Yes if only someone somewhere would look seriously into "these effects". In the meantime just using old proven electrical theory will help to guard against flights of fantasy, and don't forget a DBT at the end of the process.
Yes, electrical theory works at the first level of understanding, but material properties and behaviours comes in at the second level - hence why "silly" things have an impact. Unfortunately 🙂, our ears are too sensitive to these low level, distortion inducing mechanisms, which is why a system one moment sounds "nice" - and another time not nice ...
Once one tunes into these artifacts, they're as obvious as a speaker cone rattling, no DBT needed, 😉. I've spent ages battling this sort of stuff, and I know expensive gizmos have nothing to do with the answers ...
WARNING NSFW......unless you are wearing headphones 😀
http://www.boo.net/~rarnold/firesign/sounds/Goodshit.wav
Nope, there are a few around - what basically has to happen to an audio nutter, is for him - yes, I'm being sexist! - to somehow manage to get a system to hit a sound quality sweet spot - and realise it was due to sufficient factors being right at the time ... it wasn't some mystical, cosmic, drug induced happening, 😀 ...
I thought material properties and behaviours were part of electrical theory. Thinking there are properties and behaviours not covered by electrical theory is a flight into fantasy unless you can show how the theory is incomplete. It has been done before I am sure, and when it happens the theory is updated to include these new behaviors.
But you won't know if you have "tuned into these artifacts"(real) or taken off on another flight of fantasy (unreal) unless you test your perception.....I would have thought....
Hi Frank, I'm not worried in the slightest.
I was young, freshly full of theory lessons.....and then I was shown the effect of swapping the direction of one interconnect wrt the other interconnect on a fairly decent system at a dealer customer's showroom.
The stereo image shifted sideways like I said, and like I said balance control didn't fix it.
This was a light bulb moment for me.
I was given an old Dual turntable, and I had hard wired new audio cables to it.
Problem was, the stereo image would not centre, and nothing I tried fixed this (subtle but evident/irritating) problem.
My error was that I stripped both ends of the one cable, soldered them to the TT, and then cut the mid point of the now looped cable and fitted RCA plugs.....job done so I thought.
Anyway I left the showroom, went straight home and corrected the TT cable directions.....problem sorted.
Proper stereo reproduction/imaging requires that both channels be identical...and that includes cable direction.
Dan.
PS - +1 to your signature line.
Last edited:
Yes, some of them are, but most of the irksome, non-linear, spurious behaviours are casually dumped into the "I don't want to think about this!" basket. One of my special "joys" is static effects, resulting from materials such as insulators doing the finger sign to Ohm's Law, as least as far as looking simplistically at what's going on is concerned. I'm finding a current setup is more susceptible to this, than power line interference - go figure ... !
Since I've been testing for such, for 30 years or so, on and off, I tend to think I've got a bit of a handle on it by now ...
Cheers, Dan ... the pulling to one side of the soundscape is quite disturbing, the last two systems in other's homes that I've heard had this - and as you say the key is that the channels are pretty equal in character, even if that character in itself is not all that brilliant. Could be something quite subtle, or the simple mechanical imbalance in vinyl replay.
Yes, I've heard it in other systems also...for the same reason, and the same corrective action required.
I purpose built a pair of interconnects eons ago so as to preclude any chance of directional effects.
The result was 3D sound on the appropriate recordings.
Dan.
I purpose built a pair of interconnects eons ago so as to preclude any chance of directional effects.
The result was 3D sound on the appropriate recordings.
Dan.
Wow, directional cable! Was the AC signal going back and forth from the turntable to the amp or was it going forth and back from the turntable to the amp? With your idea in mind, I changed the direction of my cables and even put an arrow on them so the signal or I wouldn't get confused. After a few minutes of listening, my wife, who is no audiophile, came into the room and exclaimed "That's amazing, whatever you did made no change in the sound."
This flight tonight
But you won't know if you have "tuned into these artifacts"(real) or taken off on another flight of fantasy (unreal) unless you test your perception.....I would have thought....[/QUOTE]
Sorry, but a speaker client was concerned about stray magnetic fields that may or may not inhabit his components. Couldn't convince him to fuggedaboudit.
After 4 weeks of being badgered, I relented and sold him a maple butcher block with a wire loop inlaid underneath, with an led showing from the front.
Told him the Faraday effect would drain any stray magnetism and light up the led should the "device" be engaged.
Does this led make me a black-hat?
But you won't know if you have "tuned into these artifacts"(real) or taken off on another flight of fantasy (unreal) unless you test your perception.....I would have thought....[/QUOTE]
Sorry, but a speaker client was concerned about stray magnetic fields that may or may not inhabit his components. Couldn't convince him to fuggedaboudit.
After 4 weeks of being badgered, I relented and sold him a maple butcher block with a wire loop inlaid underneath, with an led showing from the front.
Told him the Faraday effect would drain any stray magnetism and light up the led should the "device" be engaged.
Does this led make me a black-hat?
Sorry, but a speaker client was concerned about stray magnetic fields that may or may not inhabit his components. Couldn't convince him to fuggedaboudit.
After 4 weeks of being badgered, I relented and sold him a maple butcher block with a wire loop inlaid underneath, with an led showing from the front.
Told him the Faraday effect would drain any stray magnetism and light up the led should the "device" be engaged.
Does this led make me a black-hat?[/QUOTE]
I should add this block is meant to be placed under a component, I've always thought maple shelving looks good, and the random grain patterns of many laminations may null transformer vibrations a little bit.
All of this wouldn't matter if the human hearing system wasn't as good as it is - it's capable of soaking up a tremendous dynamic range, while still keeping track of subtle things going on; this is why many audio systems don't make the grade, they're not capable of presenting that dynamic range cleanly ...
MITsound
No it makes you a smart hat with another sale. Enough turns and the LED would probably light from the equip's mains trany above, actually a cool idea. 🙂
Fas42, Max Headroom,
Gentlemen, I've devised a new device that you can place atop your components that absorbs stray RFI. It's a massive box with contents too sensitive to discuss in public as it is a new discovery. Let me know if you're interested in auditioning a test unit.
Gentlemen, I've devised a new device that you can place atop your components that absorbs stray RFI. It's a massive box with contents too sensitive to discuss in public as it is a new discovery. Let me know if you're interested in auditioning a test unit.
Last edited:
- Status
- Not open for further replies.