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RE: I think Doug Self just flipped me (a bit of a long soapbox ramble)

Posted by chris_w (A) on April 12, 2009 at 04:16:27

In Reply to: I think Doug Self just flipped me posted by BillyBuck on April 10, 2009 at 14:25:52:

Given the age of the original article there has been a lot of developments in the way music is recorded and replayed in the last 20 years.
I can agree with almost everything he says from one point of view.
I too cannot remember ever hearing a difference between a good piece of equipment and some (subjective camp defined rubbish piece of kit) that I wouldn’t give trash-can space to, when listened to by a single pure sinewave (dispite what the meters were saying) unless its distortion was measured in many 10's of a %. So bench testing as he describes proves nothing about how good or bad a system sounds.
This is one of the reason we still have the silly arguments about it, and the even sillier 2 camps of debate often baiting each other.
However say the above I have rejected (subjectively) a few speakers after only hearing one or two orchestral chords being played through them yet objectively they should have sounded "nicer". But I have been told my tastes are expensive well beyond my bank balance :¬(.

The real crux, from my point of view is: that music is really just sound information, and how much of the integrity of the original sound is preserved when it comes out of your speakers.
Studio's these day convert analog to digital, whilst filtering and harmonic & sub harmonic treating and generally spindling, then converting back to analog and then back to digital many times in the process. So what does this teaches us? Could it be that is that the transformation processing of the "information" providing it maintains the overall referential integrity (i.e. is treated in such a way as to minimize the introduction of distortion and noise) has minimal, if any effect, on what we hear out of our speakers?
In fact the clarity of modern recording process's far out strips the analog recording techniques of 30-40 years ago when I worked in studio engineering to the point were some say it is "too clinical" now.

Until we develop complex instrumentation such that we can use the extreme processing power of the CPU to measure real music, in real-time and produce some useful comparisons between what subjective camp says are good and bad sounding systems, now this is assuming that the objectivists can actually agree to such definitions, and wont be so arrogant as to say its not worth the effort... blah blah... We will not get anywhere in defining what is true in respect of audiophile quality.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the conclusions will be most interesting! and unexpected! and will actually upset many members of both camps. I also think the fallout will produce a 3rd camp that neither of the other camp will be able to call the darkside.
You never know it may even lead to improved (objective) recording processes, and better (objective) equipment at home to further increase our (subjective) enjoyment (or arguments) should the be different :¬().

Chris. Audio God of the Darkside.

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