Hifi, why bother?

[Mark Hennessy]

Having read at least most of Mark's version of "War and Peace"...

I know that's humour, but I will just make the general point that one of my pet hates is short posts on engineering forums. Especially unhelpful one-liners from the smart-arses - we went through an unhappy period on here where we got too many of those. Forums are supposed to be about sharing information and helping people, and that takes an investment of time on both sides. That's what separates us from social media.

I know there's a risk that longer posts won't be ready fully, but I'd rather err on the side of giving too much detail than not enough. People can easily skim the bits they know, but are much less likely to ask for clarification of the bits they don't.

...it makes me wonder about the engineers who design some of these iffy amplifiers etc. Presumably they are designed by some sort of engineers though one can have doubts. If so are they "true believers" who design like that because genuinely believe in it. Or bad engineers who don't know any better. Or cynical engineers who know full well they are doing something iffy but do it anyway because it pays their salary.

All of the above, in my experience.

The best designers realise that people like particular types of distortion and have developed the ability to design circuitry to produce it. They are equally able to design extremely low distortion amps - after all, that's easy - but they do what is asked of them.

There are also designers who know very little about electronics, but have had a bit of success with basic circuits (and good marketing). These are the sorts of designers who are likely to believe in magic, and will claim to be able to tell a resistor type and brand by listening to it. The ones I have met are completely sincere about this - they are enlightened. Dunning–Kruger in action.

And naturally there are plenty who sit somewhere in-between these extremes. But most of them are at the sane end of the spectrum and do good stuff happily behind the scenes. The ones you've heard of are the ones you need to be most careful about, as the cult of personality is powerful in the hi-fi world. Most designers choose to stay completely anonymous for that reason - and many companies realise that naming their designer potentially brings as many problems as benefits.

Of course, a lot of designers are freelance, so giving the client what they want is important, even if it goes against the grain. Depends on their personal situation, of course.