I've gone hunting for this document a couple of times and haven't been able to find it. Is it something you can link? Or perhaps email?
How so? I don't take any weight to PMA's test as it wasn't at all rigorous (minus PMA's work to generate the files), if you're wondering, but I just find it fascinating that we're being so accommodating of "well now that I know which is which, let me completely revise my story".
Not that I don't appreciate the work Pavel did there, but it's not generally informative. (more useful in whether you can tell the difference)
Ed Simon: Please forgive me for being distracted by the usual piffle and not responding to your reportage about the events of 10/27. While I can never feel your anguish, please understand that even here in another country we feel the pain and sadness of this horrible crime, even if we are not part of that community. You and your have my deepest condolences.
I don't understand what you are saying at all. If it sounds subjectively better to you how could it be the incorrect conclusion?
I listened. I heard way more midrange on one file. Usually tube circuits add midrange and compression. So here we have a tube line stage circuit that sucks out midrange and pushes harmonics in the upper register to feign detail and dynamics. The added detail and dynamics is cool in a way. But the drastic midrange suck out? All I have to say is WTF? Why design such a thing? PMA, did you build this into the circuit on purpose?
Last edited:
So circuits with added distortion or other effects can be OK (or "cool in a way" as you say)? I suspect that Pavel would not consider the midrange "sucked out" unless it showed up in a plot of gain vs frequency. I can't listen to the files myself since my headphone jack is broken.
It was used all of the time in recording studios in the 70’s and 80’s. You know about Aphex units right?
I can usually hear a difference if the material is in stereo, but the samples were mono and no distortion residual phase information. Easiest for me to hear presence of H2 is from spatial cues, a H2 leading fundamental by 90deg will enhance midrange and spaciousness while H2 lagging fundamental by 90deg is more forward, less depth and more pronounced detail. Not so easy to hear in mono, at least I (with not so much experience) can not hear enough difference using headphones from the samples to form any conclusion. But Pavel's point about listener preference is valid.
That it sounds subjectively better is not the question or conclusion PMA solicited. He asked respondents to say which file is the wire and which is the tube circuit, which is not something can be known with certainty from listening to two files such as those PMA posted. But, when someone asks a question, sometimes people will innocently try to answer without stopping to consider whether an attempt is being made to set them up.
EDIT: Based on past experience, we can probably be pretty sure that when PMA posts a listening test of some type, he already knows his conclusion. It is most likely not an effort to research something, IMHO.
Last edited:
Sure, we're talking home listening not creating here or maybe not. That could be the answer making pre-amps and amps effects boxes maybe everyone could be happy.
Last edited:
Sorry, my recollection about what was said appears to be mistaken.
I will admit to having some left-over frustration after some of Pavel's past listening test threads. Once he did one with a wire and power amp, and I think I said the files sound different, but can't say which was which. Seems like somewhere back in there were complaints from onlookers for waffling, rather than expressing certainty. So long as not the case here, then I certainly have no truck with Pavel. My apologies, sir.
Last edited:
FWIW, I had no problem figuring out which file was which and I wouldn't claim to have any special hearing abilities. I was quite surprised to read morinix's initial response and wondered if he was listening to the same files.
Innocently try to answer? People are free to ignore Pavel's challenges. If they choose to strut their stuff and get it wrong, that's hardly his problem.
Freedom was never at issue. There is an old, long history to Pavel's listening tests. They were not conducted for research into to what people can or can't hear, IMHO. It became clear Pavel's belief's in that area were already pretty firmly set. Don't know if anything has changed in that regard.
Last edited:
- Status
- Not open for further replies.