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RE: Boy, I've really gotten on your bad side.

"I don't see how in anyway this rebuts my core point that identical waveforms will sound the same, and indeed, even different waveforms will sound the same so long as the differences are so small as to be inaudible"

Identical waveforms will not sound the same each time they are heard. First, there is no such thing as an identical waveform. (Analog signals always come with noise, acoustic signals have thermal motion of air molecules, etc..) But more to the point when it comes to "objective listening tests" the mind has memory. One will not hear the same sound when essentially the same waveform is heard the second time. The second listening will arise at a mind in a different state, a mind that has the memory of the earlier playback and a mind that may be concentrating on different aspects of the sound that it hears. In addition there are unconscious differences that may occur in the mind having to do with mood, level of fatigue, etc..

One may be able to get a clear definition of "obviously audible" but when it comes to subtle differences the concept is extremely difficult to define, leaving room for a lot of argument over what is audible and what is not. To get to the bottom of the situation one must past through the realm of psychology into the realm of philosophy (epistemology).

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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