At a technical level, this is very true - what seems to be happening is that at a certain key, critical level of reproduction quality the brain steps up a huge notch in its capability for decoding the sound information coming in; it becomes effortless for it to 'manufacture' a very comprehensive soundscape, this is the 150mph performance thing.That was the general thing I was going for, our brain fills in so much for us. Our ears are pretty crap really, definitely a weak link in the hearing chain, and that if our brains are filling in all this for us, then i is going to fill in things when for example we want to hear a difference in something, if we are listening out for a difference, our brain will give us one
Listening for a difference works both ways, the brain tires quickly doing this sort of, "boring" work. So, various ways around it: listening without listening, use borderline recordings which trigger, exaggerate any variations. Personally, I couldn't care less whether it's "different", what counts is whether it sounds "right" - and one's brain easily can pick this key "difference".
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Hi,
The only speakers I own that can do that happen to be my PC speakers which, incidentally got trashed falling of the bookshelf last night.
Game over for them.
As it happens they're made by Philips (which means they can only fall of the bookshelf once, this was their second meeting with Mr. Newton) and were bought at the Aldi store.
That said, I do hear you and I do understand your arguments but it won't get you anywhere.
Science and by extension all those hiding comfortably behind it is a resistor and to them all resistors are alike. And that includes you and me.
IOW science fights its own fact until it can no longer resist and then yesterday's facts turn into todays facts and so it goes on and on.
Measurements are tools and I've never seen a clever tool. I've seen people using tools cleverly and stupidly though.
When push comes to shove I'd rather listen to a technically (according to current science standard) flawed rendition of a musical event through my speakers purveying all the emotion of that event than a perfect (technically speaking) rendition of said event devoid of its emotional content.
Unfortunately I've never had the chance in more than fourty years of listening to hear the emotional content of music reproduced without there being a scientist saying that the system used to pull of this magic was "technically" flawed.
Needless to say the technically perfect system lost the music in the process time and time again.
So, what goes wrong?
Ciao,
The only speakers I own that can do that happen to be my PC speakers which, incidentally got trashed falling of the bookshelf last night.
Game over for them.
As it happens they're made by Philips (which means they can only fall of the bookshelf once, this was their second meeting with Mr. Newton) and were bought at the Aldi store.
That said, I do hear you and I do understand your arguments but it won't get you anywhere.
Science and by extension all those hiding comfortably behind it is a resistor and to them all resistors are alike. And that includes you and me.
IOW science fights its own fact until it can no longer resist and then yesterday's facts turn into todays facts and so it goes on and on.
Measurements are tools and I've never seen a clever tool. I've seen people using tools cleverly and stupidly though.
When push comes to shove I'd rather listen to a technically (according to current science standard) flawed rendition of a musical event through my speakers purveying all the emotion of that event than a perfect (technically speaking) rendition of said event devoid of its emotional content.
Unfortunately I've never had the chance in more than fourty years of listening to hear the emotional content of music reproduced without there being a scientist saying that the system used to pull of this magic was "technically" flawed.
Needless to say the technically perfect system lost the music in the process time and time again.
So, what goes wrong?
Ciao,
Nice ...
Edit: the technically correct, and the musical are not mutually exclusive; but they tend to be done by two different mindsets, so often don't overlap - but there is no intrinsic reason for that.
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My experience is that flawed systems often elicit an emotional experience more often than technically correct systems. If you are presented with just an outline it seems as if your brain can fill in the missing details exactly as you would like them to be. Or the brain can focus on the intent of the music without the distraction of sounds which can be thought of as just decorations.
This may be why a lot of musicians have such (to me) appalling stereos: they hear and connect with the performance, not the nits and picks.
The Swissair flight that crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia some years ago (see Swissair Flight 111 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) was brought down by the in-flight entertainment system. So yeah, maybe.
Or the person holding the drill may charge up statically. Grounding the person with a wire, like some people do when soldering FET components would help, but be highly impractical.
It could also be that the drill's PE connection is physically too far away from the place where you work. If no outlets are available in close vicinity, an additional grounding clamp could be added to the tool, but again be impractical.
The same solution applies, if, being on a construction site, the necessary connections between PE and the structure are not yet in place.
In all three situations it could help to use a class 2 insulated tool, i.e. all plastic where you touch -> no conduction -> no electric shock. Or wear insulating clothes and gloves while drilling.
Both wrong.
Its poverty that forces musicians to have crap sound systems.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I once worked at a car audio shop where I observed a decrepit mid 70's car (this was in the early 90's) having a $2000 system installed. When they pulled the car into the service bay, you could hear this horrible sound of the engine fan blades hitting the underside of the hood. Turned out both engine motor mounts were shot and it looked like this had been an ongoing problem for a long time since there was a good amount of wear where the fan blades were contacting the hood.
I'm not sure that we can call this Snake Oil as no commercial products are involved.
But it was posted by a loudspeaker builder.
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Yeah, 10 gauge is pretty overkill.
That geometry that they used is very good and has very good noise rejection. A couple of tips though. Don't use black coated wire and avoid PVC jacketed wire if you can.
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Why no black coated wire?
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The die used to make Black contains carbon and it has a negative effect on the sound. I know it sounds crazy, but it makes a difference.
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If you need to color code your wire to simplify your crossover construction, take your basic broad tip black Sharpie and put a stripe on the wire you will use for your negative run. A black stripe on the side of the wire from one end to the other has no negative effect on the sound. You may even be able to hear the effect of any dye at all in the insulation regardless of color when compared to insulation with no dye.
For some reason even teflon when dyed black is seriously degraded, with a grungy/dirty sound when compared to virgin teflon containing no dye at all.
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Ah crap, I already used my black wire in the cables... I'll try to remember that next time though,
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Build two sets and compare.
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link
Wires
But it was posted by a loudspeaker builder.
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Yeah, 10 gauge is pretty overkill.
That geometry that they used is very good and has very good noise rejection. A couple of tips though. Don't use black coated wire and avoid PVC jacketed wire if you can.
***********************************
Why no black coated wire?
***********************************
The die used to make Black contains carbon and it has a negative effect on the sound. I know it sounds crazy, but it makes a difference.
***********************************
If you need to color code your wire to simplify your crossover construction, take your basic broad tip black Sharpie and put a stripe on the wire you will use for your negative run. A black stripe on the side of the wire from one end to the other has no negative effect on the sound. You may even be able to hear the effect of any dye at all in the insulation regardless of color when compared to insulation with no dye.
For some reason even teflon when dyed black is seriously degraded, with a grungy/dirty sound when compared to virgin teflon containing no dye at all.
***********************************
Ah crap, I already used my black wire in the cables... I'll try to remember that next time though,
***********************************
Build two sets and compare.
***********************************
link
Wires
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Mid 80's I was a Car stereo store manager did a firebird about a 2500 dollar system . Had to hold the door driving around to the install bay. Two of us had to lift and hold the door to get it to closed.
Unfortunately, like it or not, 'weird stuff' like that does matter when you're trying to get the best out of audio - the fact that a solid explanation is not at hand to keep the understanding nice and clean shouldn't stop one working around these issues. So, accept that they are part of the picture and work with them; I would have given away trying to optimise audio years ago if I hadn't grappled with the impacts ...
What these factors typically do if not addressed is add a veil of mediocrity to the sound, they suck the subjective life out of the quality, reduce the interest in listening. Which means, what? That, a subtle form of distortion is added to the mix, which is very hard to measure, by all reports.
What these factors typically do if not addressed is add a veil of mediocrity to the sound, they suck the subjective life out of the quality, reduce the interest in listening. Which means, what? That, a subtle form of distortion is added to the mix, which is very hard to measure, by all reports.
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