This is something that struck me as I (shamelessly) watched American Idol. I simply cannot believe the number of people who actually think they can sing.

There are guys who sing in monotone and girls who think yelling out the words is singing. It is really quite embarrassing for those people. You may or may not like Simon or the others but they are being honest to people and frankly most of them are wasting the judges time (although this is what is entertaining to me).

So it makes me wonder that if there are so many people, ie. a very large majority, who can't even recognize a note, how are people able to compare cables or any audio equipement for that matter?

I think we should all pause and reflect when somebody we don't know gives a subjective evaluation about the sound of something. Even when questioned about it, like the American Idol wannabes who can't sing, people say they are undeniably correct in their assessment.

We all reserve the right to like or dislike somebody's voice or somebody's stereo system, but there are certain truths, like whether a note was hit or missed, that are objective, undeniable, measureable and stand up to scientific scrutiny.

People can say they like Joe Somebody's voice but I can always say that it wasn't in key and I can prove it.

This has been Monstrous Mike's Cable Analogy Number 42....