Hi Papi61,
Well, it looks like you and I won’t be agreeing on too many topics any time soon, although perhaps we did at least begin to understand each other. 
If we compare notes, there are actually many areas where we do agree, but some things clearly got lost in between the cracks. Anyway, I want to sincerely thank you for your responses. I wish we could have come to a better understanding of each other, though.
A handful of thoughts about our exchange:
First, I want to apologize for some of my wording in my initial exchange with you back on the middle of page 4 somewhere. I used words like “insane”, “asinine”, “ignorant”, “trite”, and “irrational” in my reply to your earlier statements. I could have and should have been more professional. I withdraw those negative words, and apologize to you for using them. Whether or not I agreed with your comments (which I obviously didn’t), this forum really should be a better place, and that was definitely not one of my best moments here. I will not use such language in this forum again.
I decided, sincerely, to come back to this thread in a genuine bid to try to understand your points and share my points as simply as possible… sort of an experiment of forum communications, and I think we accomplished that to some degree, although at the expense of spending way, way too much time! 
But our more recent (and lengthy) exchange did result in some degree of clarity one way or another. Was the time and effort worth it? I’ll keep my own answer to myself on that one.
Here’s what I got out of it:
I think I understand your key points, which basically include the following long list. I agree with many of these, and always have agreed with many of these. I also disagree with many of them, but I don’t think going back and forth on them any more will be useful. In any case, this is what I have gathered that you believe. Keep in mind I’m using direct quotes here, and I am not extrapolating, guessing, or making assumptions or inferences about what you believe. These are direct quotes from you. If you want to amend/revise any of them, that’s obviously your choice. I’ve decided to not argue or agree on individual points below since I’ve already stated my points of view in the prior exchanges for anyone to look at. So, here’s what I understand that you believe from your own words:
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You believe “no serious soundtrack composer would use a laptop as his master machine” and that anyone using a laptop will need a slave for serious soundtrack composing.
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You believe “people who use macs generally don’t have high requirements.”
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You believe “virtually every kid with a computer considers himself a genius, an artist and a serious professional.”
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You believe it doesn’t make sense for anyone to “spend more money to get less performance,” and additionally, you said, “Why would anyone want to deliberately use an overpriced and underperforming machine that can’t even be overclocked? Allegiance to a cult is the only explanation.”
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You believe that “fanboysm is so deleterious that people prefer to accept compromises and spend more money just to be part of the cult”
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You believe that people “buy Apple products, because they’re convinced that these products are so superior, their excessive price is justified. And they rationalize that 24/7.”
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You believe that “lots of Apple cultists use windows computers at work” because corporate IT departments force them to.
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You believe that “buying the new MacPro for audio is utterly insane.”
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You believe “Most of the business laptops that cost as much as MBP’s or more definitely have passed military certification”
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You believe that if my MBP were military certified, or “truly rugged, [I’d] be bragging about it.”
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You believe “that (bootcamp) is the ONLY tweak that can bring dramatic improvements.”
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You believe that since I agreed Windows performs better, that using Macs therefore is “an IRRATIONAL choice.” You also believe “If you need to work with large orchestral mockups, you need as much power as you can get. And it would be completely IRRATIONAL to forgo that and accept compromises just because Apple’s icons look prettier or the case is more stylish.” Furthermore, you believe that “deciding to work with an overpriced and under-performing machine just because you like Apple’s icons better (or the styling of the case) makes absolutely no sense outside of fanboysm”
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You believe that “Logic Pro is the only valid reason to use a mac, for anyone who just starts” and that “it’s highly irrational to want to spend more money to get less performance” and that Macs are “overpriced and underperforming compared to the windows machine, and aside from using Logic, any other reason to favor a mac over a windows machine that performs better and possibly costs less is only dictated by sheer irrationality (like fanboysm.)”
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After much back and forth, you would revise your earlier statement of “There’s nothing you can do to improve a mac…You cannot tweak a mac because Apple won’t let you” to “Apple won’t let you tweak their laptops to any SIGNIFICANT degree where the increase in performance would be dramatically noticeable.”
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You feel you can speak for James Horner, Trevor Rabin and James Newton Howard because you “know these people” and that they use Macs because “they’re old and not very tech-savvy and they can’t get accustomed to another OS.”
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You believe that “ten years ago I would totally agree with you that mac was the way to go for a professional” and “Now that there is no longer a difference and macs are actually under-performing, lots of new machines are becoming windows-based” and “the fact that Apple has decided the MacPro is a machine exclusively dedicated to 4k video editing, makes buying a MacPro an even more irrational decision, because you’d be paying for things that you won’t be using (like the monster GPU’s.)”
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You believe that, referring to people recommending buying a new Mac Pro, “the vast majority of people who buy into the mac cult do, even if it’s blatantly absurd.”
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You believe that “Cubase, Kontakt, VEP and other audio software run SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER on windows, and the evidence is everywhere”
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You believe that anyone who uses a “lesser machine that costs you more” has made an “irrational choice dictated by something different than trying to achieve the best results” and that it “makes no sense from the point of view of effectiveness and production per dollar spent.”
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You believe that “there is no rational reason to accept a penalty in performance just to be ‘part of the club’, especially when the club is actually shrinking dramatically”
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You believe “Microsoft … has greatly worked to improve audio performance, and you can clearly see the difference between Windows 7 and 8.1”
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You believe “Apple cultism is very much alive, and that’s what drives the ‘wars.’”
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You believe that you “can criticize people’s choices if they’re based on sheer irrationality”
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You believe that you are “not insulting anyone here.”
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You believe that I am a fanboy, and, “Like all fanboys, start every discussion from a point of view of prejudice.”
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You believe that you “help a lot on this forum,” that you “don’t spread myths and misinformation” and “most of all” that you “haven’t insulted anyone.”
Naturally, I agree with many of your statements above, and also disagree with many others. I think we’ll simply not be able to come to an agreement on many of them. But that’s okay. The ones I disagree with I’ve already discussed in prior posts, so no need to rehash here (yet again), and anyone reading our exchanges can judge for themselves. We’ll just have to disagree on some things, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be civil with each other.
In terms of the actual discussion, I feel like we have been talking passed each other to some degree. You have indicated that I have moved the goal posts in our discussion, but I also believe you have moved the goal posts many times, accusing me of straw man arguments, and altering a number of my statements to suit your point… here are a few examples:
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When I said “My clients have benefited from me just having a Mac around” you turned that into: “Of course, because most of your mac clients wouldn’t even look at you, if you didn’t have a mac” – which of course I never said.
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When I said “As for people who use macs ‘generally don’t have high requirements,’ that may very well be true compared to your ‘major soundtrack composers’” you turned that into "…the only way you can challenge me is via silly diversion like ‘yes, but a MBP is great for anyone who thinks he’s a genius and a serious pro!’ " – which of course I also never said.
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When I said “I also never said that Apple machines cost less. Please re-read my original comments.” You turned that into “Actually you said that as long-term investment, they kind of do. Which is a typical erroneous fanboy argument that assumes that all PC’s are made with inferior components and therefore break down only after a limited time, forcing the owner to buy more PC’s” – which I also never said.
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When I talked about TCO differences, and numbers that I have personally run for my own studio/business, you dismissed that and turned that into “that’s a typical fanboy argument that has been shot down over and over and over because it starts from the erroneous assumption that macs last longer and they’re made with better parts.” – again, something I never said. You also added, later, “how is it possible that OSX is suddenly ‘king of the audio’, without Apple having done anything about it?” Again, something I never said.
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When I disagreed with your statement when you said, “most business laptops pass military standard testing,” you moved the goal posts again with “Most of the business laptops that cost as much as MBP’s or more definitely have passed military certification.” (I added the italics)
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When I disagreed with you about another specific statement you made, which was “no serious soundtrack composer would use a laptop as his master machine” you moved the goal post quite a bit by challenging me to “quote ONE major soundtrack composer in LA who works on a laptop on nothing but a laptop.” That reply in particular shows how we are basically talking passed each other. You converted the words “serious soundtrack composer” into “major soundtrack composer in LA” and you converted the words “a laptop as his master machine” into “on a laptop on nothing but a laptop”. Then you proceeded to dismiss my point, based on your new goalposts, as if I had been talking about “major soundtrack composers in LA” and “nothing but a laptop” all along.
In fact you dismissed the vast majority of my points… I’m not offended, but some of them really surprised me – here is a little example that shows how we can’t apparently stay in context on this discussion:
- When I said “Some pro audio users have specifications clauses in their contracts for what software and hardware they must use.” You completely dismissed it as “Irrelevant, because you aren’t talking about their PERSONAL machines. Lots of Apple cultists use windows computers at work for the same reason.” I was simply supplying a reason why some pro audio users choose one platform over another. My point is still valid, and that IS one reason (of many) why some pro audio users choose one platform over another. But it’s simply irrelevant to you. We had been discussing why some people choose one platform or another, and I gave several reasons… that’s just one you threw out… however, that is actually a real reason why some people choose one platform or another that I have experienced myself… and I even specified it could be either Mac or Windows. And yet, even a logical, valid point like that, however minor, but that meets the specific sub-topic of the exchange, is quickly thrown out the door by you.
Another one which I was surprised at how you handled it was when I mentioned the difference between an ADK laptop build quality vs a MacBook Pro build quality. You utterly dismissed my comments without the slightest of consideration, with the words, “Subjective fanboy statement, which you cannot support with anything objective.” Now, of course my comments about both laptops are subjective – they are my subjective opinion… but they aren’t made up fluff… they are informed opinions from someone who owns and uses both products, in hand. That has some relevance to a respectful forum discussion. When I provided direct personal experience with both machines that I own, which I have sitting here in front of me, which I have no reason to lie or exaggerate about, especially since it’s frankly a minor point (and I was very complimentary about ADK as well), but then you utterly dismiss my comments while at the same time expecting me to swallow and accept the giant premise that you can speak for James Horner, Trevor Rabin and James Newton Howard because you “know these people” and that your level of expertise is so great that you “know pretty much all of them and all of their studios” in LA. And because you know so many people in LA, you must therefore be right on all your related points when we disagree.
In fact, it was that little exchange that made me realize that there would be no way of proving anything to you about anything you happen to disagree with, short of showing up at your studio bringing a truck-load of scientific equipment, calibrated by Hans Zimmer’s own engineers, with a signed certification from all your composer friends in LA. And even then, you would possibly not concede any point or try to understand why I might think the way I do.
It is this type of exchange with you that I feel like we just won’t see eye-to-eye on most topics about which we disagree, and even a basic lack of being able to clearly and effectively communicate with each other and stay on topic. And, well, that’s just going to have to be okay. Life will of course go on.
You did sort of compromise on one point, though, for which maybe I should be grateful, which was: “If it makes you happy, I can revise my statement to something like ‘Apple won’t let you tweak their laptops to any SIGNIFICANT degree where the increase in performance would be dramatically noticeable.’”
Anyway, I genuinely wish you the best, and there’s not much more I can say, since apparently I have proven “all of your points” and my points about which we disagree are utterly irrelevant to you, especially since I and anyone else that disagrees with you are not qualified or believable in any of our comments.
In any case, I have no desire to exchange negative words with you. At the very least, I hope we can keep things civil moving forward, since we are both members of this community and both use Cubase, which I think we can both agree on is a great DAW application.
Best of luck,
uarte