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peeder · 27th May 2007

No, I don't know of anyone specifically acting as shills. And it's quite OK to be a "fanboi". You could easily accuse me of being a fanboi for the Digi 003, or the ADAM S3A, or the Senn MD-441. I'm not a shill because I'm not in cahootz...I don't get anything from any of these companies in return for my fandom.

So I used the word "shill" for effect. There are certainly hucksters around here of course but most often they offer at least 25% helpful info to offset the sales effort, and they are mostly clearly labeled as sales staff.

It is 100% AOK to make artistic decisions with your opinions, and it's 100% AOK to share your opinions and experiences online. This medium is an interesting blend of art and science. The critical thing is that the art doesn't have to suffer for the science or vice-versa: when both are done correctly, they benefit each other greatly.

My main issue is that there is outright misleading information out there that people here (the "hucksters") are making money off of and know full well they really should be correcting. They are always around to help people buy things that won't help them and I can almost hear them snickering to themselves when people declare "I heard a profound improvement!" when none was in fact possible as a result of the part they sold and may have come from simply re-seating cables or something. That's illegitimate. It's not the way business is done online. Online is the antidote for that crap, provided people are willing to confront it.

It's very unpleasant to confront it, because there's always the risk that you're wrong... I may in fact be wrong about BLA mods. I wouldn't buy one myself to test it. I would love for there to be a "Consumer Reports" for audio that took these scientific aspects of the business and published full reviews. Certainly a given person might prefer a lower-fidelity sound to a higher one, or to have distortion in a different place. But when we're dealing with something that doesn't hit air we can exactly characterize it in comparison to other things, and find truth in audio.

I guess no one does because it's not important enough and anyone who cares enough is able to make their own decisions just fine. But it's frustrating to me because it's an inefficiency and inequity in the market...the money is flowing in wrong directions in places and rewarding the wrong behaviors. Maybe I'm too idealistic about it, or too obsessive.

Anyway, the point about clock has been made, thankfully, and as far as comparing the other mods, compare them to recent-issue interfaces in their price range. Take the M-Audio Firewire 1814, for instance. It sounds better than the 002 from the samples I've heard. I wouldn't be in any way surprised if it sounds better than *any* of the current BLA modded interfaces. Compare the street price. Then look at the RME boxes for even better than that.

27th May 2007	#23
peeder Lives for gear Joined: Aug 2006 Location: No longer participating here. Posts: 6,705	No, I don't know of anyone specifically acting as shills. And it's quite OK to be a "fanboi". You could easily accuse me of being a fanboi for the Digi 003, or the ADAM S3A, or the Senn MD-441. I'm not a shill because I'm not in cahootz...I don't get anything from any of these companies in return for my fandom. So I used the word "shill" for effect. There are certainly hucksters around here of course but most often they offer at least 25% helpful info to offset the sales effort, and they are mostly clearly labeled as sales staff. It is 100% AOK to make artistic decisions with your opinions, and it's 100% AOK to share your opinions and experiences online. This medium is an interesting blend of art and science. The critical thing is that the art doesn't have to suffer for the science or vice-versa: when both are done correctly, they benefit each other greatly. My main issue is that there is outright misleading information out there that people here (the "hucksters") are making money off of and know full well they really should be correcting. They are always around to help people buy things that won't help them and I can almost hear them snickering to themselves when people declare "I heard a profound improvement!" when none was in fact possible as a result of the part they sold and may have come from simply re-seating cables or something. That's illegitimate. It's not the way business is done online. Online is the antidote for that crap, provided people are willing to confront it. It's very unpleasant to confront it, because there's always the risk that you're wrong... I may in fact be wrong about BLA mods. I wouldn't buy one myself to test it. I would love for there to be a "Consumer Reports" for audio that took these scientific aspects of the business and published full reviews. Certainly a given person might prefer a lower-fidelity sound to a higher one, or to have distortion in a different place. But when we're dealing with something that doesn't hit air we can exactly characterize it in comparison to other things, and find truth in audio. I guess no one does because it's not important enough and anyone who cares enough is able to make their own decisions just fine. But it's frustrating to me because it's an inefficiency and inequity in the market...the money is flowing in wrong directions in places and rewarding the wrong behaviors. Maybe I'm too idealistic about it, or too obsessive. Anyway, the point about clock has been made, thankfully, and as far as comparing the other mods, compare them to recent-issue interfaces in their price range. Take the M-Audio Firewire 1814, for instance. It sounds better than the 002 from the samples I've heard. I wouldn't be in any way surprised if it sounds better than any of the current BLA modded interfaces. Compare the street price. Then look at the RME boxes for even better than that.