Specsmanship
Encyclopedia
Specsmanship is the often inappropriate use of specifications or measurement results to establish putative superiority of one entity over another, generally when no such superiority exists. Commonly found in high fidelity
audio equipment, automobiles and other apparatus where uneducated users identify some numerical value upon which to base their pride or derision, whether or not it's relevant to actual use of the device.
Specsmanship has recently been quite active in the field of digital camera
s and electronic display devices,,.
But "specsmanship" can also have an almost opposite meaning to the foregoing, when it refers instead to a efforts of vendor to measure and disclose freely all of the various objectively measurable product characteristics that actually matter to the potential customer. This was once standard practice among self-respecting vendors of consumer goods (in 20th century western markets at least), but this information is today often relegated to abbreviated and error-prone lists of "technical specifications," if available at all.
High fidelity
High fidelity—or hi-fi—reproduction is a term used by home stereo listeners and home audio enthusiasts to refer to high-quality reproduction of sound or images, to distinguish it from the poorer quality sound produced by inexpensive audio equipment...
audio equipment, automobiles and other apparatus where uneducated users identify some numerical value upon which to base their pride or derision, whether or not it's relevant to actual use of the device.
Specsmanship has recently been quite active in the field of digital camera
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
s and electronic display devices,,.
But "specsmanship" can also have an almost opposite meaning to the foregoing, when it refers instead to a efforts of vendor to measure and disclose freely all of the various objectively measurable product characteristics that actually matter to the potential customer. This was once standard practice among self-respecting vendors of consumer goods (in 20th century western markets at least), but this information is today often relegated to abbreviated and error-prone lists of "technical specifications," if available at all.