|
Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
|
|
|
Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
|
In Reply to: Re: Not taking notes ? posted by Arvind Kohli on January 7, 2005 at 14:31:46:
> I could not tell you if a "lingering sonic signature" is due to coincidence, an actual human ability or some trick the mind plays on us. I am intrigued by your experience, and am curious as to what causes it.>It is simply long term memory which is, IMO, an actual human ability. Ask any reviewer and I would bet he can remember how some of the best components he's heard sounded - not fine details, but the overall sonic signature. I could list equipment for you, even cables, I heard years ago and tell you how they sounded. I'd say it's similar to telephone voice recognition, but I'm not an expert on audible memory.
> But I am not able to conclude that it is something reliable enough to pass on as testimony to my readers.>
Suit yourself.
> This business of "emotional involvement" is poppycock.>
Maybe it is to test tones, pink noise, distortion artifacts and short segments of music but it certainly is not when we're talking about whole pieces of music. Don't you get emotionally involved in music? Does your foot move unconsciously sometimes? Do you get goosebumps or does the hair stand up on your neck when you hear a particular piece reproduced exellently? If none of those things happen to you, then I'd say you're in the wrong business.
> The reviewer much less the reader, has no way of telling how much of an increase or decrease in "emotional involvement" is due to the component and how much is in the reviewer's mind.>
Unfortunately, it's due to both - one's effect on the other. An experienced reviewer can tell the difference, particularly when it's repeatable. How much of "imaging" is in your mind? Answer - all of it.
> Maybe cars should be rated on "the feeling of flying" instead of clocking acceleration or top speed.>How the car "feels" of "responds" when you drive it is as important as its specs. Otherwise, we could just list the specs and "observational reviewing" wouldn't be necessary for cars or audio components.
> I think this nonsense of "emotional involvement" is very much a lisence used by some reviewers to write prose instead of having to do painstaking work and give the reader more reliable findings.>
Doing a complete and thorough analysis of an audio component's sound is painstaking work. Anyone can llisten to audio components and write something about the sound they heard. What makes a good reviewer is (a.) the ability to discern the component's sonic signature as compared to live music and (b.) to be able to describe it in a way which will communicate what they heard to the reader, prose or not. If listening to a particular component made music sound more "musical" and created a strong emotional reaction in you, you would be remiss not to mention it. I've never read any of your reviews, but which of your "findings" could be more reliable to a reader who loves music than that?
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- Sonic signatures... - mkuller 01/7/0517:03:00 01/7/05 (0)
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
