You get a thumbs up from me for Heilung. I’ve dug their music since hearing their first drum beat several years ago…
I recognize that approach works for many ASR members. Basically, once assured that their equipment is accurate enough, they are good. They can just sit back not think about it anymore and taken however things sound “ because I know intellectually it is accurate.”So, I let the knowledge that I'm listening to the most accurate playback guide my feelings about it. If it's objectively good, it's subjectively good.
I'd say the true "hipster factor" starts with the cult of Blue Note Jazz LPs, which continues to this day. These records, mostly a tad subpar by the standards of their time, have regularly been cited in the audiophile press. I'm not sure why, as these records were recorded in less-than-ideal conditions, but - in large part because of the artists involved and the small runs of their first pressings - they have become extremely collectible. Of course, small press runs, such as those for 12" singles, increases the collectability of a given title.12" singles tended to have the best sound quality of a given track during LPs heyday in case anybody's interested. Waaaay mo' bass. Early Punk and Grunge records on independent labels also are collectible due to small press runs and that whole indy label thing, thus the snob appeal.
The problem is that I have a switch on my music player that adds or takes away the ultrasonics. I do not know how to modify digital files like you say, but if I figure it out i will do the experiment and show proof here of what I already know I can do.
I don't know if you include me in "et al". If so, then yes I have, somewhat before yours.
Further in your defence, you weren't the only one to interpret the post in that way. I certainly did, and it appears Newman (based on his "worst offenders" post) did also. I think it is fair to say the post was (in the context of the general tone of this thread) easy to interpret in that way.
I think you know I was in no way referring to anything like this. ???
In order to accept, you need to ignore:
It's not dismissed here, no research study anywhere has ever been able to replicate it, even with sufficient sample sizes, and control of in-band artifacts of the original experiment. So a broad group of research efforts since decades ago can't confirm. You misuse the word 'dismiss', and associate the wrong people. In fact, those studies have found reasons why the Oohashi study is flawed (points 3-5 above). This isn't dismissed by people in this forum as you claim. It is unsupported by research. It's the same as not supporting cold fusion research that is flawed, or perpetual motion machines, or Flat Earth.
It's actually not the easiest experiment, unless you are a hack and don't bother to control. In any case, buy supertweeters and do a study and release the results.
There are lots of models to select, I would get the Pioneer Elite, since they look killer.I wonder how you can support one controversial researcher without reading and understanding the actual research critically, including the research that doesn't necessarily support your opinion or belief. Some of us actually have owned speakers with supertweeters (I have several, and still have a pair of supertweeters lying around. They were actually the rage when I was a kid and had unaged hearing. I satisfied myself that supertweeters were not useful before I ever read Oohashi.
A 45 rpm LP with 10 minutes a side will not have IGD as the groove runs out well before IGD becomes an issue. I had a Steve Hoffman reissue of the Ellington/Strayhorn arrangement of the Nutcracker Suite (a childhood favorite), 33 & 1/3, pressed on very quiet vinyl. Pricey, at over $20, but it floated my boat. Something like 15 minutes a side and over 2 inches of deadwax so, again, IGD wasn't an issue. Sound quality was very good by any standard, very dynamic. The CD equivalent didn't sound as good, probably due to slipshod mastering.
Of course you will also have to pay thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars for a table with decent speed stability and noise issues of it's own. I'm not even going to bring the cost and life of "needles" into this.
Out of interest - what is the mechanism by which these ultrasonics are added with your switch? There is no information in a 16/44.1 file/stream/cd for any system to "extrapolate" to add them. It would in fact be much better to start with a recording at higher resolution that contains ultrasonics, (Say at 24/96) then down convert that to 24/44.1 to remove them, then up convert to 24/96 again so that both files have identical reconstruction filters applied. Or simply low pass filter the high res file to remove the ultrasonics.
It depends on how serious you were about your recording (especially of the band you would be working with or the community band doing things like show tunes, swing & theatrical tunes).
Yes, you certainly will, because you just conducted an invalid experiment that is corrupted by the Sighted Listening Effect. Read up on it. Using the method you described, audiophiles the world over have "quickly noticed the difference" between cables (with the same frequency response), power cords, ethernet cables, CDs with green Texta on the lip, and dots glued on walls. In fact, they have "quickly noticed the difference" when they thought they had changed something, only to find out to their personal embarrassment that they actually hadn't changed the switch,
.I will re-post for you some of my older content on the work of Oohashi-san.
Yes, you certainly will, because you just conducted an invalid experiment that is corrupted by the Sighted Listening Effect. Read up on it. Using the method you described, audiophiles the world over have "quickly noticed the difference" between cables (with the same frequency response), power cords, ethernet cables, CDs with green Texta on the lip, and dots glued on walls. In fact, they have "quickly noticed the difference" when they thought they had changed something, only to find out to their personal embarrassment that they actually hadn't changed the switch,
Another issue with your test is the filter used to remove ultrasonic frequencies, great care would be needed to ensure the filter has no audible effect in the audible range. Without such care, one might actually be detecting the difference in the audible range.
I will re-post for you some of my older content on the work of Oohashi-san.
"Oohashi is widely misinterpreted.
"He is on record stating that nobody can hear above 20 kHz. So his finding was not that we can hear music above 20 kHz, not that music with ultrasonic content sounds any different to music with such content missing when recorded and played back, not that such recorded music (and hence high res recordings) sounds more natural or is in any way sonically preferred. He should not be vilified (nor referenced!!) as if he had found any such thing.
"What he did find was an increase in Alpha-2 brainwave activity when non-stationary signals above 32 kHz are present. Increased Alpha-2 activity is normally associated with increased sensations of pleasantness (or pleasant restfulness), and so it proved in his experiments. That's why he called it an effect, not sound or music.
"This should be of interest to audiophiles: it doesn't change how anything sounds, but it might lead to a general sense of more pleasure, at least sporadically, when certain types of musical recordings are being played on capable gear. Some audiophiles seek pleasure above all else, so they should be interested, at least, even if it isn't caused by what they are hearing, but does occur at the same time as they hear (some) music.
"OTOH there are significant caveats.
"My conclusion is that, unless something much more impressive (and positive) comes to light, there is nothing to see here for audiophiles chasing sound quality.
- I'm especially concerned that Oohashi exclusively used DSD recordings for his experiments on Hypersonic Effect. The noise shaping inherent to DSD means the 40 kHz band is swamped in noise, in fact it probably swamps any recorded performance frequencies in this band. Yet Fukushima/Oohashi et al found the hypersonic effect to be positive only when the performance frequencies were above 32 kHz. Hmm: the effect might be a side effect of using DSD and playing back the DSD shifted noise hump through ultrasonic tweeters. I'm not aware of anyone testing to eliminate this strong coincidence.
- Also very concerning is that the effect is negative when the performance frequencies are in the band 20-32 kHz, ie less Alpha-2 activity (and presumably less pleasantness) than when limiting frequencies to <20 kHz. This makes it impossible to conclude on the available evidence that recording and playing back music with >20 kHz bandwidth is a good thing at all.
- As others eg @Galliardist have mentioned, one or two attempts to replicate the hypersonic effect experiment have failed to find the effect. I'm thinking NHK (Japan's national broadcaster) and Laurie Fincham*, but note that these tests were looking for audible differences, which was never Oohashi's claim. However, I think they are the experiments people refer to as non-verification of the hypersonic effect.
"OTOH if you really do want to reliably increase your Alpha-2 activity and experience increased pleasantness with much greater reliability, drink a cup or two of tea while listening to your recordings.
* Laurie Fincham, ‘The Golden Ear Room, Listening tests on high frequency bandwidth and clipping conducted at the AES 1980 Convention, London’ (unpublished)"
Also note that the gear used in the above experiments had a frequency response flat to 100 kHz, for both recording and playback, and the music was gamelan, specifically chosen for loads of ultrasonic energy, unlike most other music. Without that combination of setup and music...no Hypersonic Effect.
Finally, that YouTube you shared showed most of the ultrasonic energy was in the 20kHz-32kHz range, a region where Oohashi claimed the Hypersonic Effect (a mood effect, not a sensation) was negative. So the listener's mood is supposed to improve if that vinyl energy is filtered out. Hello CD.
cheers
