Mike Hanson
Member
I’m posting today to share a major personal triumph: I have confirmed—beyond a shadow of a doubt—that I am, in fact, listening to music.
Allow me to elaborate:
I’ve been having these moments of sheer panic where I ask myself: “Am I truly hearing the majestic crescendo of Beethoven’s 9th, or am I just imagining random sine waves because I secretly crave the smug sense of audiophile superiority?” So I decided to put an end to this existential crisis once and for all.
First, I dusted off my UMIK-2 microphone, positioned it exactly where my ears would be located (after measuring the angle of my ears with a protractor to ensure maximum positional accuracy). Then I fired up REW (Room Equalization Wizard) and meticulously took a series of extremely controlled measurements while streaming some high-resolution FLAC tunes.
To ensure I wasn’t faking it, I also streamed a recording of complete silence (you know, for baseline). Here’s an overview of my procedure:
Conclusion: The data confirms that these waveforms correspond to actual, legitimate music. I am not merely tricking myself, nor am I the victim of some cunning placebo effect. My ears are hearing real waveforms that align nicely with what the graphs say should be happening. Take that, audio illusions!
Anyway, this is a huge relief. My only concern now is that maybe I'm hearing better music than I deserve. I'll be running additional tests soon to see if my enjoyment factor is spiking above normal levels… you know, in case I need to re-EQ my satisfaction curve.
Hope you enjoyed my findings. I'll share the graphs below. Cheers to objectively proving we actually are listening to music!
Allow me to elaborate:
I’ve been having these moments of sheer panic where I ask myself: “Am I truly hearing the majestic crescendo of Beethoven’s 9th, or am I just imagining random sine waves because I secretly crave the smug sense of audiophile superiority?” So I decided to put an end to this existential crisis once and for all.
First, I dusted off my UMIK-2 microphone, positioned it exactly where my ears would be located (after measuring the angle of my ears with a protractor to ensure maximum positional accuracy). Then I fired up REW (Room Equalization Wizard) and meticulously took a series of extremely controlled measurements while streaming some high-resolution FLAC tunes.
To ensure I wasn’t faking it, I also streamed a recording of complete silence (you know, for baseline). Here’s an overview of my procedure:
- Impulse Response – I recorded the moment the music started. The impulse plot showed a satisfying peak at 0.045 seconds, so-unless my dog suddenly started playing a trumpet-I'm confident something in the audio realm actually happened.
- Frequency Response – I analyzed the frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz. Yes, I got the usual mid-bass hump around 80Hz that indicates some real music content. If my ears were tricking me, I'd expect a flat line or maybe a random glitch from a truck driving by. But no! The sweet, sweet humps (and subsequent dips) are consistent with actual music, folks.
- Waterfall Plot – Ah, the majestic waterfall! Music notes linger in the time domain, creating that tail-off effect. If I was just imagining things, I'd see nothing but a big old block of colorless data. Instead, I see descending ridges that practically sing to me. Well, as far as graphs can sing.
- Distortion Analysis – My REW readouts showed THD+N at a level that is consistent with equipment that's been used to play… you guessed it… real music. If I were just hallucinating, I'd expect total silence or a big red line with the words "HUMAN IMAGINATION" stamped all over it.
Conclusion: The data confirms that these waveforms correspond to actual, legitimate music. I am not merely tricking myself, nor am I the victim of some cunning placebo effect. My ears are hearing real waveforms that align nicely with what the graphs say should be happening. Take that, audio illusions!
Anyway, this is a huge relief. My only concern now is that maybe I'm hearing better music than I deserve. I'll be running additional tests soon to see if my enjoyment factor is spiking above normal levels… you know, in case I need to re-EQ my satisfaction curve.
Hope you enjoyed my findings. I'll share the graphs below. Cheers to objectively proving we actually are listening to music!