by Paul McGowan From PS Audio

It’s May 11th and, dammit, yesterday I turned 71 years old.

I used to love birthdays.

The older I get the less I want to prove anything to anyone. Experience suggests it’s a fool’s game.

How many times have I produced videos demonstrating differences in audio equipment with the exact same results? My video of the vibration damping feet at RMAF that clearly demonstrated differences audible on an iPhone’s microphone drew exactly the same division of opinions as one would expect. Those who are open to the idea agreed they worked. Those closed to the concept howled “it was rigged” or “the speakers were inches apart and at different heights”.

We hear and see what we wish to.

I got another wonderful surprise when I posted a video on noise suppression in power cables. Using an off-the-shelf AC sniffer I demonstrated how a stock shielded power cable radiates a loud chorus of noise while our properly shielded aftermarket power cables were as quiet as whispers. Those open to the notion that cables matter pointed with pride that their viewpoint had been proven while those that are convinced of the opposite scoffed. “Noise like that doesn’t affect audio.”

And the circle goes round and round.

What we’re doing is attempting to get another person to see what we see, hear what we hear, believe what we believe.

I think most of us are so invested in being right—justifying our own belief system—that we work hard at ignoring what’s often right in front of us.

The choir’s heard it all before.

For more on this story go to; https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/preaching-to-the-choir/