Choices, Options and Information

What’s the best recording of Mahler's First Symphony? If you are not familiar with recorded classical music, it feels like a sensible question. If you have listened to more than a couple of episode’s of Radio Three’s Building A Library you will know the question is fraught with difficulty. Not the least of which is explaining why it is fraught with difficulty.

If a performance of Mahler’s First has been released on CD, we can be sure of a number of things. The orchestra was playing in tune. It was playing the notes Mahler wrote in the order he wrote them. It was playing in tune and in time. The players were proficient, and the conductor at least competent. Historical recordings do expose the listener to the lower standards of performance and recording of earlier times, but as long as the recording was made in or after the 1970’s, it will not leave the listener wanting to wince.

Given those givens, most big-name conductors have been able to make a Mahler cycle recording: Solti, Rattle, Von Karajan, Salonen, and a dozen others. All of them are accomplished, thoughtful interpreters of music. Rattle can be a little on the clean side, Solti is famously lush, Salonen is precise and engaging... and so on. It depends on what you like to listen to. And your tastes may change over time.

You understand I’m talking about hi-if components?

The fact that the amplifier, DAC, CD transport, speakers and whatever else, as made it into a hi-if store tells you that the equipment will not have audible levels of distortion, has almost zero cross-talk between left and right channels, and will have separation and dynamics that the 1970’s manufacturers dreamed about but had no way of realising.

Which of the too many choices is “best”? All of them are “good”: the difference is in the details, but your ear is very sensitive to those details. It has to be able to tell the difference between a fox and a tiger walking over the leaves (or some other evolutionary example). What strikes some people as clean and pleasing strikes others as harsh and over-analytical, what is laid-back to some is too smooth and lacking dynamics to others. How do you choose?

Audiophiles call it auditioning the equipment, which is about as pretentious as can be. Regular people would say “listen to it, preferably at home”. Because your room will not sound like a dealer’s listening room.

In the end, a number of external constraints make the decision. Floor-standing speakers are only an option for people who live in detached houses with larger rooms. Play those above a whisper, and the neighbours will be complaining. The speakers put an upper limit to the power of the amplifier: you don’t want to blow out your bookshelf speakers with an accidental turn of the volume control. Then there’s the budget. And do you want a built-in DAC? An all-in-one streamer / amp? Add in the constraints of your budget, and you will have a much smaller choice.

You understand we’re talking about cars?

There are a lot of cars, but most of them are out of my budget. The best ones are new and come from German manufacturers: Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Audi. Those have re-sale prices to prove it. But all modern cars made in Europe or Japan are pretty much marvels of construction, compared to 1970. High-end, from Jaguar upwards, is impeccable, but I can't afford any of them.

Used cars offer the same range of choice, but amongst last year’s or earlier models. The time and the mileage will have allowed some weaknesses to appear. Some dealers will inspect the vehicle on purchase and maybe fix the obvious faults: they will deduct the cost of repair from what they pay its seller. Some will give it a wash and clean, and put it on the lot to be bought as is. Private sellers all sell as is. Let the buyer beware, or at least let the buyer get the AA / RAC round to look at it. Because I don't know what a manky suspension sounds like, or what a rotted sump looks like. Buy second-hand and you takes your chances. But at least I could take my car into a manufacturer-approved garage and get a service.

You understand this is about partners?

There is no manufacturer-approved service for people. Just like people make a living from knowing enough about cars so they can spot a duff one, so there are people who make livings from knowing enough about people to be able to spot a duff one. At least that's what mechanics and therapists / psychiatrists claim.

People are all second-hand. Even when they are still single. You and your age-appropriate partner have had plenty of time to develop off-putting habits, phobias, neuroses, personality disorders, drinking problems, dodgy choices of food, slack muscles from lack of exercise, a body-fat percentage caused by too many muffins, eccentric beliefs from veganism to flat-earth-ism. You have both had enough time to have acquired too much experience and become slightly jaded, or perhaps not enough experience and not quite able to negotiate the adult world.

There’s no “best” here, and what is “worst” is an academic exercise. There is a lot of "avoid". The bi-polar. The narcissist. The drunk. The addict. The career girl who always splits the bill, the girls who expects everyone else to pay. The hidden genes for early-onset Alzheimer’s. The people who have already made poor life-choices. The people who have few social skills, and the people who have too many. No wonder a lot of people just don't bother anymore.

Choices are almost never about "the best". Choices are about: do I have the budget to get something that does the job well? If I don't, can I live with what I can get? If I can't, can I do without? And finally, of course, if I make a bad decision, how expensive will it be to get out of it?

There are many, many reviewers of music. Many reviewers of hi-fi gear. And of cars. Lots of information and opinion, also lots of marketing and snake-oil. Not too expensive to get out of, which makes getting into it less scary.

Not so much about people. In fact, some people would say that we shouldn't judge someone by the mistakes they made in the past, but by the wonderful person they could become with us. So, still snake-oil then. Low information up front, high exit costs after purchase. That combination is not a co-incidence.