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Human ears more sensitive than measuring instruments

March Audio

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I don’t think anybody can argue that measuring instruments are not more accurate for what they measure. The difference is that interpretation of the measurement. Our instruments can’t tell you exactly what it will sound like to you in regular use. For instance, I can say the Vocal singer sounded fuller and more alive and it was more locked in place than before. The measurement mIght show something that could be interpreted to correspond to my findings, perhaps a bump in treble or harmonic distortion but I can’t look at the measurement and say this is how that sing I will sound when I listen to it.
The measurements can also show ni Difference but you could hear it being different all day long. What ever caused you to hear a difference or think you heard a difference, the instrument would not be able to predict it if it measures identically. Perhaps you liked how the volume knob feels who knows. But that’s how it sounded to you when you listen to it in whatever circumstance it was.

.....and thats the point. You have simply stated that people are, without strict controls, very poor, unreliable and inconsistent at assessing sound quality. Precisely because they are influenced by all sorts of other inputs. People *think* they hear all sorts of things.
 
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Sal1950

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I'll hand it to the pickers, no way in hell I would have crawled into the narrow hallways, etc deep underground like they did.
Look at that guy, would you trust the integrity of his underground mining designs? o_O LOL
 

digicidal

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As someone who's fairly arachnophobic (yet strangely also captivated by spiders), I'd have a hard enough time climbing through piles of crap in barns... DIY underground tunnels wouldn't even have a chance to come up in the realm of possibility. Watching spiders go about their feats of construction or feasting on prey... pure delight. Direct physical contact on the other hand... nope. Tarantulas being the lone exception.
 
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JohnYang1997

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Can we ever really know what the absolute true sound is?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)

Just curious, given that binaural sound is trying to reproduce some aspects of the human listening device, I find it's attributes quite interesting. It sounds far more "real" than many high fidelity recordings.
Using what. Binaural recordings only work on headphones/earphones. It's impossible to compare. And if you are talking about normal recording through headphones, of course they have no sound stage. But with good speaker systems?
 

Hipper

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What's flat for me isn't necessarily for you.
Puts the 1dB cable induced differences (if they exist) into perspective...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4123622/
View attachment 24194

Thanks for the link.

It tells of the way we individually adapt to our changing ear shape as we age. The plasticity of the brain allows us to interpret what we hear even as the signal we pick up is changed over time. It suggests that we can adapt to new circumstances in a few days.

Of course many knew this, and also knew that it could explain the so called break in period of new gear. Some also argue that we can eventually hear through some damage to the original sound such as room modes - I don't think that is completely true in my experience.

The graph you show are simple measurements that ignore the individual brain's interpretation. I suspect each brain will adapt what is heard so that they will all hear more or less the same sound. After all, ultimately, the brain has to interpret the sound as a real world occurrence (I know, it can be fooled, such as the stereo phantom image).

And that shows that the ear cannot be isolated from our brain and therefore our 'measurements' by ear can never be exact, as Solderdude implies:

The biggest issue however is the lack of fully understanding how the brain handles all the input and processes it and how this varies from person to person.
 

Wombat

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As you get older and your hearing declines the outer-ears tend to get bigger. Unrelated, I'd say but could make a small difference. Now there is a PhD initiative to vie for funding. :facepalm:
 

Hipper

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As you get older and your hearing declines the outer-ears tend to get bigger. Unrelated, I'd say but could make a small difference. Now there is a PhD initiative to vie for funding. :facepalm:

I've noticed everything gets bigger as I age - well nearly everything. :facepalm:
 

solderdude

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I've noticed everything gets bigger as I age

Funny how printed words seem to have gotten smaller and smaller over the years though my arms are getting too short. :(
 
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JohnYang1997

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I've seen somewhere that perfect pitch will slide off after 50yo. It's very possible that we don't even hear the same pitch when we get old.
 

egellings

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I think biological sensors (ears, eyes, etc.) evolve to have the sensitivities necessary for survival, and don't waste effort on developing sensitivities beyond that. These sensitivities can be exquisite, though, such as a dog's smelling abilities. That hound!
 

magicscreen

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This is true that human ears more sensitive.
I am not only can hear differences between different cables, but I can hear differences between the left and right channel of the same RCA interconnect cable now!
True story. Bad soldering or what could be the cause?
 

sergeauckland

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This is true that human ears more sensitive.
I am not only can hear differences between different cables, but I can hear differences between the left and right channel of the same RCA interconnect cable now!
True story. Bad soldering or what could be the cause?
Fertile Imagination?

S.
 

Jinjuku

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I don’t think anybody can argue that measuring instruments are not more accurate for what they measure. The difference is that interpretation of the measurement. Our instruments can’t tell you exactly what it will sound like to you in regular use. For instance, I can say the Vocal singer sounded fuller and more alive and it was more locked in place than before. The measurement mIght show something that could be interpreted to correspond to my findings, perhaps a bump in treble or harmonic distortion but I can’t look at the measurement and say this is how that sing I will sound when I listen to it.
The measurements can also show ni Difference but you could hear it being different all day long. What ever caused you to hear a difference or think you heard a difference, the instrument would not be able to predict it if it measures identically. Perhaps you liked how the volume knob feels who knows. But that’s how it sounded to you when you listen to it in whatever circumstance it was.

We need a measuring device for head deviation during evaluation.
 

Jinjuku

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That image is a good argument for subjectivists. Does it matter what the rule says or does it matter what I see? (Does it matter what the APX555 says or what my ears say?)

Pretty sure it matters what the objectivist is saying:

I know the lines are parallel but I like the illusion anyways

or

I know the line's aren't parallel damn your ruler. You can't measure everything we see or your measuring the wrong thing.
 
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