On the one hand, we're mostly interested in sameness. Reading a great product review inspires us to obtain exactly what the reviewer had in their listening room.
On the other hand, we're also fascinated with differing approaches to the same problem. Take loudspeaker enclosures as an example.
We can agree all speakers are targeting the same goal: the recreation of great sound in our rooms. Yet, the ways in which they go about achieving that sound differ wildly. Some designers rely upon rigid isolated cabinets to ensure one driver does not interfere with the other. Others take the opposite approach and combine all the drivers into one cabinet, then tune the results to sound the way they want.
There is no perfect way to get from point A to point B. In fact, there are so many variations and paths open to us that it's often hard to choose what to focus on: open baffle, sealed, ported, modular, panel, boxless.
We celebrate our differences at audio shows. We read of those different approaches in magazines and online forums.
We all strive for the same thing. Perfection in audio reproduction.
All the wildly different ways we get to the same place is what keeps this fun.
