A warning. There is a new web article going aroud that is a crock of schmidt.

[Hypnotoad]

News Flash: The internet is chock full of shit. One more dropping isn't worth bothering about.

Yeah it even says at the bottom of the article:

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

He threw out a smelly bait.

 

[scott wurcer]

Maybe he used this as a grammar checker: New Age Bullshit Generator

This is funny I clicked for fun and got, "Indigo Child, look within and synergize yourself. How should you navigate this endless quantum matrix? The stratosphere is calling to you via pulses. Can you hear it? "

 

[LuckyLuke575]

But he supposedly has a PhD from CalTech.

Let's give credit where it's due; the guy must know a thing or two

 

[LuckyLuke575]

I think the guy has a point when it comes to how bad compressed music and Mp3s were compared to the straight analog music. I don't know about all the technical theory, but when I'm home I never listen to digital music, even though I have the DX3 and HD 650s etc; I only listen to my vinyl records because I prefer the sound, so there might be some resonance with what he's saying (although I don't think its a proof thing because a 2019 Mix of Beatles Abbey Road at 96/24 through a good DAC and audio kit is clearly reaching the peak of music quality).

 

[CDMC]

I think the guy has a point when it comes to how bad compressed music and Mp3s were compared to the straight analog music. I don't know about all the technical theory, but when I'm home I never listen to digital music, even though I have the DX3 and HD 650s etc; I only listen to my vinyl records because I prefer the sound, so there might be some resonance with what he's saying (although I don't think its a proof thing because a 2019 Mix of Beatles Abbey Road at 96/24 through a good DAC and audio kit is clearly reaching the peak of music quality).

Do a needle drop of your records in 16/44.1 and listen to those. They will sound identical.

 

[restorer-john]

This Softky is just crazy. Fortunately he obviously hasn't found out how to make money with his ideas - yet, other thatn writing articles to websites.

Here in Finland we have an inventor with small company that got a national award for the new patented cable technology. First try was on consumer hifi market, but business is not going well anyway....

https://spindeco.fi/ https://www.taloustutka.fi/company/2765984-1

We at Spindeco have developed a method of generating spin current for over ten years, the last five of which we have collaborated with the University of Eastern Finland. The method has been granted a patent in China and EU. US and India patents are currently pending. As the research progresses, the patent protection will be increased. AV cables productised with the SpinX Cables brand are already available in Finland, Germany and the Netherlands.

That's exactly the same outer woven pattern as my steam-station iron!

 

[GrimSurfer]

It is funny how people always want to introduce musicians as a reference point, as if they apparently have special powers. My dad was trained in opera, played piano, guitar, and violin and also experienced with studio recording having done a few albums with people he entertained with. I was always interested in audio and reproduction and was around a lot of musicians, many of who (including my dad) didn't have very nice stereos. When I asked him about it, his observation was that most musicians are not listening to the reproduced sound of the music, but the actual composition of the music, the sound quality really didn't matter.

They do have special powers... higher hearing loss.

https://theconversation.com/highway-to-hearing-hell-musicians-and-the-danger-of-deafness-55983

 

[GrimSurfer]

That's exactly the same outer woven pattern as my steam-station iron!

View attachment 36775

You really need an RF choke with some holotape on that iron cord, John. It will make your iron perform better.

 

[DonH56]

It is funny how people always want to introduce musicians as a reference point, as if they apparently have special powers. My dad was trained in opera, played piano, guitar, and violin and also experienced with studio recording having done a few albums with people he entertained with. I was always interested in audio and reproduction and was around a lot of musicians, many of who (including my dad) didn't have very nice stereos. When I asked him about it, his observation was that most musicians are not listening to the reproduced sound of the music, but the actual composition of the music, the sound quality really didn't matter.

For a long, long time I've said audiophiles listen to the gear, musicians listen to the music.

 

[j_j]

Here, let me put this out there again:

I'm going to start up matlab. I'm going to generate a 20khz signal sampled at 44.1 kHz. I'm not going to run it through the anti-imaging filter, yadda yadda, just plot the 20kHz signal with two different phases, one 1/128th of a cycle (well under one sample interval to say the least) phase shifted.

See if you can find the difference in the two (different colored) plots, m'kay? Every spot you see blue is the difference. I think it's rather visible.

The code that generated this is:

w=2*pi*20000/44100;
>>
>> x=sin(w*(1:64));
>> plot(x)
>> p=pi/64; %that's 1/64 of half a cycle
>> y=sin(w*(1:64) + p);
>> hold
Current plot held
>> plot(y)

Now, yes, it has "beats". Those "beats" are with the image of the 20,000 Hz signal at 44100-20000 Hz and higher images. They go away with the anti-imaging filter, too. I have a nice graph out there somewhere showing this.

The period of a 20kHz sine wave is 1/20000. The time shift shown in the graph is 1/(20000 * 128) = .39 microseconds, rather smaller than the 22 microsecond sampling interval.

Furthermore, you can MEASURE a difference down to thereabouts of 1/(2*pi*20000*65536) seconds, give or take a few nits, and below that with additional averaging.


As they say, Q-fscking-ED.

 

[GrimSurfer]

For a long, long time I've said audiophiles listen to the gear, musicians listen to the music.

One group with varying levels of hearing acuity, the other group with generally degraded levels of hearing acuity.

I'm not poking holes in your point, as much as saying that the point you make is mediated by variables that are difficult to reconcile and one isn't necessarily more correct than the other.

 

[AudioSceptic]

It is funny how people always want to introduce musicians as a reference point, as if they apparently have special powers. My dad was trained in opera, played piano, guitar, and violin and also experienced with studio recording having done a few albums with people he entertained with. I was always interested in audio and reproduction and was around a lot of musicians, many of who (including my dad) didn't have very nice stereos. When I asked him about it, his observation was that most musicians are not listening to the reproduced sound of the music, but the actual composition of the music, the sound quality really didn't matter.

What I've heard a few times is that musicians don't really care about sound "quality" (whatever that is), but they really cannot stand timing errors (wow, flutter, & drift). Could this be an aspect of having "perfect pitch"?

 

[AudioSceptic]

Do a needle drop of your records in 16/44.1 and listen to those. They will sound identical.

Or even 12-bit. Analogue tape at its best (following wind, planets aligned, gods smiling), could just manage the equivalent of 13 bits. No way is vinyl even close to that. And 44.1? Only if you're under 40. For most of us, 32 will do.

 

[DonH56]

One group with varying levels of hearing acuity, the other group with generally degraded levels of hearing acuity.

I'm not poking holes in your point, as much as saying that the point you make is mediated by variables that are difficult to reconcile and one isn't necessarily more correct than the other.

IMO/IME musicians are more likely to notice an out-of-tune chord, missed note, or poor timing than some significant change in the gear (audible or not). But it is just a very old stereotypical comment; a lot of musicians have and appreciate great stereo systems, and a lot of audiophiles appreciate great music. Still, interesting to walk out of a concert listening to my engineering buddy talk about "what a great performance, amazing hall, impressive acoustics" and his wife the violinist saying "what a great solo, and the orchestra was so together, not a note out of tune".

 

[DonH56]

Availability heuristic.

I don't know what that means.

 

[GrimSurfer]

I don't know what that means.

It was a bit of a cheap shot, so I deleted just after posting.

"The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method or decision."

In this case, your engineer friend and his wife after a concert, instead of the broader probabilities that:

1. As a violinist in particular, she's likely suffering from significant hearing damage in her left ear and undetermined hearing damage in the other; Google hearing loss in violinists. https://theconversation.com/highway-to-hearing-hell-musicians-and-the-danger-of-deafness-55983 Also see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5388610/ for a more general view of hearing acuity in musicians.

2. Neither may have perfect frequency or pitch acuity; or

3. That the concert hall had both great acoustics (many don't and the quality of sound can even vary considerably in those that do) and the of the hundreds of thousands of played, the performance did not have a single note out of tune (the statistical probability is this is extremely low, boardering on impossible). Here's an interesting study on concert halls https://asa.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1121/1.4944787?showFTTab=true&containerItemId=content/asa/journal/jasa&

Again, I'm not critiquing the point you're making as much as I am the general weakness of aphorisms. Knowledge gained elsewhere (population and profession surveys on hearing, statistics) isn't even part of the discussion.

It's a good story though! Which brings me back to Neil Young's claims about digital, Pono, etc. Utter rubbish. The man has hearing damage by his own admission. His assertions about how digital sounds bears no resemblance to how digital actually works (not that his background endows him with this knowledge). Yet, because he is a musician of note, his words gained traction despite his shortcomings and obvious financial interest.

 

[Ron Party]

That's exactly the same outer woven pattern as my steam-station iron!

This is great! You have a steam station iron that uses speaker cable for power? I think I'm going to look for a cat5e cable to use when my car radiator hose fails. I never thought about the possibilities... this thread has produced completely unexpected benefits.

 

[GrimSurfer]

Brilliant, Ron. Your post says a lot about the merits of matching components to requirements. Funny as hell too!

 

[restorer-john]

You really need an RF choke with some holotape on that iron cord, John. It will make your iron perform better.

I'll fit them today! Thanks for your advice. Hopefully I'll get some extra warmth along with the crisp, flat, presentation it already imparts.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I'll fit them today! Thanks for your advice. Hopefully I'll get some extra warmth along with the crisp, flat, presentation it already imparts.

Be careful how far you go. It might end up causing the iron to present with a more 3D appearance which in this case isn't good. In this application I do believe you'll have to lift the veils yourself.