Sound Quality Vs. Measurements

[rave959]

Hi guys,

I mainly lurk on this website because I'm not as technical as the majority of people posting here. Hopefully in time I'll have enough understanding (with the help of this site and books) to contribute something worthwhile. In the meantime, please read this when you get a chance and share what you think.

Can sound quality be measured? | The Audiophiliac - CNET News

Cheers,
Ian

[DF96]

An old debate, repeated over and over. He states his opinion in the first paragraph, so the rest of the article is not surprising. Of course if he is wrong, then we don't need audio salesmen or reviewers as the engineering facts would speak for themselves. Turkeys may be sincere, but they don't vote for Christmas! If he is right, then we can throw away our oscilloscopes and data sheets and just fiddle with 'designs' until they 'sound right'.

I suspect the truth is more complex. There are other threads on here which discuss the same issues so there seems little point in yet another one.

[SY]

DF96: Note his bio.

Steve Guttenberg

Ex-movie theater projectionist Steve Guttenberg has also worked as a high-end audio salesman...and works as a freelance writer for Home Theater, Inner Fidelity, Tone Audio, and Stereophile.

One assumes that he's unaware of the huge amount of excellent work correlating measurement with perception done by actual trained engineers and psychoacousticians. Or doesn't want to risk the pay and free toys that go with those writing gigs.

[rave959]

Agreed.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by DF96

An old debate, repeated over and over. He states his opinion in the first paragraph, so the rest of the article is not surprising. Of course if he is wrong, then we don't need audio salesmen or reviewers as the engineering facts would speak for themselves. Turkeys may be sincere, but they don't vote for Christmas! If he is right, then we can throw away our oscilloscopes and data sheets and just fiddle with 'designs' until they 'sound right'.

I suspect the truth is more complex. There are other threads on here which discuss the same issues so there seems little point in yet another one.

[a.wayne]

Measurements mean everything and nothing, choose your poison it's audio..

[revboden]

He know's that you build by measurements and fine tune by ear. That article is just full of logical fallacies and statements of the obvious.

[DF96]

Originally Posted by SY

Note his bio.

Yes, I had seen that. Hence my comment about turkeys.

[GloBug]

The guy from Police Academy?




lol

[DF96]

I wondered that too! Maybe times are hard, so he needs an extra income.

[CBS240]

IMO it depends on what kind of distortions are present. IM distortions and HF stuff like crossover degrade sound. Odd harmonic spectrum patterns are not so good either. Many prefer softer even harmonics and believe they add charactor to the sound. Personally I strive for transparency. Generally high BW amps with adequate damping and current slew that shift the distortion spectrum to low levels at very high frequencies tend to sound more transparent but there is certainly a bit more to it than that. Everyone seems to like to blames the amp and not the speakers/enclosures and the listening room.