upgrade. And so far the audio wisdom you guys have offered has never failed to impress me.

Equally important, I appreciate your approach to the whole process, which seems to be rooted in the apparently radical idea of objectivity. What a concept!

That’s the gist of the story. I told him that he had officially just had his first taste of those whose ears are plugged up with Audiophile Dogma. Welcome to my world.

Just to be safe, when I got off the phone I looked up the word “incredulous,” which is defined as “unwilling to admit or accept what is offered as true.” In this case, these guys not only don’t believe two identical looking records will often sound different, they cannot even accept the possibility that they would.

It’s fine to be skeptical; I’m as skeptical as they come, and proud of it. But pig-headed is something else. I wrote this bit of commentary on that very subject:

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