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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: Scientific Method Versus High End- Long (Rant?) posted by ggraff on April 8, 2002 at 07:52:59:
You`ve stated that science IS important to you in evaluating effects of tweaks/products but that evaluation by friends/colleagues you trust is more important in the real world - after all, it`s people like this who will determine if a product will sell or not.I doubt any test could `prove` that Sinatra was a better singer than the crooner at the local bar, because determining by which criteria to base any judgement on would be virtually impossible.
If a poll of 100 listeners resulted in all stating Sinatra was a better singer than the crooner, the test has merely indicated that 100% of the test subjects expressed a preference for Sinatra`s voice.Now imagine if both singers had to perform a series of tests themselves which resulted in a spectral analysis/graph of their respective voices being printed out; imagine even more that the crooner`s graph revealed what the testers thought were superior attributes - maybe he was younger than Sinatra and this manifested itself in the spectral analysis in some way.
The results of the test could now be interpreted as indicating that 100% of listeners expressed a preference for the inferior voice!
Obviously with audio we have a reference which the equipment is trying to reproduce - the actual recording session - but once this has taken place the reference is gone for ever, no recording is a perfect reproduction so the master-tape becomes the new reference by which the reproduction is judged.
Given that no replay equipment is perfect though, how do we know what the master-tape actually sounds like?
The point I`m clumsily trying to make is that we judge equipment in our homes by how good it is at creating the ILLUSION of a live/natural event, not by how close it takes us to the actual event or even the master-tapes.
Listen to a live performance and then even the best stereo on the planet directly after and the limitations are oh so apparent.Better equipment/tweaks/cables etc allow us to fine tune a system to best `kid` us of a real event, and deprived of the live event to make an immediate comparison some systems are very convincing - I`d even say some recordings are more enjoyable to listen to than a typical live event but that`s just me.
In conclusion then, I don`t believe you`ve suggested anything which should unduly upset anyone.
Science is a useful tool - maybe a necessary evil - in audio, but audio relies on an emotional response from the listener and not an appreciation of the technology/science behind/inside whatever product/tweak is on offer to them.The girl next door may well be the most intelligent, most loving, most trustworthy young lady on the planet, but it`s the bimbo with the perfect breasts and firm buttocks who`ll get the pulses racing for the average male; the only measurements guaranteed to impress Joe Bloggs is 36-24-36.
Best Regards,
Chris Redmond.
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Follow Ups
- Agree almost entirely. - chris.redmond2@bushinternet.com 04/9/0210:58:13 04/9/02 (2)
- You're not so clumsy - jusbe 03:06:16 04/10/02 (1)
- Retract your accusation immediately... - jj 08:33:27 04/10/02 (0)
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