Q23 - Electrical engineers have repeatedly

[mekfox]

Hey guys. I'm having trouble with this question.
I originally thought (C) was too vague to be the weakener, and I picked (B), because I felt that (B) suggested a difference between the two amps in respect to the quality of musical reproduction - which would weaken the conclusion that there is no difference in quality.
Why is (B) wrong?

[geverett]

This wasn't an easy question. I was stuck between B, C, and E before I landed on C. I will dissect the whole question.

Evidence: Engineers have demonstrated repeatedly that the best solid-state amps are no different from the best tube amps in terms of characteristics commonly used to measured an amps musical reproduction quality.

Conclusion: Any music lover that says recorded music sounds better on a tube amp then a solid state amp is imagining the difference in quality.

Question: Weaken the argument.

Prephrase: hmmmm . . . . this seems like a pretty good argument, but what if the criteria they use to measure the quality of musical reproduction is too narrow and fails to take into account other factors that could make quality perception more subjective to a music lover.

(A) This answer choice says many people cannot tell. Well many is an intentionally ambiguous term synonymous with the word some. Both of these words could mean anywhere from 1 person to 100% of people. We just don't know. The conclusion limits the scope to "music lovers" so the people that "cannot tell the difference" may very well not be the "music lovers" referenced in the conclusion.
(B) There are two problems I see with this answer choice. First it talks about the range of variation in quality being greater for tube amps then solid state amps. If this is the case then it might actually give reason to believe that the quality of solid-state amps is greater then the quality of tube amps, because tube amps musical quality reproduction varies more and the solid state amps would be more consistent. Whether consistently bad or consistently good we do not know so this answer choice is too ambiguous on that account. The 2nd problem I see is that our conclusion references the best tube amps and the best solid state amps. This answer choice just talks about solid state and tube amps in general and so it too broad to be a correct answer choice. Get rid of it.
(C) This is what we want. It basically is saying that there are other characteristics besides that which can be quantified in the electrical engineers test that can determine the quality of music being perceived by the listener. In more abstract terms this answer choice is saying "The premise cited by the author does not necessarily guarantee the truth of the conclusion."
(D) This describes benefits in solid state amps such as the fact that they use less power. Any benefit outside the quality of sound produced by tube vs. solid state amps is irrelevant to our argument. Get rid of it.
(E) Some tube amps are superior to some solid state amps. Once again our conclusion and evidence all talk about the best tube amps and the best solid state amps. The use of the word some is too ambiguous to know if the amps it is discussing are the best amps as mentioned in the argument. Get rid of it.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

nice explanation geverett!

[slimz89]

I think one of the reasons people turn to answer B over C is because lsat taker are so attuned to qualifiers that as soon as you see the word "some" by a weakener question you are assuming that it is narrowing the answer choice, which is usually not a good answer by a weakener. If you look at C the "some" is not qualifying at all, rather it is just letting you know there are other additional characteristics.

hope that helps

[LsatCrusher822]

I think there is a much more grave problem with answer B than just it not relating to the "best" of both VTAs and SSAs. This is answer simply talks about the "range of variation.". Do we know if this range is more towards the good sound quality end or the bad quality sound end? It doesn't provide any context! Perhaps this would be a better choice if it said something such as "the range of variation for VTAs falls within the range which people conceive to be of good musical quality and is much wider than that of SSAs"

[kimhyungjoon]

WEAKEN

Those who say recordings played with the best vacuum-tube amplifiers sound better than when played with the best solid-state amplifier are just imagining it.
Because electrical engineers repeatedly demonstrated that the two are indistinguishable regarding characteristics commonly measured for evaluating amplifiers' musical reproduction.

Prephrase
1. What about those who detect differences in musical reproduction qualities that are NOT commonly measured?
2. "Imagining" seems to be a word to watch out for

A: this at best harms the music lovers' position
B: consistency of the quality of reproduction may be the issue, but this one can go both ways and doesn't address the "best" in each type
C: sounds like prephrase 1
D: irrelevant to argument
E: this does not apply to the "best" in each type of amplifiers that is being discussed in the stimulus

Lesson
This shows how some wordy, technical-sounding stimuli actually have very simple argument structures. Stay positive!