This is an extreme example of why we cannot solely rely on our ears for making qualitative assessments or design decisions in audio. This is about 2/3 of what came out of my right ear yesterday.
Needless to say, my impressions of tonal quality and "soundstage" have changed a lot since then! 🙂
Needless to say, my impressions of tonal quality and "soundstage" have changed a lot since then! 🙂
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Earwax is Nature’s Defense Against Objects and Infections
Its a natural part of our DNA and didn't stop the "hunter/gatherers " at the start of our existence from having acute hearing --they had to due to the abundance of wild animals .
Some people produce more than others and the first thing a hospital Audiologist does is look in your ears for wax but I don't think generally to use wax as an excuse or scientific reason for only looking at dials /displays as a means of judging what is tonally "correct " is the right approach .
Humans are biological some people have very acute hearing , some have not , Natural Selection hasn't--so far , produced a race of "super auditory " human beings it has by natural selection produced humans with their own individual likes and dislikes when it comes to music.
Its a natural part of our DNA and didn't stop the "hunter/gatherers " at the start of our existence from having acute hearing --they had to due to the abundance of wild animals .
Some people produce more than others and the first thing a hospital Audiologist does is look in your ears for wax but I don't think generally to use wax as an excuse or scientific reason for only looking at dials /displays as a means of judging what is tonally "correct " is the right approach .
Humans are biological some people have very acute hearing , some have not , Natural Selection hasn't--so far , produced a race of "super auditory " human beings it has by natural selection produced humans with their own individual likes and dislikes when it comes to music.
This is a good example of why it is maddening to participate in public forums. Someone is bound to come along, twist the meaning/context of your post to something you never intended, and then tear it down on that basis.
Nowhere did I suggest that we stop listening and only use instruments to design.
The point of my post was simple and clear. It was just a reminder that our hearing is fickle and variable, and can't solely be relied up to judge audio quality.
Heck, my hearing changes quite predictably from morning to evening. Things always sound brighter in the morning. (When I was a recording engineer in the 70's, we'd stay up into the wee hours working on a mix. Come back in the morning, listen, and puke. Hearing fatigue is real.)
So which one is "correct"? Probably the morning one. But since I do most of my "serious" listening in the evening, that one tends to get the most say.
It's a very impecise system.
Good point. Changes can start to sound the same, and something you know should be wrong doesn't sound that way.
"....Natural Selection hasn't--so far , produced a race of "super auditory " human beings..."
Sure it has!! Just ask those guys who can "hear" differences in power cords! They'll be more'n happy to tell you all about their superior ears!
Sure it has!! Just ask those guys who can "hear" differences in power cords! They'll be more'n happy to tell you all about their superior ears!
I also have a surfeit of ear wax and I also make sure my ears are clean before I do any serious listening. As well as the general possibility of loss of top end I've found it can make it sound sharp/harsh.
I'd also recommend making sure your Eustachian tubes are clear so that pressure is correct on either side of the ear drum.
And when you think that's not taking into account natural variation in the structure and operation of the Ossicles, it's a wonder any two people ever agree on anything w.r.t sound quality.
But, if you're going to use cotton buds make sure the cotton is firmly attached and that you're slow and gentle. Nothing like a perforated ear drum to ruin listening pleasure...
I'd also recommend making sure your Eustachian tubes are clear so that pressure is correct on either side of the ear drum.
And when you think that's not taking into account natural variation in the structure and operation of the Ossicles, it's a wonder any two people ever agree on anything w.r.t sound quality.
But, if you're going to use cotton buds make sure the cotton is firmly attached and that you're slow and gentle. Nothing like a perforated ear drum to ruin listening pleasure...
You are obviously not a follower of D.Self who "rubbished" such statements in the pages of EW --obviously not as "wise " as you ?
Over half of backers of this theory online are sellers of a few feet of copper wire called some exotic name and priced at £1000.
I may add several engineers took a piece of mains copper wire and compared it to various "super-duper " mains cable using expensive gear -conclusion ?-- not worth the money .
Why not? A large proportion of respected designers (Self, for example) do so. Have you seen the experiments where they take the same speaker, paint it in different colours, and observe people's responses? The likes of Self know that people will form a subjective opinion based on a number of factors; how much coffee they've had that day; whether the bank gave them a mortgage; boss gave them a rise; kids played ball in the morning etc.
The human auditory system is so incredibly complex. It's never the same from minute to minute. Yet people buy something because *one* reviewer champions it... Would you take a drug because one person said it worked? If A/B/X is the *only* proof used for medicine, while it's not a matter of life and death, why should the burden of proof for audio be any lower? Hifi stores can tell you that one reviewer can make or break a product - that's wrong. And how many reviewers have ever set foot in a studio and heard what came from the monitors?
And we haven't even started on the elephant in the room: the elephant is the room... The m********s think they can hear a cable, when they've got the monitors along the short wall, in corners - and a room with 10dB dips and peaks...
I'll trust a decent FFT anyday over a human. If a human can tell you reliably that something doesn't sound good, you'll find the fault - it'll be somewhere, you'll just need to dig. Why is it that faults can always be pinpointed, but 'good sound' is always attributed to a vague myriad of opinions?
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There is a famous oto-neurologist who says 'never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear'.
OBVIOUSLY you missed the SARCASM in that post. 🙄
Read it again but after fully waking up.
Oh yes, for sure! I sit in front of a mixing console 6 nights a week and even the prerecorded tracks sound different every night. Some of that is temperature and humidity,(we're outside) but some is just my ears. And if we do a 10:30Am matinee? Wow, very different sounding - mostly louder.
It's fun to hear differences every day, many of which I know are not in the air, but in my ears and brain.