Andy, fascinating post!!!!
Begs several questions:
- Is it even possible to be an expert (or is it all a matter of opinion)?
- If so, in what areas of the audio hobby is it possible to be an expert?
- How does one become an expert?
- How frequently is the expert correct?
- How frequently is the expert wrong?
- What are the blind spots of the expert?
I wonder how the other members here would answer these questions.
I think that with anything in life you have to be open and flexible at balancing facts and theories.
Yeah it's a balancing act.
1. Yes it's possible to be an expert for someone that is not only passionate but also open to new stuff.
2. In any categories; from sound dispersion in your room, to audio signals through speaker cables and interconnects, to speaker drivers and crossovers, to boxes designs, to parts implementation in our electronics, to DSP chips and DACs, to lasers, cartridges, motors, transformers, current, electrical properties, to front projectors, to plasma TV sets, to 3D cameras, to whatever touches our ears and eyes...
3. By a degree after studies, and real life practices.
4. A true expert is always in the research of perfectionism, so it is never absolute. It constantly evolves.
5. It is by our mistakes that we learn more solidly; so nobody's perfect and you have to be simply honest with yourself first.
6. He's the one that should answer these first. ...After all he's the
expert!