It’s the time of year for saving money!
During the many years I’ve been attending audiophile
gatherings I’ve had many “Oh Really?” moments, when all you can do is nod,
smile, mumble, and think, “Oh Really, do you actually believe the tripe you’re
spouting?”
But no expression pegs my “Oh Really” meter quicker than
the phrase, “blows away.” Often used in the following sentence, “The Blah Blah
amplifier blows away the Bling Bling amp.” When I hear this I figure either the
Bling Bling was a total POS or the Blah Blah was being experienced by someone
who in their immediate past has only listened to broken Bling Blings.
In this day and age the sonic gap between gold-plated
ultra-fi and high-performance enthusiast gear has been reduced from the gapping
chasm of the 70’s and 80’s to a space just wide enough for a bedbug to snuggle
into. Does everything sound the same? Hell No! But the audible differences are
far less obvious than twenty years ago when one component could conceivably be
THAT much better than the competition. Today even $35.00 speakers can sound
decent.
So I humbly request that before you, or any of your
audiophile friends are tempted to use the phrase, “blows away,” substitute a
more appropriate phrase, such as “edges out” or “noticeably better” instead.
If you do, I’ll be far more likely to believe you.
