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Master Thread: Are measurements Everything or Nothing?

MattHooper

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Oh man, I'm getting deja vu to some other conversations....

First, please note that for the FIRST point of the discussion, nobody needs to accept that a tube amp increases the perception of depth etc. We are first talking
about my very use of the term sounding "more 3D" and whether such a description even makes sense in the context of 2 channel sound....

Wrong impression. I’m trashing a) the concept of “3D soundstage”, which doesn’t exist outside one’s brain, being therefore impossible to quantify and reliable reproduce,

And what you are "trashing" is a strawman, unfortunately.

I mean, when I referenced "sounding more 3D" you surely didn't think I was claiming that tube amps completely altered playback so that sound now appears all around, directly overhead and behind a person. Right? You couldn't possibly think I meant that, as if I were presenting some new claim to physicists! That doesn't happen with 3D movies either...right?

It's simply very common parlance to refer to something that doesn't seem flat, but seems to have depth cues, as "more 3D." Like the difference between a flat image and a 3D image with greater depth cues.

With that strawman out of the way...2 channel sound can indeed produce a variation in the sense of depth and positions of acoustic objects in the soundstage. And this doesn't"exist in my head," it's a well-known, repeatable phenomenon caused by external cues, as per my previous posts. So to say I was referencing something that "exists only in my brain" entirely misunderstands what I was referencing.

Whether something like a tube amp or whatever can alter that is the next question, but let's at least be clear about which specific claims deserve critique.

On to the second critique:

and b) the idea that audio electronics has anything to do with the soundstage definition, be it 2D or 3D; except for pathological cases (like a stereo amplifier with very bad channel separation) the recording, the speakers and the room acoustics dominate the perceived soundstage.

Your opinion is noted. :)

As I mentioned: I've done blind tests on some gear (tube preamp vs solid state, different DACs) where slight differences in the apparent soundstage size/image separation helped me identify the devices I was listening to.

Have you tried this, before you decided on your claims?


By reading the verbose prose above, my understanding is that there’s an attempt to re-define the concept of “3D-soundstage”, to something that avoids the canonic geometric definition of location in a 3D coordinate system, be it x,y,z, or ro, phi, theta, or whatever other geometric affine transformation of these. Secondly, there’s an attempt to classify sound reproduction as some sort of art, making any attempt to define metrics, and follow a quantitative analysis process, moot.

See above. But if the term "3D" continues to irk you, feel free to substitute "sense of depth/spatial separation of sonic images."

Needless to say, I strongly disagree with both attempts. On the second point, I have no problem understanding the need for an “artistic” approach, in particular from those involved in sound post production. But then please leave STEM out of it, you cannot have the cake and eat it too. Process sound like you are painting your own private Gioconda, and leave it there.

That is a false dichotomy. We are not talking about two approaches that are either at odds, or that exist in their own bubbles. When I reference sounding more 3D in the sense I used it: that of increasing or varying the perception of depth in 2 channel sound, that isn't simply "art" it's reference to a real world phenomenon. Quantifiable enough to be manipulated with reliable results. (It's why software plug-ins are available for my DAW to achieve just such effects).

Again...see the references for technical methods to increase the perception of depth in a mix.
 
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syn08

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You just confirmed my understanding. Further discussion is futile, unless you can come up with data, rather than flat statements.
 

MattHooper

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You just confirmed my understanding. Further discussion is futile, unless you can come up with data, rather than flat statements.

I find it ironic you are accusing me of not providing technical support for my claims. You've made assertion after assertion and I seem to have missed the data you have supplied for those assertions.

On the subject of my referencing "more 3D sound" I explained the sense in which I used "more 3d" - perception of depth/spaciousness and supplied links to the phenomenon I referenced showing it's not merely "in my brain." Yet you continually claimed that what I was referencing was all in my brain and non-portable to anyone else.

Here's one again:


What is it that you disagree with, from that link, either technically or otherwise?

The second subject that you critiqued was whether a DAC or amp can alter the perception of imaging/soundstage in any way. You have flatly asserted "no," but with no data to back that up. (Or avoiding the No True Scotsman fallacy)

I at least have done blind tests, in which I identified alterations in the dimensionality of sonic images and soundstaging. You haven't answered if you've tested the phenomenon under such conditions yourself.

I've even posted about one recent test in detail:


What exactly have you provided, aside from assertions?
 
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SlothRock

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I think measurements are a good basis to make a decision on the type of sound signature you're after. I think that the folks on here that demonize distortion maybe take it a little bit too far. I think it really just depends on if it's the type of distortion you desire or not and how that impacts the sound profile.

I have both an SS amp that measures well and a tube amp that I'm unsure how it measures but obviously will have purposeful significant distortion. There are also SS amps and DACs that produce more distortion but will do it as a means to change their sound signature and I do think that is audible depending how it's implemented. I love having both types of amps to give me some variety in what I'm listening to and prefer my tube amp for a wide variety of songs due to the distortion :)
 

sonitus mirus

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I think measurements are a good basis to make a decision on the type of sound signature you're after. I think that the folks on here that demonize distortion maybe take it a little bit too far. I think it really just depends on if it's the type of distortion you desire or not and how that impacts the sound profile.

I have both an SS amp that measures well and a tube amp that I'm unsure how it measures but obviously will have purposeful significant distortion. There are also SS amps and DACs that produce more distortion but will do it as a means to change their sound signature and I do think that is audible depending how it's implemented. I love having both types of amps to give me some variety in what I'm listening to and prefer my tube amp for a wide variety of songs due to the distortion :)
I don't want any unintended distortion at all. I want the highest fidelity I can achieve, within reason. I can probably fake the distortion with DSP at a significant cost savings over the price of a tube amp, if that is some sound I was pursuing.
 

SlothRock

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I don't want any unintended distortion at all. I want the highest fidelity I can achieve, within reason. I can probably fake the distortion with DSP at a significant cost savings over the price of a tube amp, if that is some sound I was pursuing.
And that's totally fine - that's where measurements are helpful so you know you're buying the absolute highest fidelity for the sound signature you prefer! I like having a few options so a very clean SS amp + tube amp works well for me
 

DavidEdwinAston

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And that's totally fine - that's where measurements are helpful so you know you're buying the absolute highest fidelity for the sound signature you prefer! I like having a few options so a very clean SS amp + tube amp works well for me
As sonitus says, can I ask why you don't want the highest fidelity? I certainly do.
 

solderdude

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prefer my tube amp for a wide variety of songs due to the distortion

This would have to be substantial to change the sound. This, however, is highly unlikely to be the case as long as such an amplifier is not driven near clipping point.
 

Ken Tajalli

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I think measurements are a good basis to make a decision on the type of sound signature you're after. I think that the folks on here that demonize distortion maybe take it a little bit too far. I think it really just depends on if it's the type of distortion you desire or not and how that impacts the sound profile.

I have both an SS amp that measures well and a tube amp that I'm unsure how it measures but obviously will have purposeful significant distortion. There are also SS amps and DACs that produce more distortion but will do it as a means to change their sound signature and I do think that is audible depending how it's implemented. I love having both types of amps to give me some variety in what I'm listening to and prefer my tube amp for a wide variety of songs due to the distortion :)
On various forums a discussion groups, this notion had been examined to death! in the past .
I do not believe any hifi designer or manufacturer knowingly make an amp with certain distortions.
they may make a mistake and the device turns out to be a distortion box, but it was not desired as such .
Then there are "believers" in certain topologies who think a certain topology is superior and if there are any short comings, then they make excuses for it, call it desirable .
SET amplifiers, no global feedback lovers and so on.
Hifi by its name definition , is a no distorting device. Tube amps, if designed and made well, will have comparable distortion figures to SS amps. Because of their simplicity, some may sound extra clean - that's all.
The only amps I know with intended distortion are guitar amps. I think that's a misnomer - they should be called effect boxes with a gain stage, not an amp.
 

JSmith

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That said, all DACs that measure well don’t sound the same.
data-evidence.gif



JSmith
 

SlothRock

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As sonitus says, can I ask why you don't want the highest fidelity? I certainly do.

I certainly do which is why I have an SS amp for complete clarity. The tube amp I own is also very neutral to my ears but adds euphonic distortion to the sound signature which, to me, adds bass texture and a more 3D sound effect over an SS amp. It doesn’t appear I’m missing any type of clarity in the sense that each note comes through perfectly and clearly but the presentation changes in a fun way for many songs
 

Ken Tajalli

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Seriously?


.... there are more. Many more. And believe me, they're not guitar amps. But to read the reviews and manufacturing advertisements, this genre is the ne plus ultra of high fidelity. You know better, and I know better, and the people on this forum know better, but scads of regular Joes out there don't know better. Even if they can't afford to indulge in this stuff right now, they give it a certain level of credence and aim to indulge in the future. Thus, the wheel rolls on ........ Jim
OK, I glanced at those amps.
Are there any advertisement clearly declaring them as distortion boxes with good desirable distortions?
If there is me, foook me!
Even harmonic distortion being easy on the ear, is one thing, artificially creating them is another.
From those examples, it seems they all fall into the same category, I shall explain.
It seems they all have high output impedances, that points the finger of blame at low to no GNFB, and that says something!
I had mentioned in my first post, that I am aware of those groups!
At any rate, a well-designed tube amp, with simple circuitry, using quality components where it counts, sounds very clean and sweet, although getting rid of all of PSU noise would require using semiconductors.
On the hand, there have been shitloads of SS amps, badly designed and badly made, with tons of GNFB to mop up their mess, that do sound flat as a pan cake, and that is wrong too.
 

Ken Tajalli

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I certainly do which is why I have an SS amp for complete clarity. The tube amp I own is also very neutral to my ears but adds euphonic distortion to the sound signature which, to me, adds bass texture and a more 3D sound effect over an SS amp. It doesn’t appear I’m missing any type of clarity in the sense that each note comes through perfectly and clearly but the presentation changes in a fun way for many songs
May I ask, how certain are you that the good sound you are getting from your tube amp, is because of euphonic added distortions?
I mean is it impossible that your tube amp is actually well-made, with very low distortion and the extra textures you hear are due to the amp's excellent resolution!
Maybe, your SS amp, despite good advertised results has developed a fault, or simply is not to your tube amps performance.
Is it an assumption on your part, or do you know for fact?
 

Mike F

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Hi everyone!

New member, first post, so hello!

I've been debating with myself whether join this forum or not, but in the end I couldn't resist, even though I'm sure I'm going to get flamed! ;) Just to be clear, I haven't come here to troll or for the sake of having an argument, but to offer a (hopefully informed) alternative to the majority opinion, and also to learn.

So, full disclosure. I am 58 and a musician by profession - classically trained, went to Trinity College of Music in London and have worked mostly in orchestras and shows, playing wind instruments. I have also had, unusually for a musician, a lifelong interest in Hi-Fi. My first experience of the wonders of reproduced music, other than the kitchen radio, was my Dad's record player. And I mean record player, not turntable. It had its own built in speaker. I remember listening to Tchaikovsky 1812 and other works on the old Decca Classics label at the age of 6 or 7. My Dad let me use the record player. I was very careful!
Fast forward to the 90's and I had the means to buy a decent Hi-Fi, which, after many upgrades, culminated substantially in the system which I still have today. I won't bore you with the whole inventory, but the CD reply side has been, Marantz CD12/DA12, Mark Levinson 38, ATC SCM100A SL. Until recently that is, when my CD12 finally gave up the ghost after 30+ years. (It still works, but you have to manually help it read/spin the disc). So, what to replace an iconic and state of the art/reference balanced (to go with my fully balanced system) CD player with? Yes, you guessed; the SA-10.

This is where I'm going to have to start to choose my words carefully, but as I said, I'm curious to learn rather that simply argue and alternative viewpoint. It seems that the majority here think that measurements are more important than anything else, is that correct? So if a piece of equipment measures better than another then it must sound better, and if it doesn't, then either you are deceiving yourself (due to cost and appearance for example) or your opinion of which sounds better must be wrong?

Personally I have to confess that I don't fully understand all of the measurements in amirs's review, or what the sonic implication of any given measurement is. I've spent my whole life and career honing and trusting my listening skills. The only thing that matters to me is how something sounds, and to my (if I say so myself, experienced) ears, the SA-10 sounds phenomenal. As to whether it justifies it's asking price, well that would have to be up to the purchaser. I bought mine at a substantial discount before the price point is where it is now. Would I pay the current asking price? No, but only because I couldn't justify it. When you look at the reviews of the SA-10 and compare it to it's competition it looks rather competitive. But yes, it's overpriced - rather like a Rolls Royce is.

So, a few additional questions; Has anyone here (apart perhaps from the one person who said he had an SA-10) done any listening comparisons to the the much cheaper DAC's which measure better? And if not, how can you say that they sound as good or better? Second, does anyone think (as I do) that reproduction from different formats/sources (DAT, CD, USB etc) sound different, despite the fact that they are all digital?
 

BDWoody

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It seems that the majority here think that measurements are more important than anything else, is that correct?

I wouldn't say so, no. I would never buy based purely on measurements. For me it is a threshold thing, as I don't want my gear contributing in ways I don't prefer it to. I go for literal high fidelity (not to be confused with highest available, because beyond some point it won't matter anymore), and if I am going to be able to hear my amp, DAC, cables, or any other solidstate part of my systems altering the sound, I don't want it.

So if a piece of equipment measures better than another then it must sound better, and if it doesn't, then either you are deceiving yourself (due to cost and appearance for example) or your opinion of which sounds better must be wrong?

No, beyond some point it just doesn't matter in terms of audibility.
 

SuicideSquid

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Hi everyone!

New member, first post, so hello!

I've been debating with myself whether join this forum or not, but in the end I couldn't resist, even though I'm sure I'm going to get flamed! ;) Just to be clear, I haven't come here to troll or for the sake of having an argument, but to offer a (hopefully informed) alternative to the majority opinion, and also to learn.

So, full disclosure. I am 58 and a musician by profession - classically trained, went to Trinity College of Music in London and have worked mostly in orchestras and shows, playing wind instruments. I have also had, unusually for a musician, a lifelong interest in Hi-Fi. My first experience of the wonders of reproduced music, other than the kitchen radio, was my Dad's record player. And I mean record player, not turntable. It had its own built in speaker. I remember listening to Tchaikovsky 1812 and other works on the old Decca Classics label at the age of 6 or 7. My Dad let me use the record player. I was very careful!
Fast forward to the 90's and I had the means to buy a decent Hi-Fi, which, after many upgrades, culminated substantially in the system which I still have today. I won't bore you with the whole inventory, but the CD reply side has been, Marantz CD12/DA12, Mark Levinson 38, ATC SCM100A SL. Until recently that is, when my CD12 finally gave up the ghost after 30+ years. (It still works, but you have to manually help it read/spin the disc). So, what to replace an iconic and state of the art/reference balanced (to go with my fully balanced system) CD player with? Yes, you guessed; the SA-10.

This is where I'm going to have to start to choose my words carefully, but as I said, I'm curious to learn rather that simply argue and alternative viewpoint. It seems that the majority here think that measurements are more important than anything else, is that correct? So if a piece of equipment measures better than another then it must sound better, and if it doesn't, then either you are deceiving yourself (due to cost and appearance for example) or your opinion of which sounds better must be wrong?

Personally I have to confess that I don't fully understand all of the measurements in amirs's review, or what the sonic implication of any given measurement is. I've spent my whole life and career honing and trusting my listening skills. The only thing that matters to me is how something sounds, and to my (if I say so myself, experienced) ears, the SA-10 sounds phenomenal. As to whether it justifies it's asking price, well that would have to be up to the purchaser. I bought mine at a substantial discount before the price point is where it is now. Would I pay the current asking price? No, but only because I couldn't justify it. When you look at the reviews of the SA-10 and compare it to it's competition it looks rather competitive. But yes, it's overpriced - rather like a Rolls Royce is.

So, a few additional questions; Has anyone here (apart perhaps from the one person who said he had an SA-10) done any listening comparisons to the the much cheaper DAC's which measure better? And if not, how can you say that they sound as good or better? Second, does anyone think (as I do) that reproduction from different formats/sources (DAT, CD, USB etc) sound different, despite the fact that they are all digital?
Hi Mike,

Welcome!

I have not used the SA-10, but I have a Marantz UD-7006. It sounds good, but I can't say it sounds any different from my Denon 1930 from a decade prior.

Regarding the importance of measurements vs. other factors, here's the way I look at it, which is how I think most people here look at it:

There are a huge amount of devices, speakers, headphones, DACs, etc. in the market. Measurements should be a guide, to point you toward the gear that's worth paying attention to, and what's worth ignoring. Measurements can tell you if an entire field is a bunch of nonsense ("high-end" digital cables, for example, are entirely, 100%, without exception, snake oil not worth your time or money), or if there's really a "there" there. Measurements can help you decide which devices are worth focusing on and trying out for yourself, since none of us have infinite time and budgets to play around with everything out there, and we're all prone to being misled when trying to compare high-end audio devices.

In my opinion, the biggest purpose of objective measurements is identifying scams and snake oil, because there's so much of it out there. There are companies selling magic USB cards that purport to transmit a better signal, companies selling nonsense cables, nonsense power supplies, nonsense filters, etc. The audio community is rife with them, and they can be tested and shown to make zero difference. If you're using a measuring device that's an order of magnitude more sensitive than the human ear and it detects no difference between a $1,000 cable and a $10 cable, or between a $10,000 power filtration system and just plugging your system into the wall outlet, you can be confident those things are scams.

With something like the SA-10, I'm less inclined to say it's a scam - it's a well-made, well-designed piece of hardware that, in normal applications, is going to sound great. But there's no reason to think it's going to sound better than a $500 CD player. If you're comfortable paying an extra $9,000 just for aesthetics and bragging rights, that's fine, that's your prerogative, but it's not going to sound any different from any other properly designed CD/SACD player, and blind listening tests have borne this out again and again.

Measurements also aren't going to tell you about your own preferences, when there are real differences. Tube gear measures differently from solid state gear, and is objectively "worse", but some people like the sound. I have a tube preamp for headphone listening and I love it. I know it doesn't measure as objectively clean as a modern DAC, but that's okay. Likewise with vinyl vs. digital playback - vinyl is objectively "worse", but some people like how it sounds. That's fine, more power to you if that's you.

Where I think some people are lead astray with measurements is arguing about how a DAC with a -120dB noise floor is so much better than a DAC with a -110dB noise floor. You're *never* going to hear the difference between those two devices, all other things being equal - most modern, properly-designed DACs are so clean, and have such low noise, that the differences between them are really just engineering feats with no practical application. You don't need to junk your two-year-old DAC that measures, for all intents and purposes, perfectly, because Topping just released a new model that measures better - those measurements are all well below all thresholds of human hearing.

And no, all other things being equal, I do not think the source matters if the underlying audio format (say, 16/44) is the same. There are DACs and other players that have design problems that show a lot of jitter on one input and don't on another, where you may notice a slight difference in sound quality between USB input and optical input, for example, but properly-designed devices either show no difference, or the difference is well below the threshold of human hearing. If you think you're hearing a difference, I encourage you to design a double-blind test, where you you compare the different inputs without knowing which is which (and in which the person assisting you with the test ALSO does not know which is which, hence "double-blind"). I'm confident you'll find the perceived differences between mediums evaporates when you don't know in advance what you're listening to.

The bottom line is that audio isn't magic, it's physics, and we're fallible humans whose ears, in the grand scheme of things, really aren't that good. If two devices measure identically using hardware that's much more sensitive than the human ear, and I think they sound different, then I'm going to err on the side of assuming I'm mistaken, rather than assuming I've got golden ears.
 

Sal1950

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So if a piece of equipment measures better than another then it must sound better, and if it doesn't, then either you are deceiving yourself (due to cost and appearance for example) or your opinion of which sounds better must be wrong?
Absolutely not.
We live in a time when most audio is a solved engineering problem. Out side of speakers, if a component is designed using the knowledge we have today, when connected properly and listened to under bias controlled blind conditions, you will not be able to hear any difference. The component measurements here are most valuable to learn if the designer blew it in some way or purposely designed it do sound different in some way. (most tube amps are obvious examples).
Second, does anyone think (as I do) that reproduction from different formats/sources (DAT, CD, USB etc) sound different, despite the fact that they are all digital?
I don't and I believe with proper controls you can prove that to yourself.
In short, yes, bits is bits, and it doesn't matter a rodents behind how they're delivered unless something is broken, first measure and again listen under controlled conditions.
There is no magic dust in audio.
 

pma

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Re topic question of the thread - yes measurements are nothing for those who are unable to decipher their meaning. Sadly, it is a majority of readers of the popular forum.
 

Sal1950

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I've been debating with myself whether join this forum or not, but in the end I couldn't resist, even though I'm sure I'm going to get flamed!
BTW no one ever gets flamed here as long as they keep an open mind and are willing to learn,
Just a bit about the science of audio
Take some time to do some homework on any preconceived notion you may have that runs counter to the science. (such as identical digital files sound different depending on format or carrier (cable).
 
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