Placement of resistors in signal path.

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@jaddie, Didn't mean to suggest that distortions can't be measured, or that noises can't. The practical problem is that in practice almost nobody seems to pay attention to vague clues. They look at one number, say, THD, see its -115dB or so, and declare that a device is transparent. What about the stuff that could have been measured but wasn't? What about the audibility of signal correlated noise, etc.?
What about them? Measure them? The lack of a measurement doesn't mean there's something wrong with the world.
I once talked to Earl Geddes about what we know about hearing, since Earl has published in that area. He said he thought we had a pretty good idea of what about 95% of the population can hear. He went on to say that to study the remaining 5% would require the development of new tests. His opinion that day, is all.
I don't disagree.
Another thing that I have a question about is 'threshold of audibility.' One of our forum members, Jakob2, is involved in perceptual testing. He explained something most engineers don't seem to understand: Thresholds of audibility are not hard limits, rather they are estimates of an average limit of audibility for a population.
Engineers do understand that, simply because there are no published standardized threasholds of audibility for anything, only rought estimates. Most engineering measurements are relative to a reference.
What I would like to add regarding such estimates as they apply to humans is that while a few hundred test subjects are enough to produce mathematically meaningful statistics, even large scale studies of humans such have been done in the field of medicine are often confounded by the huge variability of the billions of humans on earth. Some large studies have turned to be failures.
If you have a specific instance, we could look at it, but the variability in test subjects is part of the data. Often the final analysis returns a "range of normal", plus high and low, rarely are there single figure absolutes. That doesn't mean the study is a failure, on the contrary, it's returning good data.
How do we know psychoacoustics should be considered as exempt from similar errors?
It's not.
Here is the basic problem forcing the questioning of psychoacoustics, as stated simply: We can perform every test an AP machine can do and still not predict exactly how an amplifier will sound. Why not? What are we missing? What else should we be measuring?
Good questions. I'm not sure we can't predict how an amplifier will sound once it's in isolation from non-audio biases. There are a number of non-traditional measurements that can and should be done. Again, reference the Jensen AES paper regarding "spectral contamination". The good thing is that's an easy test now, it was very difficult when the paper was written.
One example to consider: In a dac, the audio signal is approximately convolved with master clock close-in phase noise. That appears as widened spectral peaks of audio test signals. Widening is mostly seen around skirts near the bottom of a peak. The same convolution issue is a known and well-studied problem in radar where close-in phase noise can interfere with detection of small radar targets. As a noise phenomenon in dacs, noise is constantly changing as spectral components rise and fall.
Where did all of that come from? And while "phase noise" may impact the reconstructed (hardly convolved though) audio, it's once again not a binary quantity, but a question of degree. And easily measured, BTW. In DACs I've tested, it's simply a non-factor. No, noise is not constantly changing. It doesn't work like that.
Can that cause dynamic masking that is being neglected in measurements?
No, masking is quite well understood, and wouldn't apply here.
Some people insist close-in phase noise is inaudible, yet other people find that reducing it to very low level is perceptually detectable. Which is it? At what point is it inaudible on average to a population.
That would be a research project, possibly already done.
At what point is it inaudible to every single human on earth?
It doesn't matterr if it's inaudible to every single human on earth. There will always be a weird human you can't include in the test. This is true in every branch of science, there's always a bit of imprecision, you just need to know it's a possibility. It won't change device design.
How sure are we that we know? And, how do you measure the level of close-in phase noise in equipment used for audibility studies?
Phase noise, or jitter, is quite easily measured. Even REW will do it. Not a problem for AP.
Another observation: One thing we don't measure is the effective credibility of the stereo illusion of there being a virtual sound stage, including perception of width and depth (and for some people, height). There appear to be multiple factors that affect the illusion. IME a highly skilled listener can reliably discriminate between ultra low distortion amplifiers by listening for perceptual cues in the illusion of soundstage. Regarding possible masking effects by speakers, the most sensitive tests of that type require the use of large panel ESL speakers, Sound Lab being preferred. The room must be treated, etc. Any resonators or absorbers must be removed, which includes any unused speakers which act as passive damper/re-radiators. So far as I know, no published research has gone to the trouble of removing to the same extent various masking factors that may obscure true limits of audibility.
Because you can't do that. Stereo recording is not replication, it's creating an illusion of an event, real or synthetic, that is adequate enough to suspend disbelief. Because it's not replication of the original event, there is no means to quantify it, the "reference" doesn't apply. It's subjective. You can collect subjective data and analyze it statistically of course. You just can't measure this objectively directly.
EDIT: One more comment, I think you may have missed the point by lrisbo about phase rotation. One can take a set of sine wave generators and display their amplitudes in an FFT. If you then adjust the phase of the sine waves without changing the amplitudes, after some settling time spectral peaks look the same. However, the time domain waveform has changed, and it can sound different.
No, it doesn't. I have an example of exactly that, a sine wave with several harmonics, then with some rather significant (and unnatural) application of phase shift. The spectrum and the audible sound quality do not change. Phase is something humans are not very sensitive to. It gets sighted a lot because it's not easily understood and somewhat challenging to measure.
Perhaps more so for low frequency sounds. The effect is easy to show using Nelson Pass phase shift circuits to make 3rd harmonic distortion of a sine wave have maximum verses minimum crest factor. Sure it can be measured, but who is measuring it over at ASR when they jump to conclusions about audibility based on AP tests?
I don't know, ask ASR?
How many engineers are fooling themselves about audibility based on their measurements? How many fooling themselves in other ways? Why is the conclusion always that the listener is the only one being fooled?
Why do you keep assuming that engineers are fools? Engineers are usually very detaild and methodical. This goes down the path of "we don't know everything" and "engeers don't understand audio".

Wow. If you need to take that road, I'm not going with you.
 
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See there are some questions and comments I need to respond to. Probably have to wait until tomorrow for most of it.

For now, regarding dacs and close-in phase noise, that sort of phase noise is often distinguished from jitter in the literature (including in various app notes. Perhaps the different treatment is because different measurement instruments may be needed, and because practical side effects of the the noise can be different).

If it would help get some intuitive feel for close-in phase noise as verses jitter, I will attach a brochure containing some graphical illustration. Mathematical treatment is also available but perhaps less intuitive. In the case of audio dacs, close-in phase noise can fall within the audio band.

Regarding a question from someone else about IMD, maybe I am still trying to figure out why pretty low level IMD can audible with music signals if one knows what to listen for (willing to adjust my conjectures re causation as time goes on). lrisbo comments about sensitive midrange frequencies affecting IMD discrimination may have been what I was looking for. Turns out that for me chordal textures in music subtly change in a way correlated with measurements of low level HD, including for low order HD. As lrisbo said about hysteresis distortion, I think other people can be trained to know what to listen for.

More to come.
 

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Regarding a question from someone else about IMD, maybe I am still trying to figure out why pretty low level IMD can audible with music signals if one knows what to listen for (willing to adjust my conjectures re causation as time goes on).
First thing first, make sure it's audible in level matched double blind listening test. Anything other than that is just a conjecture to begin with. Imagine that, searching for causation in conjecture.
 
Needs to be significantly better than what you compare it to. Conventional speakers produces lots of distortion so this good reference has not existed before perhaps now with our drivers or future versions.

It is a a carrier FM modulated by a another sine wave and this gives an infinity of sidebands according to modulation theory. The AM version has the phases of the side bands shifted, ie same amplitude spectrum but different phases resulting a AM modulated signal (which is not a pure sine due to the infinite number of sidebands).
A carrier amplitude modulated by a single frequency has only two sidebands. You can shift their phase or not, still only two. A FM carrier modulated by a single frequency has a theoretically infinite number of sidbands, but they are a representation on a spectrum analyzer, which does not, and cannot show actual frequency modulation.

My point is, your AM example has too many sidebands for a single modulating frequency, so what was the modulation signal?
 
See there are some questions and comments I need to respond to. Probably have to wait until tomorrow for most of it.

For now, regarding dacs and close-in phase noise, that sort of phase noise is often distinguished from jitter in the literature (including in various app notes. Perhaps the different treatment is because different measurement instruments may be needed, and because practical side effects of the the noise can be different).
"Phase noise" and "jitter" are both FM functions. They are different only in the nature of the modulating frequency. The measurement techniques do not differ. The audible effects depend on the character of the modulating signal.
If it would help get some intuitive feel for close-in phase noise as verses jitter, I will attach a brochure containing some graphical illustration. Mathematical treatment is also available but perhaps less intuitive. In the case of audio dacs, close-in phase noise can fall within the audio band.
I see nothing new or useful in that document.
Regarding a question from someone else about IMD, maybe I am still trying to figure out why pretty low level IMD can audible with music signals if one knows what to listen for (willing to adjust my conjectures re causation as time goes on). lrisbo comments about sensitive midrange frequencies affecting IMD discrimination may have been what I was looking for. Turns out that for me chordal textures in music subtly change in a way correlated with measurements of low level HD, including for low order HD. As lrisbo said about hysteresis distortion, I think other people can be trained to know what to listen for.
IMD tends to be more audible than THD because the products generated are not harmonically related to the desired signal, and unlikely masked by other musically related sounds. That makes them stand out as unique and objectionable. Again, nothing new here. This has been known for many decades.
 
A couple of things. Maybe MarcelvdG could chime in and explain to jaddie about close-in phase noise as opposed to jitter as the are classified in dac work. Of course we all know they are subclassifactions of the same basic physical phenomenon. Jitter can be measured with a fancy oscilloscope. Close-in phase noise may be measured via TimePod or other specialized instrumentation. IIUC Mr. 08 has some of the equipment.

Regarding some of the other issues it looks like we are talking past each other. Different conceptual views and or different definitions/classifications are not necessarily wrong. Sometimes one view is more useful than the other depending on the problem at hand.

@jaddie, You are the first guy I know of to come along in this forum that understands as much as you do about audiometric testing, that and about human cognition, bias, etc. Its a welcome addition. However, as you probably know people do live in their own mentally constructed worlds. We are all better at seeing other's people's faults, imperfections, mistakes, etc., while virtually blind to seeing our own. Nobody is excepted. Please confirm if you have learned about that too.
 
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A couple of things. Maybe MarcelvdG could chime in and explain to jaddie about close-in phase noise as opposed to jitter as the are classified in dac work. Of course we all know they are subclassifactions of the same basic physical phenomenon. Jitter can be measured with a fancy oscilloscope.
No, it can't. You may be able to see it if you probe the right test point, but no quantification is possible with a scope.
Close-in phase noise may be measured via TimePod or other specialized instrumentation. IIUC Mr. 08 has some of the equipment.
Both can be evaluated with spectrum analysis, though quantification would be only relative. The problem is that you have to characterize the modulatiing signal to do that. Takes a calibrated discriminator.
Regarding some of the other issues it looks like we are talking past each other. Different conceptual views and or different definitions/classifications are not necessarily wrong. Sometimes one view is more useful than the other depending on the problem at hand.

@jaddie, You are the first guy I know of to come along in this forum that understands as much as you do about audiometric testing, that and about human cognition, bias, etc. Its a welcome addition. However, as you probably know people do live in their own mentally constructed worlds. We are all better at seeing other's people's faults, imperfections, mistakes, etc., while virtually blind to seeing our own. Nobody is excepted. Please confirm if you have learned about that too.
I have learned that, but not here. I did come here to learn, and I have, just not what I expected.
 
Keysight Oscilloscope Jitter Measurement Package:
https://www.keysight.com/us/en/assets/7018-04304/data-sheets/5991-4061.pdf

Device sometimes use to evaluate dac clock close-in phase noise:
http://www.miles.io/timepod/ss_1pg.pdf

Phase noise measurement system:
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8848610

Phase noise effects in radar systems, including sidelobes of spectral peaks:
https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1528837
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9384890

Attached below is a short excerpt on phase noise effects in dacs, including practical effects of close-in verses far-out phase noise.

EDIT: In case the ieee links timeout, please let me know. They are free access at the time of linking.
 

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A carrier amplitude modulated by a single frequency has only two sidebands. You can shift their phase or not, still only two. A FM carrier modulated by a single frequency has a theoretically infinite number of sidbands, but they are a representation on a spectrum analyzer, which does not, and cannot show actual frequency modulation.

My point is, your AM example has too many sidebands for a single modulating frequency, so what was the modulation signal?
please read carefully again: we start with the FM signal (sine carrier modulated by a low freq sine) and convert to AM by shifting the phases yielding an AM signal. The AM demodulated signal is of course a sine wave with harmonics (to reflect the infinity of side bands). The FM and AM signal are identical on a spectrum analyzer (same amplitude/power spectrum)
 
Some reference information regarding the perception of 'textures' which I spoke of previously in relation to learning how to detect low level distortion cues in chordal sounds: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12893-0

Briefly, the existence of perceptual textures has been studied to some extent. Its possible role in distortion perception may not have been studied as of this time.
 
please read carefully again: we start with the FM signal (sine carrier modulated by a low freq sine) and convert to AM by shifting the phases yielding an AM signal. The AM demodulated signal is of course a sine wave with harmonics (to reflect the infinity of side bands). The FM and AM signal are identical on a spectrum analyzer (same amplitude/power spectrum)
Please also read again: Your spectrum does not show an AM signal modulated by a single frequency. Your time graph does.