Interesting to see BSP in action again, I thought he had wandered off ...
There are two sides to the coin - of course the senses can be tricked, if you go to the effort, or the circumstances are right. On the other hand, they are remarkably capable of picking up little anomalies, unexpected situations or combinations of sensory input which are crucial for one's "survival" in some situation, or deeper understanding.
I did heard there was an airline that was planning to make a "thing" of using automated landing to promote their progressive thinking - as a sign of confidence in the technology the pilot and co-pilot would come come back into the cabin, and wave to the passengers while the plane was landing itself ... I wonder how the bookings are going for the flights ...
Our sight, in terms of survival, is actually picking up quite major things, just in our periphery, or that our reaction to it is at a sub concious level before our concious brain has had a chance to rregister what it is.it doesn't always succeed though, as often we would get eaten by predators with their own optical illusion, camoflague. The tigers stripes tricked our ancestors eyes many times in the past.
My key point is that the normal suite of measuring tools and methodologies are not picking up, strongly, attributes in the sound which determine whether the quality is acceptable or not. a.wayne's recent comment about his negative experiences with digital reproduction is a simple example of this, and I echo his POV, largely. When readily available, proper 
tools do the job, then I'll happily forsake my ears - but in the meantime I'll use the most reliable, and always on tap, mechanism to do the job - the ear/brain.
tools do the job, then I'll happily forsake my ears - but in the meantime I'll use the most reliable, and always on tap, mechanism to do the job - the ear/brain.
That's a nice theory, but a large amount of the type of fiddling I do can't be done and undone in that fashion - it's an impossibility to carry out, in real terms. So I rely on certain strategies of listening, which have worked well for me over the years, they enable me to consistently move forward.
Many times I have made a very temporary change, rather fragile physically in nature and I'm happy with the result. Then, a few hours later, the sound starts to degrade, I hear it out of the corner of my ear - and I investigate to find that my last "kludge" has for some reason come undone - I redo the fix, and the quality is restored. These are the sort of reasons that make me confident that I'm going in the right direction - basically, listening for the sound to be 'right' or not, as soon as it sounds 'wrong' in some way then you've a problem - which is nothing to do with the quality of the recording ...
Many times I have made a very temporary change, rather fragile physically in nature and I'm happy with the result. Then, a few hours later, the sound starts to degrade, I hear it out of the corner of my ear - and I investigate to find that my last "kludge" has for some reason come undone - I redo the fix, and the quality is restored. These are the sort of reasons that make me confident that I'm going in the right direction - basically, listening for the sound to be 'right' or not, as soon as it sounds 'wrong' in some way then you've a problem - which is nothing to do with the quality of the recording ...
Thanks, John ... in the heat of the moment, when one's all fired up, the emotions can lead one astray - it's good to come back to it from different angles, at different times.
One thing I never, ever do is concentrate when I'm listening - I see people squinting tightly, every muscle on their face taut from the tension of their focus - I'm hanging loose, almost 'not listening', the sound is just flowing over me, I'm sensing the 'texture' of it - is the feel of it 'right', or 'wrong' ...
One thing I never, ever do is concentrate when I'm listening - I see people squinting tightly, every muscle on their face taut from the tension of their focus - I'm hanging loose, almost 'not listening', the sound is just flowing over me, I'm sensing the 'texture' of it - is the feel of it 'right', or 'wrong' ...
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Their chips are nothing compared to mine ...I use Chocolate chips.
I love the chips on the ends of the fuses that improve connectivity.
HOW, explain the mechanisms involved.
The equipment they are powering must be absolutely s*** design if they do make a difference.
Remember cables do not reduce noise.....
Just a guess
Never pulled one apart : ), but I would, given the opportunity .
Possibly a "networked" power cable really just has the live wire wrapped a few turns around a ferrite core , and has a small shunt cap to neutral, to give a first order RFI filter?
This way, at least ,properly earthing your system wouldn't be mandatory.
I would think a decent power supply would have filtering included though.
As for exotic braids and such, can't guess.
Never pulled one apart : ), but I would, given the opportunity .
Possibly a "networked" power cable really just has the live wire wrapped a few turns around a ferrite core , and has a small shunt cap to neutral, to give a first order RFI filter?
This way, at least ,properly earthing your system wouldn't be mandatory.
I would think a decent power supply would have filtering included though.
As for exotic braids and such, can't guess.
One would think so, wouldn't one? But judging from the number of add-on devices that audiophiles buy, it seems that some hi-fi equipment must not.
But then again, from the point of view of noise & interference the schematic is very different from the schematic in the manual. It takes engineering skill to convert AC to DC and not let the noise & interference sneak thru.
Poorly designed noise filters often dump the noise to the Safety Ground/Protective Earth. But that's far from a good idea.
Power cords can and do act as noise & interference antennas (both receiving and transmitting) so the simple act of changing a power cord (with respect to both positioning and length) can change just how good an antenna it is.
Yes ... what's often under-appreciated is that, unfortunately, the greater the potential of the audio equipment, the more attention has to be paid to these areas - otherwise, the investment can be largely wasted if the goal is to achieve satisfying sound reproduction, rather than something that just ticks several technical capability boxes ...
A power-cord acting as an Antenna? That's akin to me flapping my arms & saying, "I'm flying!". On a cord that is running a peak to peak AC signal at 60 Hz. of 310 volts......& MAYBE you might get some value of pico-volts absorbed into the line.....there is no impedance match going on.....the wire is question snakes all through the house, so there is no "structure" to the antenna shape.
Now, if your going to drape your line on top of some odd transformer, yes the fields won't have to travel the miles from you favorite radio station to your haphazardly shaped power-cord. Picking up "interference" is far more likely to be picked up by your interconnects, by several magnitudes.
______________________________________________________Rick..........
Now, if your going to drape your line on top of some odd transformer, yes the fields won't have to travel the miles from you favorite radio station to your haphazardly shaped power-cord. Picking up "interference" is far more likely to be picked up by your interconnects, by several magnitudes.
______________________________________________________Rick..........
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"Picking up "interference" " is a major problem, is a large part of why audio gear that should sound impressive, doesn't - if one opens up one's mind a bit, and does a few simple experiments, it's easy to hear these effects - the hard bit is thoroughly isolating the system, to render all such interactions inaudible. The benefits of doing such, however, are well worth it, persistence is everything ...
Unfortunately, no measurements - hence the term, "simple experiments" ...
What I would do is to use a track which is on the edge of subjective acceptability: if I'm in a pleasant frame of mind then it's OK, if I'm feeling negative then the sound of it is intolerable - it's hovering nicely at a balance point of quality. Play that, and then introduce known "nasty" appliances into the mains spur, plugging them in right next to the audio component plugs - if the system is half decent, and isn't superbly isolated already, then this should make for a significant difference when listening - having the interference injected, vs. not injected.
What I would do is to use a track which is on the edge of subjective acceptability: if I'm in a pleasant frame of mind then it's OK, if I'm feeling negative then the sound of it is intolerable - it's hovering nicely at a balance point of quality. Play that, and then introduce known "nasty" appliances into the mains spur, plugging them in right next to the audio component plugs - if the system is half decent, and isn't superbly isolated already, then this should make for a significant difference when listening - having the interference injected, vs. not injected.
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