In the 2008 100-meter Olympic race swimmer Miloric Cavic came in second to Michael Phelps. The race was so close that slow motion photography couldn’t display the difference and officials had to rely upon touch pads instead. Turns out, Cavic had lost by one sixth of an inch (4.7 millimeters).
It's tempting to put second place finishers in a neat little box labeled "not as good" but you'd be hard pressed to do that based on this race. But for one sixth of an inch, Cavic's the best in the world. Yet, we consider him "second".
Last week I was introduced to a music lover that had traveled a great distance to spend time in Music Room One, though he had a more specific purpose in mind. He had decided to upgrade his system's power amplifier with a pair of Stellar M700 monoblocks. He hoped to compare our lower cost Stellar monoblocks to our more expensive BHK monoblocks, and of course, we were happy to make that comparison possible.
My guess is he hoped the differences wouldn't be too great. If that were his goal, I knew he would be disappointed. Few who make the comparison fail to hear the gap between these two fine products. The differences were clear.
But that isn't the point of this story.
The fact that in one moment a competitor moves to second place doesn't diminish their accomplishments.
I don't know of a better sounding amplifier than BHK, just like the world doesn't know of a better swimmer than Michael Phelps.
Had it not been for Phelps, Cavic would be the world's best swimmer.
The trick is to find what's perfect for your circumstances right now.
When you do, you finish first.
