I have noticed that wive's opinions of sound carry particular authority. Is that
possibly because they can simply hear better, or because we assume that
they aren't infected with male prejudices regarding hardware?
I have noticed that wive's opinions of sound carry particular authority. Is that
possibly because they can simply hear better, or because we assume that
they aren't infected with male prejudices regarding hardware?
There are known differences in the way men and women process sound. To mention two: 1) men are better able to localize sounds in space. 2) women are better able to isolate and understand a single voice from a mix of other voices and sounds.
Your assumption that women aren't infected with male prejudices regarding hardware is probably true; they have their own set of prejudices in that regard
.
Joachim,
Fun thing, I cannot hear 16KHz, but I CAN hear (again) around 19KHz and somewhat beyond... I also percieve the presence of much higher frequencies, but I cannot HEAR it as distinct tone.
It seems loud PA's systems with their compression drivers caused my hearing to develop a selective notch around 15..16KHz, while leaving even higher frequency hearing intact! In my late teens and early 20's the 19KHz FM Pilot Tone used to drive me crazy, even at very low levels, in a Mono Radio, via a single cone full range driver...
But with enough Vino Rosso my very high frequency hearing disappears and I also no longer percieve the "pressure" I feel from ultrasonic tones.
Ciao T
Fun thing, I cannot hear 16KHz, but I CAN hear (again) around 19KHz and somewhat beyond... I also percieve the presence of much higher frequencies, but I cannot HEAR it as distinct tone.
It seems loud PA's systems with their compression drivers caused my hearing to develop a selective notch around 15..16KHz, while leaving even higher frequency hearing intact! In my late teens and early 20's the 19KHz FM Pilot Tone used to drive me crazy, even at very low levels, in a Mono Radio, via a single cone full range driver...
But with enough Vino Rosso my very high frequency hearing disappears and I also no longer percieve the "pressure" I feel from ultrasonic tones.
Ciao T
I have a similar problem....Following an ear ache and antibiotics I have effectively "lost" hearing in the range between approx. 1K and 2.5K (-64db to - 70db, then a steep slope to 7K where my hearing improves to about normal - for a 69 year old man who used to shoot a lot!!) YET the sensitivity to 16K to 20K is back to the same quality as when I was young!!!
At the same time I started to feel totally unbalanced and claustrophobic in big supermarkets etc. .... It seems that I have developed a hypersensitivity to the very low frequency vibrations created in undamped air conditioning ducts. Yet similar frequencies from recorded or live music cause no problem...probably because the tones are not continuous.
Had a MRT scan on Wednesday, so perhaps there may be some hope.
With this new "hearing capability" I can still enjoy music itself, live and recorded, as well as ever.
I think that in some cases if you have signal chain that is adding mostly odd order harmonic distortion add a dose of 2nd harmonic to mask the nasty's could make the music more enjoyable.
Mask the bitter with some honey.
I agree Kevin. So much of the gear in signal path tends to be odd order dominate. Adding some even back in there may mask some of that build up.
I built a couple of the Hiraga 20W. It has a very flat frequency response and is stable into very difficult loads. As for it's harmonic content, I don't know.
I built a couple of the Hiraga 20W. It has a very flat frequency response and is stable into very difficult loads. As for it's harmonic content, I don't know.
Perhaps.
Though as far as I'm aware, the Hiraga 20 watt class A amp was complimentary push-pull, which means it was likely odd-order dominant.
se
It would appear for many serious audiophiles, age is not as big a problem as one would have predicted in our younger days. I, too, could hear 24KHz, once upon a time, and I knew other people, who were more extended than I was, especially women.
Personally, I find that women can be more sensitive to factors IGNORED by men. I suspect that they can hear crossover distortion better, at least that is my experience.
Still, extreme high frequency extension is not the only factor in hearing subtle differences.
Also, it should be pointed out that some tweeters might have notches in their frequency response. For example, the Electrovoice T-35 or T-350 horn tweeter, one of the industry standards, decades ago. When I was about 30 years old, I thought I had a notch in MY hearing at about 19KHz. I found out that it was the T-350 tweeter I had on my K-horns. (Richard Heyser also used a T-350 on his K-horn, so I was in good company). John Meyer and I did an FFT on a number of T-350's and found MOST of them with this notch. ONE did not have this notch, for some reason, so I kept it for myself. Still have it today, somewhere.
Personally, I find that women can be more sensitive to factors IGNORED by men. I suspect that they can hear crossover distortion better, at least that is my experience.
Still, extreme high frequency extension is not the only factor in hearing subtle differences.
Also, it should be pointed out that some tweeters might have notches in their frequency response. For example, the Electrovoice T-35 or T-350 horn tweeter, one of the industry standards, decades ago. When I was about 30 years old, I thought I had a notch in MY hearing at about 19KHz. I found out that it was the T-350 tweeter I had on my K-horns. (Richard Heyser also used a T-350 on his K-horn, so I was in good company). John Meyer and I did an FFT on a number of T-350's and found MOST of them with this notch. ONE did not have this notch, for some reason, so I kept it for myself. Still have it today, somewhere.
About women and hearing my wife was always quicker to identify irritating things in the sound than I am. She will usually say the sound is irritating. The good thing is that she has no idea or preconceptions about brands or technology it is just a matter of whether she likes what she hears.
In addition to crossover distortion their HF hearing is more sensitive.
In addition to crossover distortion their HF hearing is more sensitive.
It was P-P complimentary, so it might have been odd dominate, but I doubt it. Mr. Hiraga was rather picky about the harmonic structure of distortion in his amps, so I can't imagine this would be too dominate in any harmonic or order.
I did not have the means to measure that at the time, and never saw it published. (Just square waves and such).
There is a model of it in the latest version of Microcap (V10) if anyone cares to run a simulation.
Why?
I don't see any significant asymmetry in the circuit with which to make it even-order dominant.
se
ComplEmentary....
Indeed, this amp has relatively high THD ratio by today s standards,
but the distribution is not odd dominant , at least according to Hiraga
as well as to the simulators.
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Many thanks Joachim, but I don't deserve such acknowledgement: I made only some reasonings.
BTW, jkeny made ref. in his thread http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/everything-else/183499-ffts-measurement-tool-audio.html to a very interesting paper I didn't know that comes at conclusions very similars to mine. Behind this document I discovered that there is a complete web site : Temporal Coherence.
In the home page, the second theorem you tribute to me is clearly stated. Dr. Hans R.E. van Maanen is more authoritative than me.
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