And it is almost impossible due to burn-in issue. It takes me one day (around 10 hours) to hear the sound I'm expecting after changing crossover.
I'm trained to detect issues by ears and to find possible solution. When the solution is to reduce an inductance for example, I will have to wait for hours to see if the change was really correct. Without this understanding, people may change a component and perceive sound improvement (assuming they have good ears) only to find out later that it is not as good as they previously thought.
Oh, I'm experienced in using software and measurement tools too. I even wrote my own program to do the optimization routine. It's just, I know the limitation of the tools and I know where my ears excel at.
How is it possible that human can't think of simple things equally well, given they are of adequate intelligence. The answer is in the "adequate", like your question above.
No need to write in stone, just stay in this hobby for another decade. Or look at yourself a decade ago, is there your thinking (about anything) that is now obsolete? If none, you are an accurate person, most probably all your thinking now will be proven correct in the future.
What your ears excel at along with your brain is fooling yourself into hearing what isn't even there. A measurement system can well exceed the limitations of the ear. If you "expect" to hear something then sooner or later you will, that's why it's called expectation bias.Subjective "I know what I heard" always loses out to objective measurements.
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People wanting something to believe in other than religious experiences I suppose. Plus if you make a large pretty looking over priced cap, the audiophools will buy it.
1) Accuracy of a measurement cannot exceed the accuracy of input data including mic and it's amplifier. Ears can help a lot here.
2) You can create figures, you can have perceptions, but knowing the correlation between the two is something else. You can have measurements of several top speakers and still you don't know which one is which or which one you will prefer sound wise, especially with amplifier of which operating spec you don't understand. If for example, based on listening, you think you need to change one parameter even if you have to compromise other parameter, then you change the design and "expect" to hear "something". This parameter can be a lot of thing. Can be how far the off axis dispersion should be, how fast certain frequency decays to certain decibels, what frequency the +-2deg phase overlap should be at low frequency, etc etc.
There are a lot of things that only ears can tell quickly. Here is a question for you. It is very easy to notice that some amp-speaker will "force" you to sing along (you'll know if you like to sing). Some other speakers, don't do thing like this. Can you tell scientifically what is the different between these speaker?
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1) Sorry but NO. A very low cost measurement calibrated mic and software package will always be able to outperform the ears ability to show you what is really going on. Frequency response, phase, and distortion down to levels your ear cannot begin to perceive.
2) A tool is only as good as the person using it. I have never had any problem correlating what I hear with what I measure.Learning what changes affect which parameter is important.
To answer your question, a quick sweep of the frequency response will show 99% of the reasons of what you are hearing. I guess we just don't agree with how or what a measurement system is to be used for.
2) A tool is only as good as the person using it. I have never had any problem correlating what I hear with what I measure.Learning what changes affect which parameter is important.
To answer your question, a quick sweep of the frequency response will show 99% of the reasons of what you are hearing. I guess we just don't agree with how or what a measurement system is to be used for.
Amplifier design is much simpler than speaker design but amplifier designers do their homework more than speaker "designers". That's because you cannot design an amplifier with limited knowledge but you can design speaker even without knowledge.
You can see how people agreeing to disagree on the correlation of amp measurement with perceived sound. This issue can be leveraged to speaker design as well. The non linear distortion issues etc. I think amp and speaker design should be seen as one discipline.
The problem here is only about assumption. Many objectivists tend to assume that subjectivists or those who rely on ears are less intelligent than they are. But I think the more knowledgeable we are the more we realize the limitation of the knowledge itself. Of course this is as subjective as seeing a half empty glass.
You can see how people agreeing to disagree on the correlation of amp measurement with perceived sound. This issue can be leveraged to speaker design as well. The non linear distortion issues etc. I think amp and speaker design should be seen as one discipline.
The problem here is only about assumption. Many objectivists tend to assume that subjectivists or those who rely on ears are less intelligent than they are. But I think the more knowledgeable we are the more we realize the limitation of the knowledge itself. Of course this is as subjective as seeing a half empty glass.
Almost Everything is measurable. The problem is to know the effect of the many measurement variables.
No I won't say anything about it but you can ask the forum. There are many experts here. When I had this question a year ago, I decided not to ask the forum but instead find out by myself. Not everyone is interested with this kind of things. Many don't even know what phenomenon I am talking about here.
For those that wish to discover what really matters in speaker design
http://audioxpress.com/files/2008/09/dappolito2959.pdf
http://www.audioxpress.com/files/2008/10/dappolito2960.pdf
http://audioxpress.com/files/2008/09/dappolito2959.pdf
http://www.audioxpress.com/files/2008/10/dappolito2960.pdf
if caps have a sound, can we just do away with the speakers and just listen to the caps instead? (sorry can't help it....)
This is very possible with some expensive "audiophile" caps that have poor and uneven winding tension. The caps "sing" when there's a lot of voltage across them. Personally, I want my caps to shut up and let the musicians play, so I tend to use mundane dielectrics and capacitor brands, made in huge, soulless factories by machines.
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