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I came across this post in a technical page of Aiken Amps site. He's right on the money...
Q: Why is it, when discussing circuits in internet forums, that people with no technical background always seem to claim that they can hear so much better than someone with an electronics background?
A: That's the "golden ears" strategy, a time-honored internet arguing technique used with limited success by those who are usually "technically challenged", i.e. "internet armchair engineers", who cannot produce supporting data to back up their side of the argument. These people tend to rely heavily on tenuous, unprovable concepts, such as "magic" and "luck"to describe circuits [edit: that's 'mojo' to you and I] , rather than anything concrete, like mathematics, scope plots, or plain old reason and common-sense.
The laws of "golden ears" are a bit complex. Here they are, at least as far as I have been able to ascertain:
(1) "You are not allowed to make any mention of golden ears until you are losing an argument and have no way to save face."
(2) "He who first proclaims to have golden ears is the only one in the argument who can truly have golden ears." The opponent, therefore, must, by the rules, have tin ears, since there can only be one golden-eared person per argument. Now, everyone else on the board may have golden ears, but only if they choose not to perform the test in question that may disprove the theory. These people may be brought up as often as possible, until that point where they actually perform said test and obtain results not in accordance with the original golden-eared proponent's position.
(3) "Golden ears can only exist on a person who has no formal education in the subject matter." The minute a person receives an engineering degree, his ears automatically turn to tin, and he cannot be trusted with even the simplest test of tone or frequency response, no matter how long he or she has been in the field of interest.
(4) "Once you have proclaimed golden-ear status, you can no longer answer any questions, nor put forth anything of a technical nature, because you may slip up and show that you really have no clue as to what you are talking about." At this point, your golden ears have become tarnished, and everyone will see the emperor has no clothes, so this situation should be avoided at all costs. Should this happen, you have no choice but to either slink away and hope nobody notices and soon forgets about you, or loudly proclaim victory in the vain hope that someone will believe you.
It's worth thinking about seriously and making sure you don't fall into that trap. To the older members I fear it will sound sadly familiar.
Q: Why is it, when discussing circuits in internet forums, that people with no technical background always seem to claim that they can hear so much better than someone with an electronics background?
A: That's the "golden ears" strategy, a time-honored internet arguing technique used with limited success by those who are usually "technically challenged", i.e. "internet armchair engineers", who cannot produce supporting data to back up their side of the argument. These people tend to rely heavily on tenuous, unprovable concepts, such as "magic" and "luck"to describe circuits [edit: that's 'mojo' to you and I] , rather than anything concrete, like mathematics, scope plots, or plain old reason and common-sense.
The laws of "golden ears" are a bit complex. Here they are, at least as far as I have been able to ascertain:
(1) "You are not allowed to make any mention of golden ears until you are losing an argument and have no way to save face."
(2) "He who first proclaims to have golden ears is the only one in the argument who can truly have golden ears." The opponent, therefore, must, by the rules, have tin ears, since there can only be one golden-eared person per argument. Now, everyone else on the board may have golden ears, but only if they choose not to perform the test in question that may disprove the theory. These people may be brought up as often as possible, until that point where they actually perform said test and obtain results not in accordance with the original golden-eared proponent's position.
(3) "Golden ears can only exist on a person who has no formal education in the subject matter." The minute a person receives an engineering degree, his ears automatically turn to tin, and he cannot be trusted with even the simplest test of tone or frequency response, no matter how long he or she has been in the field of interest.
(4) "Once you have proclaimed golden-ear status, you can no longer answer any questions, nor put forth anything of a technical nature, because you may slip up and show that you really have no clue as to what you are talking about." At this point, your golden ears have become tarnished, and everyone will see the emperor has no clothes, so this situation should be avoided at all costs. Should this happen, you have no choice but to either slink away and hope nobody notices and soon forgets about you, or loudly proclaim victory in the vain hope that someone will believe you.
It's worth thinking about seriously and making sure you don't fall into that trap. To the older members I fear it will sound sadly familiar.
