The audibility of ignorance

Sometimes I make dumb mistakes. Other times, I make well intentioned mistakes. I haven't decided which one this was yet, but I definately made a mistake. Back in November I made a blog entry about choosing a surround sound system for my aunt. I started that entry with a comment about whether she was actually unhappy with what she had, or if she just wanted to upgrade because people told her she should. Ultimately, what I was saying, was that I wondered whether she could ever hear the improvements that this new system would provide. I just didn't want to say it that way.

Unfortunately, last night as I installed it for her, it became painfully obvious that she simply doesn't know what she's hearing, and has no interest in a proper surround sound system. She just wants to be constantly bombarded with noise from 360 degrees. After I hooked it all up, she kept asking me why all the sound was coming from the front instead of all around her. I explained a dozen times that's how it's supposed to be, that the surround channels are only used when something is supposed to be happening off screen, such as fly-bys or ambiance effects. She had absolutely no idea what I was talking about and just wants to be able to hear stuff from the back speakers all the time.

The only audible improvement that this system now provides is a much higher clarity compared to the old one for the simple reason that the old speakers were such a pathetically poor quality, but since she's going to hang some stupid assed doll over the center channel speaker, that'll go a long way toward fucking up most of that improved clarity.

Ultimately, she could have yielded similar results with a system that cost 1/2 or 1/3 the price. I completely over-estimated her abilities to recognize good sound, as well as proper surround-sound. I had assumed that she just didn't realize what the proper sound was because her current setup was so awful, but that wasn't the case at all. She prefers a completely fucked up surround sound environment that is not only completely unrealistic, but is so bad that anybody who hears it will immediately doubt my abilities to even design a reasonable system.

The one thing that I'm trying to take from this experience, is to try and learn how to suggest products to other people who "aren't as into it as I am" as my parents would put it. Frankly, I don't know how. My aunt has proven that some people have a desire for something that's so completely fucked that I simply do not know how to provide something that suits their needs.

Fuck me. Right now I want to go smash something.