Hi Scott,
True, especially not at those low levels.
Hi Dan,
-Chris
True, especially not at those low levels.
Hi Dan,
These days the equipment we use is a whole lot more sensitive than our hearing is. One reason would be that if our hearing was that sensitive, any more than it already is, sounds of danger would be drowned out from the overall noise. Our hearing has developed to the correct sensitivity for survival.
-Chris
IF you know what to measure. That isn't always so black and white.
When it comes to different sounding connectors. I think it's something like this in importance, with some known, and unknown.
1. The shape of the conductor determines the fields from it which can change sound through a variety of proximities and parasitic exposures.
A. The shape can also determine the amount of compression.
2. The plating can change the sound.
The smoother surfaces look different at a real low level, the more polished the more direct, and the rougher the more rain-forest of arcing. (someone setup an experiment to see this, forget when/where) But is this a concern if compression is high enough?
3. Base material can have an influence on the sound. But why?
A. Are we hearing differences in mass?
B. If not magnetic, what is going on? Propagation is too short to matter.
C. Does it all go back to 1 & 2 because the base material really isn't the issue?
Cable insulation:
Here's a question... If 99% of the insulation in a studio is PVC, why should we benefit a lot from something different? Or are we just changing out sound to make up for other deficiencies in the stereo? Do we really need teflon??? Perhaps with speaker wire it makes more sense, given that it's essentially an "addition" to the amount of cabling difference between the two (recording vs playback) ?
Another comment... It's all balanced cables in studios, so why do we have an expectation for coaxial to be good? I personally haven't heard any coaxial I like in a stereo. It always sounds... wrong. I'll take cheap balanced or cheap SE twisted pair over it anytime.
Hi Destroyer OS,
You mean the Eichman bullet plugs that don't shield the cable entry? Familiar with them, and I won't use them.
-Chris
You mean the Eichman bullet plugs that don't shield the cable entry? Familiar with them, and I won't use them.
-Chris
there are 2 male and 2 female connectors. Are they different in any way? Is the shielding of the cord different in any way? Look for the differences.
what are the brand/model of the gear and the cable brand/model? I/we can look at them and see what might be different.
THx-RNMarsh
what are the brand/model of the gear and the cable brand/model? I/we can look at them and see what might be different.
THx-RNMarsh
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It's straight-forward in this case. RLCD parameters won't change by reversing the cable, therefore a diffential test is easy to set up, we can expect a deep null in the difference (no need to fine tune for lowest null by fiddling with RLCD as would be the case when different cable would be used). The null should be as deep as it would typically be if we just repeat the measurement without reversing. One might add time-domain averaging to lower the noise floor.
So, you'd need to record a soundsample in direction A (sample-synchronous record-while-playback required), record again in direction B, repeat this three times to obtain A1,A2,A3 and B1,B2,B2. Then subtract Ax from Ay, Bx from By, and Bx from Ax (x,y = any index from 1..3). Look at those residuals, if the Ax-Bx residuals look systematically different to the Ax-Ay and Bx-By residuals you have something, otherwise you don't.
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This is nonsense. Someone should tell NIST about all this stuff, the literature is all public record AC and DC measurements to 9 digits.
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Is someone channeling the late Stanley Unwin?
Aside. I have found that, after years of listening to music very quietly so as not to wake the Kraken that 80dB as shown on the wet finger rat shack analog SPL meter (A weighted fast) is as loud as I want in the home. So basically THX home levels.
Aside. I have found that, after years of listening to music very quietly so as not to wake the Kraken that 80dB as shown on the wet finger rat shack analog SPL meter (A weighted fast) is as loud as I want in the home. So basically THX home levels.
He also claims to hear "directionality" in a brick placed near his equipment; that is, he can detect the 3D orientation of an ordinary brick resting on his CD player, by ear alone. And not just a change like length of brick along width vs depth of equipment case, but a 180 degree rotation of the brick. If we assume the brick has essentially constant density and no major dimensional defects, then his claim is that the orientation of the brick does not merely damp chassis vibrations but somehow alters the electrical signals. It is not clear how close the brick needs to be to the equipment, nor what happens if the brick is rotated around a different axis (why is it directional along its length but not along its breadth or height?),nor what happens if he can't see the brick.
In short, Dan "hears" a sonic effect whenever he changes anything, including copying files through different USB cables without bit errors. Nobody else can hear the difference, unless Dan is present. I, for one, am not interested in following these trails, since every change is audible, what difference does it make?
Yes; I'm not recommending them, but the way they are done the ground can provide more pressure for a stiffer contact that a simple Radioshack strain relieved plug.
I don't think compression is nonsense. I guess inside IC's compression isn't a thing?
I for one think Dan will probably have to eventually come to grips with things that he can differentiate blind and those he can't. I think he will probably do exceptionally well in terms of the things he can differentiate blind, but my belief until shown otherwise is that he is over-confident about some of the more extreme things he believes he can do. The only way he and I can reach agreement on those things would require his cooperation for blind testing. No offense intended to Dan or his personal integrity by saying that. But, we each have our own beliefs and the only way to bring them together on some issues will take testing, then one of us is going to have to accept results we didn't expect. Can't do anything but see what happens, and live with the results.
The rain forest of arcing is nonsense. Your use of compression is to general, what do you mean by "compression inside an IC"? If you mean change of properties with level, no it is not much of a problem at all.
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Hi Destroyer OS,
Compared to the Switchcraft plugs I'm using now? No thanks. I'll use connectors that are dimensionally correct. Although, I do like the Monster 300 series RCA plugs. Probably not made anymore.
-Chris
Compared to the Switchcraft plugs I'm using now? No thanks. I'll use connectors that are dimensionally correct. Although, I do like the Monster 300 series RCA plugs. Probably not made anymore.
-Chris
The house brick experiment was 20+ years ago.
The brick was placed ontop a Panasonic CDP ontop an all steel 19" rack for the purpose of reducing/altering acoustic feedback.
By chance I noticed a (reproducible) difference according to the lengthwise orientation (180* rotation) of the brick.
The kind of brick was a 'fancy textured' with all kinds of random stuff mixed in, probably a fair amount of iron.
Bricks like these would be guaranteed to have a 'locked in' magnetic orientation, not unlike igneous rocks recording orientation of local magnetic field conditions whilst cooling/quenching.
I also had a speaker magnet ferrite ring stuck on the side of the rack and the xy position/rotation/polarity of this magnet altered the system sound.
Interestingly two other parties when handed the magnet and and asked to put it on the side of the rack and move/rotate the magnet to find a favoured position both came up with near as dammit as the same spot/orientation that I favoured.
In my experimentations, I do find that changing just about anything from AC wall socket onward does change system sound.....I am very much not alone in this finding.
There are system gross distortions like THD/IMD/FR errors etc and then there is system noise.
System noise is not just simple (as in white noise), there are a handful of low level noise mechanisms at work that conspire to define the 'character' of a system.
At least some of these noise mechanisms interact and modulate each other, ie the result is not necessarily statistical 3dB addition, more so multiplicative/modulating addition.
Therefore, small change in signal or system source causes 'extraordinary' change in system output, avalanche effect if you will and if the system is 'clear' enough seemingly minor changes at source end can be revealed.
Other parties hear what I'm hearing independently and report same subjective findings.
Achieving good sound is all about controlling noise behaviours.
One method is to regulate/filter energy supply to every stage and ensure EMC by design and to employ low noise devices and passives throughout the system.
Good but seriously expensive and out of budget for the most of us present here, who are but a small subset of the general population.
That leaves the rest of us with decent/midfi gear that by definition is excess noisy, and by definition prone to program embedded noise.
There are easy ways to refine sound of audio systems and that's where the fun is, and where the music starts.
If you are happy with the sound you have, then all power to you, we are all glad for you 😎.
I'm happy, I can dial up dead clean, dead clear (can get boring) and I can then flavour the sound at will (instantaneously)....it just doesn't get more fun than this (for me).
Dan.
I'm cool with all of this.
On 'typical' systems I can wreak relatively large subjective changes perfectly easily and these will pass ABX no question.
The USB drive will pass ABX also I expect based on informal testing.
The Dropbox experiment for some trialists was maybe flawed due to downloading the composite zip file....I discovered this potential gotcha just the other day.
Dan.
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