10 Biggest Lies in Audio

Fair enough, the world owes apple a lot of credit and should recognise as such to apple. They have created many industries in the last 10 years especially.

But your assertions about iphone being a source for hi-res music is absolutely wrong. Convenience and simplicity is iphone's strength but hi-quality music is not. Thats why the Wadia and CA read native format files from the iPhone and process through their signal processors. This is because the native iphone sound sucks absolutely. Now their earbuds are absolutely horrible to be kind to apple's desire for delivering quality products.

No assertions here mate... I'm not even an audiophile... still listen to music on my PC with Creative soundcard + speakers. With the help of the real audiophiles on this forum I'm putting together my first setup.

And yes I agree with you... iPhone is not even a decent source/player.
 
Saw this interesting post on another forum, quoting it here-
The fact is simple... if a cable, or even a whole suite of cables, affected the sound, then we can say that the sound was changed. if the sound was changed, then that could be measured. please do not debate this, it is a fact. test equipment cannot tell us the first iota about whether a sound is good bad or ugly, but it can tell us if it changed to a resolution that is orders of magnitude far more precise than the human ear.

So if it changes, why has nobody ever shown a measurement that shows thus?
 
Saw this interesting post on another forum, quoting it here-
The fact is simple... if a cable, or even a whole suite of cables, affected the sound, then we can say that the sound was changed. if the sound was changed, then that could be measured. please do not debate this, it is a fact. test equipment cannot tell us the first iota about whether a sound is good bad or ugly, but it can tell us if it changed to a resolution that is orders of magnitude far more precise than the human ear.

So if it changes, why has nobody ever shown a measurement that shows thus?

Of course it is shown..even in this thread.

Cut-Off Frequency = 1/(2Pi x Zout x Cable Capacitance x Cable Length)

Pi = 3.14159265
Zout = Source Output Impedance in Ohms
Cable Capacitance in Farads/Meter; Remember pF is 10-12 so multiply by the same.
Cable Length in Meters
Calculated Cut-Off Frequency in Hertz

Credit goes to Digital Vampire.
 
We all perceive depth, height and width of soundstage and separation of instruments. By your logic everything should be measurable else its a figment of imagination, so am curious, what instruments currently exist to measure these parameters in playback?

Microphones.

Like what recorded the music in the first place!

But... width and separation is what stereo is about, and given a fairly standard speaker layout, in a fairly standard room, the instruments will be roughly where the engineer put them, using the pan knobs on his mixer.

As to any other dimensions, I don't know, but think psychology must have as much to do with it as sound, unless someone swapped your system for surround-sound without you noticing ;). So yes, imagination has got a lot to do with it --- and rightly so, just as when we read a good book.

Sound bounces around rooms in all sorts of ways. In my very imperfect room, I can here sounds coming from places that are not even in-between the speakers. Sometimes these effects might enhance the experience; sometimes they take away from it; often they are just plain weird!
 
Why do people believe in god without any solid proof, why are they not considered crazy?

Ask any atheist, he'll tell you that the believers are crazy with a capital C.
People believe in god, because they are raised that way, their parents tell them since they were kids that there is god. I dont think parents also tell that the cables make a difference:lol:
 
Ask any atheist, he'll tell you that the believers are crazy with a capital C

Just imagine, the way the universe is changing, the way planets are revolving around the sun resulting in climates change in unwavering accuracy and maintaining a fine balance to sustain life the way it is on earth. Imagine the way our own bodies function maintaining the fine balance between different systems and work in perfect synchrony, the intricate way each of our body's cells are made, the mind boggling way of two cells fusing in a womb to give rise to a offspring so closely resembling the parents if not physically definitely physiologically and more often psychologically as well.

If just a delivery boy doesn't turn up for work, your neighbourhood grocer's turnover falls by half, remove a floor supervisor and the workshop comes to a standstill, remove one of the Managers for a week and a thing as inconsequential as a coprorate office and you see things go haywire.

Isn't it mind boggling if someone says that all this is all happening by chance. Tell me who is a bigger believer.
 
My preamplifier has gone for an upgrade to Acoustic portrait. It has been a week now. So just for kicks, I connected my Yamaha integrated to my blumenhofer speakers and tried to listen. Long story short, I stopped listening after ten minutes.

Reason,

The Yamaha is much more enjoyable on my low-end Acoustic energy speakers since it masks its many problems.

With the AP electronics or Einstein, I cannot stop listening to music on the Blumenhofer. In comparison the AE + Yamaha sounds like total cr##!P :mad:

Question:

What are you testing ?
 
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Why do people believe in god without any solid proof, why are they not considered crazy?

My mistake. The following lines should have been a part of the earlier post.

In audio people believe in what they hear without any solid proof (measurements).

And these people are considered as audiophiles by some and crazy by others.
 
Microphones.

Like what recorded the music in the first place!

Hi Thad,

I get your theory, but from all that I've read of your posts so far, it seems to be a only a theory. What's the proof? For example, how do you actually use a microphone to figure out soundstage height and depth and width in playback? Do you put a microphone where the listener normally would sit, attach it to an instrument and get some sort of reading? That's the question and only 'microphone' unfortunately is just not an answer.

How do you measure warmth? If you switch an AC on different people will have differing perceptions of how cold it is, some might want the cold turned up more, some less, but there's a scientific way to actually measure the amount of cold being generated - a thermometer. What is this scientific equivalent for how warm sounding or cold sounding a system is? Granted people might have differing perceptions of how warm a system sounds, but according to you, there should be a measurement to say ok, scientifically, this system actually measures so and so on the warmness scale, like a thermometer in the AC example. So how do you actually measure it with a microphone? That's what the question is. Because there's a bunch of us who believe that there exist no current tests to measure these things yet we hear them while your argument is that if we hear it we can measure it. So do explain how exactly one measures these things. You seem to only have a belief that 'if its recorded it can be measured' which is a theory, and I can understand that position, and appreciate your thinking, but you don't put forth any real explanation of exactly how that measurement is done, which is the whole crux of the argument of the opposing camp, ie no measurements currently exist for a few things we hear :)

Regards
 
Cant resist myself here, But the question is not on what Can be measured but what IS measured today and available.
Bit like saying i know i can do it hence not doing it..

Today take any audio component..and there is no scientific measurement available.
On the other hand there are papers on cables which are measured with frequency measurements as well and can be googled..i had an old research (1990s i think) which compared the frequency response differences across a Goertz, a Monster (i think) and a regular wire and yes there was a different response curve if i remember right (Those were the days i believed all cables great and small were created equal !)..i believe it was by Kal rubinson will dig that out if i still have it..(my HDD had expired a few years back and i lost a lot of such info in that :sad:)

When i used my Behringer DEQ2496, there is a way to enhance the Soundstage as well ( usually you can get forward and backward soundstages by playing around with frequency attenuation in the 2khz to 5 khz region as well. it could also widen it ..but always at the loss of some resolution or perceived timbre quality of the sound

So question is not about if it can be measured but are they ?

Now why and why not is another question and we can criticize manufacturers to kingdom come...but that is reality today which we may not be able to change.
But not accepting something because it is not being measured although it can/may be is a rather fanatic Stand to take :eek:hyeah:

I just saw this interesting post in stereophile..http://www.stereophile.com/rmaf2009...09/breakthrough_approach_to_audio_measurement

seemed to have potential..maybe many of the Snakeoil would have got exposed and the industry would have put a stop to it...
 
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Someone please wake me up when this thread has been concluded. Or when a cure for AIDS has been found. Or when eternal peace and brotherly love has been attained. Whichever comes first:p
 
I get your theory, but from all that I've read of your posts so far, it seems to be a only a theory. What's the proof?
Yes, it is a theory, but it is backed up with the question, how did you get your music in the first place?

But my theory doesn't go as far as you are suggesting. All I am saying is that If it is asserted that the sound from component combination "A" is different to component combination "B," then, if it true, a recording made of those two sounds will show a difference. It must do. You could probably, to take an extreme example, tell the difference between a pair of tichy cheap "media" speakers and a big pair of horns with something as basic as a portable cassette recorder. Now replace the test items with two more-equal, but different-sounding, hifi speakers, and the cassette recorder with a sensitive, quality, stereo mic.

Many such examples would sound so different that it would be silly to test that they are different. As in the Matrix testing above, if everyone agrees, this is different, they don't bother to go to the blind-test stage.


For example, how do you actually use a microphone to figure out soundstage height and depth and width in playback? Do you put a microphone where the listener normally would sit, attach it to an instrument and get some sort of reading? That's the question and only 'microphone' unfortunately is just not an answer.
It was a good enough answer when it came to recording the music :).

A sound engineer's mixing desk has a pan control for each channel. There is no up/down or back/front in two-channel audio. Equalisation and relative volume of instruments etc probably help us to build an illusion that we are listening to something 3-dimentional, but we are not. The imagination has a valid and vital part to play in music listening.


How do you measure warmth? ... ... ... What is this scientific equivalent for how warm sounding or cold sounding a system is? ... ... ... So how do you actually measure it with a microphone? That's what the question is
In music, by looking at a spectral display. Probably easy to those who are used to doing such things. The "warmth" will be in the frequency response. (around 130-250Hz, according to this!
Because there's a bunch of us who believe that there exist no current tests to measure these things yet we hear them while your argument is that if we hear it we can measure it. So do explain how exactly one measures these things.
Have you looked at wave forms? spectral displays? This is just the beginning, and I am less-than-a-beginner at it, but what you say is like saying you don't believe there is a way to measure heart beats, even though the ECG machine is right there in the room!

You seem to only have a belief that 'if its recorded it can be measured' which is a theory,
To a point, it is a fact, because it was recorded, therefore it was measured.

and I can understand that position, and appreciate your thinking, but you don't put forth any real explanation of exactly how that measurement is done, which is the whole crux of the argument of the opposing camp, ie no measurements currently exist for a few things we hear :)
It would be very much harder to measure what we feel. It would be very much harder to measure the extent to which our imaginations contribute to the listening experience. My feeling is that that is something not to be denied, but to be rejoiced at! Imagine reading a novel as a string of utterances and events, without your imagination.

Where technology meets imagination is ... perhaps, when the system is so good that it "disappears" and we are aware only of the music. Then it is easy to forget about two speakers and get on with the more important stuff.

If you say to me, "Whoa, listen to that harp coming in behind the violins, there, " and I say "Wow! Spine shivering stuff!" I really don't want anyone telling us, "come off it, guys: it's a 2-d stereo image: you must be sharing some sort of hysteria!" Because, if that is hysteria, put me down for more. :eek:hyeah:
 
If you say to me, "Whoa, listen to that harp coming in behind the violins, there, " and I say "Wow! Spine shivering stuff!" I really don't want anyone telling us, "come off it, guys: it's a 2-d stereo image: you must be sharing some sort of hysteria!" Because, if that is hysteria, put me down for more. :eek:hyeah:

:lol: Awesome Thad
 
Cheers :)

We all of us find a meeting place in the love of music. Even if we don't like each others' tastes in music, we can still agree that that is what it is about.

The technical stuff, both manufactured and human, is so interesting, though. One of my online friends, a dedicated and knowledgeable carnatic rasika, researches music and its effects on the brain for a living. What a wonderful job!
In Darthnut's review of Stax SR-007 in head-fi, he has given very detailed explanation of soundstage. Even though it is based on headphone, i haven't seen a better post/article regarding that yet.

Warning: It is very very long.

(From the Soundstage and imaging thread)

I've just started, and as matbhuvi says, it is a long article but it seems very, very much to the point
... ... ...
There are some recordings that make me go wow,
what a huge soundstage. But heres the rub: I
happen to have a wall-sized mirror on one side of
my listening chair. When I look into the mirror, the
illusion of the huge soundstage is stripped away
and revealed for what it truly is: a cramp head-
hugging soundfield. In the mirror I can see all
those sonic images sticking to my scalp like a bad
hair-do. I look away from the mirror, close my
eyes, lose all sense of scaled reference to the real
world, re-invest my concentration into the music,
and the huge soundstage re-appears. But when I
open my eyes and look again at the reflection of
my headphones in the mirror, I once again see
the scalp-bound soundfield.


I call this soundfield that stubbornly refuses to take
leave of my head the headstage.


The difference between soundstage and head-
stage is illusion and reality. The soundstage is the
(desired) illusion; the headstage the (unfortunate)
reality.

... ... ...
I have to save this one for a late-night reading session (possibly with Mahler on the headphones :)).
 
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As someone said earlier, this thread is going like Tendulkar's quest for his 100th century.
By the way, what was the beginning???

murali
 
I believe content of music is more important than quality.. you need to feel connected with your music.. rest everything is secondary stuffs..
 
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