Sound Quality Vs. Measurements

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We humens can hear 3 dimensional too :Psychoacoustics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This improves when we loose the sense of sight.
Blind people are very good at it.
Horitontal resolution can be as good as 1°, especially for noise like a cracking branch.

That is pretty exceptional...... resolution.

Haha, anything in audio can be called "resolution".

Amplitude, time, phase, microphone, frequency extension, sinc function, tap length, DSD / 1-bit.

It's all called rezolution.


Any of you who have read any of my few posts know where I stand, but I wanted to add my two cents to this thread.

I have never purchased nor used high end capacitors even back when my system cost $8,500 USD all in.

The measurements are all that we hear crowd mocks the usage of expensive caps. Fair enough. So I ran a comparison.

Last week I bought 2 X 4.7uF M-caps to put into an OB that I use at my pc. The drivers cost $5 for all 4, and the baffle is cardboard. Not the highest resolution system. The plain caps cost less than one cent, the M-caps were $10 each, double the price of the entire set up. The tweeters are cheap paper cone low-fi junk, less than $1.

They arrived this hour.

I insert one of the M-Caps as the high pass filter for the left channel, and the difference in treble, cymbals and all other high FR artifacts jumps up several notches. I am sitting here panning l-r and the channel with the regular 4.7uF sounds terrible in comparison. The improvement was instantaneous and blatantly obvious. My multimeter measures them at 4.7uF - so the measurement is not the deciding factor. There are no other components in the chain - the XO is just this one cap on each channel. That's it.

I am not here to argue with you measurement obsessives. Life is too short. I have better things to do that argue with engineers, a profession that attracts the ""I am always right"" type of person. Once had one tell me that just as in Asia, one can flag a person to hold them in the USA if they owe you money. He was wrong of course, but he had a PhD in ME and I did not; therefore he is right and others are wrong. Always. Such is the mindset of engineers.

Those of you who are open minded - just spend a few dollars and try the 'Snake Oil' items that these measurement-only crowd mock. If you hear the improvement - great. If you don't - then you saved money. But don't let their attitude dissuade you.

Clearly there are things we can hear that we cannot measurement at this time. Thus it is rational to design a system to the best of book tech, and then proceed with modifications that cannot be measured.

I am willing to let the measurement crowd have their values without resorting to name calling.

All the best to you in audio...

Appreciate your story.

You may like the quote......

"Entertain that anything is possible, until proven otherwise".

I saw it here — Questions For Skeptics


Very true

I have Vivaldi's Four Seasons, by I Solisti di Zagreb.
I think Vanguard recorded it in the 60s.
The best version ever, IMHO

Will look it up.


Here lies a fundamental aspect of credibility: Does the effect work or not? Some here would say that any effect that they do not recognize MUST be fake, and the listeners are delusional. Others, at least try to reproduce the effect in the easiest most effective way, BY JUST LISTENING TO IT.

Yes, this interest is about listening.

Some people value measurements above listening, as "the machine doesn't lie", they think their own mind lies more than the machine.

Today I read that it's nearly impossible to see 2% distortion in a scope......?

dsd
 
Yeah, I'm a visual and text person as well, the spoken word doesn't transcend very well unless I visualize it, I'd say I visualize audio, i.e. sound, to a certain extent as well. I thought it was interesting that some people have learned how to echolocate - like bats - that they perform this partially in the visual cortex.

I recall a number wizard or "human calculator" was using a non-standard way to process numbers as well, we usually use "area 44" to process numbers, he's not, in fact he doesn't even need to think, it's hypothesized that he's using an area of the mind related to eye movement.

I highly recommend watching it — Stan Lee's Superhumans with The Human Calculator Scott Flansburg on The History Channel - YouTube

If you like numbers here is something I found by accident. It is said 12 would be the ideal numbers of finger for us as the maths would be easier. This might ignore the fact that the Fibonacci number is more related to 5, If I am not mistaken ( root5 +1 )/2 = 1.6180339887499 if my phone knows what it is doing. The number is the more efficient way for bees to collect honey if using that maths to create pseudo random patterns. Hunting dogs also cover more area quickly with the same strategies using the nose to fill in the gaps . That is aside from the shape of sea shells etc.

Any two numbers as long as one is not zero ( I like that ) can derive the number and is a similar number of steps. The 10th power = 123 ( 122.99 to infinity) ! Using 1 and 1000 is nice ( not unlike patterns of number 9 ). 11th = 199 12th = 322 13 th = 521. 1.2 ( PHi squared ) = 3.141607 circa 0.0015 % error to Pi. Pi cubed is 31.006276603 so almost 31. If Phi and Pi were easily linked that would be interesting.

0.6180339887499 1.6180339887499 2.6180339887499 Powers -1,1, 2. As we all know to power 0 is always 1 so of no great importance ( discuss , universal number origin point ). 1.6180339887499 is the most real number I know of. All irrational numbers are , root 2 especially ( see tan 45 root 2 +/- 1). 0 and infinity are concepts as far as I can see.

Quite apart from theist and atheist arguments these numbers are real and give life the best chance. The maths are as near as we will get to understanding specifically as these are things that divide so many people. Maths is a region you can reasonably trust. It even has number that are accepted as irrational. It also has non existent numbers just to help us visualize. 0 and infinity a useful fiction to make reality clearer. The subjective raised to a science and art form. Where else in science is a fiction vital and so well understood? Digital proved this. The more we need a zero the more we realize we can't have it.

The problem with measurements is they sometimes blind us to the fact that what we have designed is not very good. The classic is the crossover phase shift. There is no right or wrong. It is always wrong. That was until DSP and whatever phase shift required. I hate to admit it, that is the future.


Paramount 320 Theatre Organ
 
Yes, 1.618 is a real phenomenon, in photo editing it's called "the rule of thirds", you crop an image so the focal points align to the intersections at a third of the width / height. 16:10 video format and the dimensions of a credit card vaguely follow 1.618 as well, as well as lots of advertising, company logos. An art student made the Nike swoosh logo, if I recall he requested around $550 USD for it, I should look it up but I'm on my phone right now.

Either way I hope he didn't consume his paycheck for the Nike logotype in Vegas the next day.

I once knew an art student with a focus on fonts and she would spend around 2 weeks designing a T-shirt, she'd make a few dozen variations on her computer and then narrow down on the most appealing design.

I didn't know that bees use 1.618, I will look that up later.

I can highly recommend the youtube channel "numberphile", I loved his explanation of the use of the word billion and his promotion of the words "milliard" and "billiard".

If you like numbers I have a good one, the number 26. This number is situated directly between a square and a cube.

5x5 = 25

3x3x3 = 27

Try to find another number directly adjacent to a square and a cube.

If you can't find any, try to prove that none exist, now that is the hard part and it's little riddles like these which can lead to the escapism of some numberphiles / mathematicians.

According to Bjork, the singer, she says musicians quite often like mathematics. Physicists like drama, good dancers often have a large vocabulary and chess players, well they can very easily learn new games like Shogi, Igo, checkers or Texas Hold'em.

I seem to recall Michael Jordan became a baseball player and then a golf player.

There's a theory that to become "good" at something, anything at all, it takes 2 years of dedicated practice. Pretty vague, but it sounds like a good attitude.
 
The three three node is in my mind. I think you only need three colours to make a drawing where no two colours touch . It was 1970 I did that so might be wrong. The bridges of Vienna problem was a name for it or is that Wien bridge in circuits? Paris is the correct one?

My three three node was a circle with internal line then a T section with the tail going to infinity. That is a neat idea for rejecting infinity as it is supposed not possible to have a 3 , 3 node. I think that is a good proof? The proof is we have no idea if infinity exists. Certain it hasn't existed yet. That means it never will ? Intuitively it does exist, or is that a wish? Alpha and Omega hints that it always was a question in our minds. That 0 and infinity " are " a loop?

I will try squares and cubes. I found no easy proof of power 4 in anything .This must mean it is a useful abstract. That would include time and that seems a good proof of Quantum theory. To quote Feynman for it to be true a " anything ( my words) " needs to be simultaneously everywhere at one and the same time? That seems to be correct. I never heard him say it I must add. He seems as good as anyone to blame. Descartes was the best in this. He couldn't cope without defining himself mathematically. A problem of confidence in his mind. Animals = autonomita thus Rene is autonomita ? He said no because he had the power of thought. That also suggest the same for animals Rene. Trees therefore don't exist ? Planets also? Or.....? One has to question the logic however profound. I don't . Matter and antimatter are not simultaneously everywhere and that is how we exist.

Hi fi is far more difficult than maths ? It is like being required to be Leonardo to have a voice.
 
i x i = -1
i x i x i = - i
i x i x i x i = 1

Thus with " imagination " a fourth dimension exists. This also seems to prove matter anti matter hypothesis. The fact ( ? ) that the imbalance exists is interesting. A willfulness in the Universe which will puzzle us forever , whatever that/it might be. Forever is now possible. DNA repair is the first step. We need 1000 000 000 years to do the rest. Our forever it not the same as infinity nor is that a problem. I point that out as real infinity ( joke ) and our infinity are different.

Thus imaginary numbers are easy to use. Far easier than bunch numbers ( Calculus ). Fourier was so self critical and that makes his method usable. He defined the oscilloscope without ever seeing one. He said about DC problems. He died as railways came alive. DC, it's a real problem as it can not easily exist. I guess an atom comes close if group 8. Does resonance start from rest for example ?

I heard that 7% of facts are changed every year? Must be nonsense?
 
This is a good example ( i am jumping in for Wayne ) :Belafonte at Carnegie Hall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Only 2 years younger than me.
No idea how they did that 3D trick.
HE IS THERE, AND YOU ARE THERE:e
Somehow my CD copy is low noise too.
No DOLBY no nothing. That is a miracle.

Yep , fantastic recording , setup correctly you not only get the 3D effect you talk of , but also correct height , Harry is standing on stage above the musicians ..

Both LP's are fantastic, i can count at least 45-60 Lp's at this level of presentation ...
 
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This also seems to prove matter anti matter hypothesis.

Not sure if it's a hypothesis.

Antimatter experiment produces first beam of antihydrogen | CERN

CERN said:
The ASACUSA experiment at CERN has succeeded for the first time in producing a beam of antihydrogen atoms. In a paper published today in Nature Communications (link is external), the ASACUSA collaboration reports the unambiguous detection of 80 antihydrogen atoms 2.7 metres downstream of their production, where the perturbing influence of the magnetic fields used initially to produce the antiatoms is small. This result is a significant step towards precise hyperfine spectroscopy of antihydrogen atoms.
Primordial antimatter has so far never been observed in the universe, and its absence remains a major scientific enigma. Nevertheless, it is possible to produce significant amounts of antihydrogen in experiments at CERN by mixing antielectrons (positrons) and low energy antiprotons produced by the Antiproton Decelerator.
I heard that 7% of facts are changed every year? Must be nonsense?

Depends what a fact is.
 
The plain caps cost less than one cent, the M-caps were $10 each

I insert one of the M-Caps as the high pass filter for the left channel, and the difference in treble, cymbals and all other high FR artifacts jumps up several notches. I am sitting here panning l-r and the channel with the regular 4.7uF sounds terrible in comparison.

My multimeter measures them at 4.7uF - so the measurement is not the deciding factor

Did they really cost less than 1 cent?

Was this experiment to prove to yourself that capacitors sound different?
 
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