Resistor Sound Quality Shootout

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Read about "expectation bias" to learn why resistors sound different. It's a well known phenomenon that has been widely studied.


What a nonsense! You mean all the different people from different races/religions/areas are hearing the same things because they are expecting it? LOL !!!

I just don't get it: People like you are not using ears but theories. You arguments are just theories but thousand of people are hearing it - but maybe you are deaf?

You are expecting that there is no sound difference because of a theory - FACT!
 
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Where exactly in the circuit were the resistors placed? Across the input? In the feedback loop? Part of a filter network?

I use Dale CMF series resistors in the signal path. I have built the exact same circuit with CMF resistors, and then with "generic" resistors (carbon composition from a Radio Shack assortment) and the audible difference was immediately obvious.

In my "test" (no double blind just build and listen) the resistors were very different and the difference in the performance of the circuits was obvious in the measurements. I'm skeptical, but curious, about how you got audible differences out of resistors that are not so different.
 
Read about "expectation bias" to learn why resistors sound different. It's a well known phenomenon that has been widely studied.


From the cowanaudio website:

"The Pre-Pro is a Yamaha RX-V657. In bypass mode, essentially only the volume control is in the signal path and two channel audio is reproduced with utmost fidelity."


LOL!!! Gimme a break, no wonder that you can't hear any difference using crap like that. LOL!!!



I will ignore you in future.
 
So it's the input bias resistor. Any noise or anomaly introduced here in the circuit will be easy to identify.

It's also worth noting that this resistor is effectively shunted by the output impedance of the source. Theoretically, any "noise" produced by this resistor should be shunted out. In other words, you might get more dramatic results by switching out the 2-4.7K feedback resistors.

This circuit is essentially my buffered volume control circuit, which is a simple and excellent building block for line level circuits.
 
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I just don't get it: People like you are not using ears but theories.

You are only using your ears to get an acoustic vibration converted into electrical impulses. A kind of biological A-D converter.

What you perceive is what your brain makes of that pulse stream. And that brain not only looks at the pulses coming in over the nerve, but also a lot of other data. Like how you feel, how you wish to appear to your friends, and your expectations, to mention just a few.

So the statement 'I use ears to hear those differences' shows a lack of understanding of how we perceive sound.
That is why controlled tests are so important to get to the real data, and not - without knowing - fooling yourself.
But you are not alone. Almost no audiophile is interested to know how the perception of sound works.

Jan
 
That's a good explanation of psychoacoustic effects.

What we "hear" is really a construct of our brains. Things like echolocation and "soundstage" happen in our brains, not in our ears. They are not perceived directly! They are cognitive constructs.

That is why controlled tests are so important to get to the real data, and not - without knowing - fooling yourself.
 
Our hearing perception is very sensitive to sound source location. This is not an intrinsic feature of our ears. It evolved as a cognitive feature. We were at one time hunters (and hunted!) and our sensitivity to sound location was a big survival feature, so natural selection honed it until it became very acute.
 
Almost no audiophile is interested to know how the perception of sound works.

Jan

That is so funny and so true.

Look at how "audiophile" equipment is marketed. After reading a brochure I feel like I just got back from a first class world tour.

But what does that have to do with the equipment? Different strokes for different folks I guess. :rolleyes: I think you might know what it means to me. ;) It's the same way they sell cars and everything else. They're selling an image, not a product.

marantz-ad-322x510.jpg
 
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