Monday, March 05, 2007

If you cannot tell the difference, there are no differences

Most of us are paranoid, as guitarist, many times when we are buying equipment, we go for this A-B test. For eg.

We want to buy a distortion effect, so we keep all other things consistent; same amp, same guitar, same cables, same pickup, same location, same strings. Then we only change the distortion effect, play the same thing, and then we try to identify which is the better sounding effect.

Well, I will say that you test the effect 1 day apart, and see if you can tell the different. If you cannot tell, even after only one day, then there is no difference. What makes you think you can hear the difference if the whole band is playing, the singer singing and the crowds cheering. Just get the cheaper one.

Carry this further, I am a parent too. So when choosing baby product, such as sterilizer for milk bottle or teats or just milk bottle. Many times we cannot tell the difference between one brand from the other. So in order to make sure, we provide the best for our babies, we would just spend a bit more money to buy the more "well known" brand.

Well, maybe you are paying for their advertisement and their publicity cost, rather than the quality. As mention earlier, if you cannot tell the difference, there is no difference. Buy the cheaper product.

Case study:

I wanted to buy a steam sterilizer for the milk bottle, and went hunting. To find that there are 2 kinds, the whole machine or a container you can place in the microwave. The price range from around S$50 to $180.
The whole idea is that hot steams kill germs much better than hot water.
I started to wonder if anything that produces steam work also, because it seem to be the same. Such as your rice cooker, which is much bigger and cost only 1/3 of the price, and there are those container for steaming food you place in the microwave, which also cost 1/3 of the price.
I concluded, since I cannot tell the difference, it is the same. There are really no difference, trust me! I spend around $15 to buy a steaming container for the microwave, and it work as well as the $50 "specialize" baby bottle steamer.

posted by Wui-Ping @ 8:07 PM Comments: 0