BUT IS IT PROOF: I like to learn and I love different viewpoints … but is it proof?

Paul McGowan: 

In our comments section, in response to my post FOMO, there is a good and healthy debate going on about the differences in sound quality between DSD and PCM. In one of the comments a fellow manufacturer’s online rant “proving” that PCM is as good as DSD is cited. The article includes a nice conspiracy touch claiming Sony perpetrated a myth about DSD’s superiority. We all love a good conspiracy theory and there’s no doubt someone in Sony’s marketing department did their best to convince us of their point. Whatever that point was.

I cringe every time someone proves to me what I know to be true isn’t. Politicians try to do this as a matter of course. It’s simple to do. Present a narrow group of facts or plausible assumptions as evidence and then the conclusion is a logical one based entirely on those facts. Any reasonable person considering only those facts would draw the same conclusion, thus it is proven.

Do I have an argument with the article or the author? Heck no! It’s great because it sparks debate, it presents a viewpoint I hadn’t even considered and there’s much to learn. I like to learn and I love different viewpoints. But is it proof? Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it can be proven. And just because an idea is proven doesn’t mean it’s true.

As Voltaire said “The interest I have to believe a thing is no proof that such a thing exists.”

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