Because I have gone through the exercise on multiple other components, of decent audiophile quality ...
Sorry, thats using a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card - on that basis no-one can ever judge anything they do or buy on personal evaluation - everyone should just use the cheapest or rubbishiest home, car, furniture available - the excitement of it being their's will make up for everything else ...
No prob's ...
I'll let you into a little secret, 🙂 ... I have spent hours, days, working on an alteration which I felt quite strongly should be of benefit - and was quite deflated when the sound was worse, I had gone backwards - I had had a theory, an idea why there should have been a benefit, but reality did its dastardly thing, and proved me wrong ... 😱. Over the years, it most certainly wasn't always up - many times it was back and forwards, back and forwards.
The bad connections approach is the easy one, it's picking the low fruit, as abraxalito is fond of saying. Power supply issues, and interference are somewhat tougher, especially the latter - and here real design effort has to go into working out possible solutions, trying to evolve a best approach.
The underlying factor is that I know what sort of sound I'm after - so I do what is necessary, and only that much, to get an acceptable result.
Yup. And without some other objective measure, thats exactly what happens. Its why so many POS cars have expensive mag wheels and spoilers.
But if they own the cars purely as a visual showoff piece, to attract the opposite sex, and impress their friends - then it's done its job: the device has fulfilled its desired function ... 🙂
I stumbled upon a website once that this thread reminded me of...
This guy said that his cables, transformers, and preamplifiers exhibited something he dubbed "the phoenix effect" and his components would restore even the harshest of mp3's to a more listenable sound than vinyl.
I really thought it was BS at the time, especially when it came to his cables...
Good audio transformers never hurt, and tube amplification can restore some warmth to an Mp3, but cables....
Cables are hands down the biggest snake oil in the audio world. The quality of a cable is generally imperceptible when it comes to signal. The main instances where a cable becomes noisy are all caused by a physical break in the conductive path, whether it be at the terminations, or at some point in the shielding, or signal carrying conductors.
I've heard the cheapest xlr's and the best Mogami's through amazing consoles, through amazing control monitors, and in amazing control rooms. You'll really only tell the difference in how long they last before they wear out.
Even if you could tell the difference with your ears... There are hardly any engineers or producers who insist upon using a certain cable type in a studio setting. Most engineers don't run the wires, the assistants do. And the assistants use whatever the studio has that is the proper length, and works.
This guy said that his cables, transformers, and preamplifiers exhibited something he dubbed "the phoenix effect" and his components would restore even the harshest of mp3's to a more listenable sound than vinyl.
I really thought it was BS at the time, especially when it came to his cables...
Good audio transformers never hurt, and tube amplification can restore some warmth to an Mp3, but cables....
Cables are hands down the biggest snake oil in the audio world. The quality of a cable is generally imperceptible when it comes to signal. The main instances where a cable becomes noisy are all caused by a physical break in the conductive path, whether it be at the terminations, or at some point in the shielding, or signal carrying conductors.
I've heard the cheapest xlr's and the best Mogami's through amazing consoles, through amazing control monitors, and in amazing control rooms. You'll really only tell the difference in how long they last before they wear out.
Even if you could tell the difference with your ears... There are hardly any engineers or producers who insist upon using a certain cable type in a studio setting. Most engineers don't run the wires, the assistants do. And the assistants use whatever the studio has that is the proper length, and works.
Ah, yes ... Westlake Audio's Phoenix Effect - some years ago, 2008 to be precise, I came across this - and smiled ... a manufacturer, with just a touch of street cred 😉, had thought about things a touch more than usual, and even wrote a piece about it: http://www.westlakeaudio.com/NEWPHOENIXEFFECT.pdf
Some may find a similarity or two to my POV, therein ... 🙂
Edit: I hadn't read this before ... for extra amusement - http://www.westlakeaudio.com/Speakers/topten.pdf
Some may find a similarity or two to my POV, therein ... 🙂
Edit: I hadn't read this before ... for extra amusement - http://www.westlakeaudio.com/Speakers/topten.pdf
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Precisely this bit - "involves the cumulative effects of interferences from many sources that corrupt the audio signal at various points in the audio chain, both in recording and playback. He has developed a number of methods of combating these effects to the extent possible, in an attempt to restore the signal integrity and dynamic range that is potentially available from equipment but seldom realized"
Pretty well all the methods are known, and why they work - people like jneutron have mentioned some of the things that need to be considered many times - the principal thing is that ALL the factors need to be dealt with, not just the one of two that appeal to you ...
Facts and details, not some marketing words are needed...
Further once a waveform is altered by noise or interference you can only estimate what the unadulterated waveform was like, especially when it is referred to in the recording chain, thus they are talking about changing the signal, and making MP3s sound as good as higher definition sources has got to involve adding something to the signal, anything added to the signal by definition is noise.
Further once a waveform is altered by noise or interference you can only estimate what the unadulterated waveform was like, especially when it is referred to in the recording chain, thus they are talking about changing the signal, and making MP3s sound as good as higher definition sources has got to involve adding something to the signal, anything added to the signal by definition is noise.
Sorry, but all I see in the two papers on the Westlake site is a bunch of handwaving, some of it contradictory. Its right up there with Bybees - a cable technique that can remove unwanted "non-musical" stuff while allowing musical stuff through.
I note with interest that it is a "system" - the amp and other components will ideally be "Low PE" and carry the low PE Distortion trademark.
The snake oil can be licenced!
I'd bet that the proprietary processes referred to are not described anywhere - not even hinted at. Which seems odd. I mean, Dolby managed to protect their interests in a distortion limitation system and yet explain the technology behind it. Every other patentable process or technology similarly can be explained clearly and in technically competent language that doesn't rely on vague euphemisms.
I note with interest that it is a "system" - the amp and other components will ideally be "Low PE" and carry the low PE Distortion trademark.
The snake oil can be licenced!
I'd bet that the proprietary processes referred to are not described anywhere - not even hinted at. Which seems odd. I mean, Dolby managed to protect their interests in a distortion limitation system and yet explain the technology behind it. Every other patentable process or technology similarly can be explained clearly and in technically competent language that doesn't rely on vague euphemisms.
Not to mention that you'd need a pretty intelligent cable to know what was deleted from the sound during the MP3 compression, and then re-add exactly that, just the right ampli! That's not a cable, that's the worlds best prediction machine! 😉
Jan
Philips, before saying Bye Bye, introduced a "Mp3 sound restoring " button
in their compact boxes
in their compact boxes
That part is done by the listener's brain ...
No, nothing is added to the signal, something is removed - and that's the excess noise, distortion injected while the signal travels through the electronics. Of course, if you're confident that all electronics processing contributes zero audible artifacts to the sound, well then, I've got a bridge to sell you - shaped a bit like a coathanger ...
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