No
Divemaster, there's no such thing like
old fashioned about reading manual. What I'm saying is, you and
Mike are right.
I personally always recommend reading manuals.. but we know how it is when we get new toy: let's try it out -no time for manual

When I say "read manual", I don't mean to learn the manual. That would be impossible, because without having some very basic knowledge (about music) and understanding the terminology, we will never get it.
What I say is, everyone should list trough manual and try to memorize chapters and what about are they. The thing is, at this point the owner doesn't really know what is more or less important. And when the questions arise, he will remember he saw that topic was mentioned in manual. In short: he will learn the manual on needed basis -but he must be aware, that answers are in manual.
There will always be things where further clarification is needed.. and forum can be a great source for that. It can happen that someone simply doesn't know where in manual the answer (about his
problem) is and many times it's enough if he's pointed to the right page in manual.
Just sharing my thoughts,
Bogdan