We don't exactly need our posters to write each and every post in order that it be fit to be submitted as part of a Masters degree course (Gav is our resident expert on such matters). However, one or two posters (and we all know who they are) present certain views of theirs as absolute facts. This is misleading and unacceptable in our view.

What we would like from posters here, in the spirit of exchanging viewpoints based on either personal experience or what they may have read, heard, measured, or read measurements to support such viewpoints, is that they acknowledge the sources or the bases of their opinions. Personal experiences should be further substantiated by the context of your particular findings.

For example, if cables make no or little difference, this stance may be qualified by a particular experience setting up/experimenting with a particular system where other changes made a more significant change. Where a cable may have had a deleterious effect then the context should also be qualified for it is likely that in another system context the results obtained may have been entirely different.

A case in point: I've heard MIT cabling be a no-brainer in one application and fall flat on its face in my own system...

If your opinion is based solely on what you've been told or have read somewhere then we need to know this, and if possible, tell us the actual source of your information.

CD players/turntables/valves may be a thing of the past for you. This cannot be stated as fact here. You can, however, be honest in admitting that conveniece and access to modern media is more important to you than out-and-out fidelity in reproduction. You can also outline your own experiences of direct comparisons in terms of resolution and listening enjoyability beteween different playback media, no problem. Just be specific where possible.

The above guidelines, if followed, should cut out a lot of bad feeling and silly arguments and this place may be spared of endless circular objectivist/subjectivist nonsense threads as seen elsewhere.

We also have a thread where you can qualify your music listening priorities before you begin to express any (strong/controversial) vewpoints elsewhere:

http://www.theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20

By posting here, everyone else can get some kind of angle of what exactly you are trying to achieve from your system and the recorded music you play through it.