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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: RE: Dylan said words are just words, they mean different things to different people. Nt posted by geoffkait on August 19, 2023 at 15:09:00:
"OK, I'll bite. How would you measure color and transparency?"First I'd say that transparent should not be a subjective term.
A glass window that is clean and not all scratched up or cracked should be nearly transparent. You can see through it because you are not seeing it--you are seeing what is on the other side of it.
If that window is dirty and scratched and cracked, it is not nearly as transparent.
Maybe the same reasoning can be applied to the use of the term in audio.My take away is now that if one was able to measure the signal going into a piece of gear (an interconnect, for example) and then measure that signal as it left the cable and those two measurements were the same, then that cable would be 'transparent.' That cable would be transparent because it produced no change to the signal that was introduced to it; therefore, that cable (itself) would produce no change to the sonic presentation, and therefore that cable would be a transparent part of the sonic presentation.
And, if the signal measurement going into the cable differed from the measurement leaving the cable, the signal would produce a different sound then it would have if it was not altered. Therefore, due to these measurements and the change they had in the sonic presentation, one could say that the cable's presence was NOT transparent within the system and the interconnect therefore "colored." (And the coloration would be heard in the sonic presentaion. The color added might be favorable and an improvement.)
By using that definition (meaning that the cable changes the signal or it does not change the signal) the term "transparent" is no longer subjective, it is now objective. "Colored" would no longer be subjective either; however, the description of the "colors" might still be abstract and subjective.
This is not the way I previously used the term 'transparent.' I gave the term a rather abstract definition, meaning that (not referring specifically cables, but a system as a whole) if the sonic presentation seemed less veiled between me and the speakers, the system was being more transparent.
Now my take away is that this is not necessarily true nor is 'transparency' necessarily a good thing. If the signal going into the gear is allfuckedup, a transparent piece of equipment is not going to degrade it any further, nor will that piece of equipment do anything to improve it. As far as the signal, it is what it is regardless of the transparent cable, because the cable is "transparent" to the signal. Therefore, the final sonic presentation can sound like dogshit, but this does not mean that the equipment in the signal path is not 'transparent.'
This concept actually makes me think that maybe the source is the most important part of the chain.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Dylan said words are just words, they mean different things to different people. Nt - immatthewj 08/19/2316:27:14 08/19/23 (1)
- RE: Dylan said words are just words, they mean different things to different people. Nt - geoffkait 04:47:37 08/21/23 (0)
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