Peter Daniel said:
it varies from person to person and even for the same person it varies from time to time. One may desire certain brands due to past experience? others like certain design styles / features? others may purchase on the country of origin? or post-sale support? to name a few.
This is all getting a little generalised. We can't say that musicians are better, or worse listeners than any other group of people.
Listening, properly, is an acquired skill, rather along the lines of photography where you learn to 'see' rather than just look.
It may also be something that some people can naturally do better than others like seeing the hidden images in those 3D pictures.
There is no doubt that part of what we hear is due to a psychological effect and some due to actual changes in the equipment. Only a fool would argue that it is all one or all the other.
Likewise, there are two aspects of evaluating a hi-fi system. The first, objective, considering each aspect of the sound: clarity, timing, tonal balance, dynamics, transients etc; the second, subjective, ie is the sound enjoyable and how much.
After an awful lot of time spent on this hobby, I now believe that there is poor hi-fi and good hi-fi. Of the good hi-fi not much sounds better or worse than the other, just different in some way. The art is in mixing and matching the components of a hi-fi system to get the compromise (and that's all we can achieve) that pleases us most!
Perhaps we should all remember that the journey is more important than the destination!
Listening, properly, is an acquired skill, rather along the lines of photography where you learn to 'see' rather than just look.
It may also be something that some people can naturally do better than others like seeing the hidden images in those 3D pictures.
There is no doubt that part of what we hear is due to a psychological effect and some due to actual changes in the equipment. Only a fool would argue that it is all one or all the other.
Likewise, there are two aspects of evaluating a hi-fi system. The first, objective, considering each aspect of the sound: clarity, timing, tonal balance, dynamics, transients etc; the second, subjective, ie is the sound enjoyable and how much.
After an awful lot of time spent on this hobby, I now believe that there is poor hi-fi and good hi-fi. Of the good hi-fi not much sounds better or worse than the other, just different in some way. The art is in mixing and matching the components of a hi-fi system to get the compromise (and that's all we can achieve) that pleases us most!
Perhaps we should all remember that the journey is more important than the destination!
I would have agreed with you at one point. But it depends which resistors and in which location. I easily heard the difference by replacing the 1% metal film resistors (3 of them) in the feedback loop of my Arcam A60 amps with three Welwyn RC55's.
On other occasions when I have replaced a resistor (or capacitor), I have not heard any difference.
When I was working at a mine in Australia, everybody there (about 700 people) had their hearing tested. Only three of us could hear a test tone at the lowest level and the others tested may have sworn that there was nothing there! Hearing ability is going to be a big factor in whether somebody can detect subtle differences in hi-fi equipment.
I know of one visitor to this forum who is a concert pianist and has perfect pitch hearing. I am sure that he will be able to hear subtlties that I would miss.
millwood, your hi-fi experience is not about Peter's experience nor a scientific experiment. It's about what you hear. Even if we could prove scientifically that Peter (or anyone else) can or can't hear the difference between two resistors, what would that do to help you find a better hi-fi?
People come to these forums to exchange information or learn from those further along the 'road'. But the best you can get here is a 'signpost', not a ride on somebody else's vehicle.
millwood said:
It's about the same as you preaching your doubts regarding telling the resistors apart. You should be as careful as those claiming they can tell the difference. Because as many people as many opinions, believes ans skills.
So who's right, who's wrong? Personally, I don't care, as this won't help me on my journey
The only difference is that I provide information based on my experience and my findings. You only provide doubts, based on your imagination. Who's providing more useful info?
I'm only 3 posts away from all time high of 5k. You better make this discussion interesting.
millwood said:
OK fine, but I for one am very pleased that we are sharing this kind of experience....
In the long run, if I can find the time, it may turn out that I find that I prefer lets say a 'Vishay bulk foil' to an 'Caddock mk132' for Rf, but in the meantime I am happy to take peters advice because he has tried & and experienced the sound of several good quality alternatives and I have not.
For me an opnion based on experience is worth listening to. An opinion based on conjecture could be interesting, but an opinion based on disbelief of someone else's experience is totally bizarre
well that my half-penny worth
over & out
mike
millwood said:
This sounds like a job for Kuei Yang Wang...
i'm sure he could come up with a whole stack of stuff
end caps, junctions of different metals, electron paths through oxides, temperature co-effiecients.........etc...etc...
As an experiment you could try putting a cheap metal oxide 1 ohm resistor in series with a tweeter. That sounds pretty dreadful if my memory serves me correctly...
cheers
mike
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