Question about audible differences: does a lower noise floor improve the sound?

[MaxwellsEq]

Bear in mind OP is asking about noise below the level of audibility causing audible impacts through other means. IE inaudible noise causing audible artifacts by somehow disrupting the operation of the reproduction gear.

To which the answer is a resounding "no it bloody well doesn't"

I caught up with the thread a day after everyone else. Many people had fully explained the impact of inaudible noise to the OP (i.e. none). But because I read the thread in one go, I just thought 'no-one has answered the question in the title'.

My logic is - supposing someone searches the Internet for this exact question and Google throws them a link to this thread (OR an AI uses it for training data) - it helps to have an answer somewhere in the thread to the question posed. I'm just trying to fix future AI hallucinations one post at a time

 

[antcollinet]

I'm just trying to fix future AI hallucinations one post at a time

Good luck with that

 

[Chrispy]

John Atkinson at Stereophile and others have speculated that a small amount of background noise can add sparkle or brightness.

I think that what the listener perceives with this cable is that at low levels, the sound is fattened and made more coherent-sounding by the dominant second-harmonic distortion. In addition, the presence of background noise cannot be dismissed, as there is some evidence that introducing small amounts of random noise results in a sound that is preferred by listeners. At higher signal levels, transients are accompanied by bursts of higher harmonics. However, these subside as quickly as they appeared. The overall effect is to render the system sound as being more vivid,
John Atkinson
August 2005

Good grief what cable was that?

 

[pinger]

Good grief what cable was that?

LOL Stereophile is for audiofools! I read it for the entertainment value. Thats it

 

[Chrispy]

LOL Stereophile is for audiofools! I read it for the entertainment value. Thats it

I don't find that kind of nonsense entertaining, just annoying.

 

[the_lumberjack]

Bear in mind OP is asking about noise below the level of audibility causing audible impacts through other means. IE inaudible noise causing audible artifacts by somehow disrupting the operation of the reproduction gear.

To which the answer is a resounding "no it bloody well doesn't"

Finally someone understands what I was asking!

 

[Speedskater]

I have more notes on noise from about a decade ago.
Send a PM

 

[Mal]

I asked the following of ChatGPT (bear with me): “Why do audiophiles claim that removing noise from an analog signal improves the imaging and soundstage? The noise is well below the audible threshold, so why would removing something that is not audible change the sound?”

Gemini adds: "There is no scientific consensus on this issue, and some audiophiles believe that removing noise can actually degrade the sound quality."

Time for some double-blind testing?

 

[antcollinet]

Gemini adds: "There is no scientific consensus on this issue, and some audiophiles believe that removing noise can actually degrade the sound quality."

Time for some double-blind testing?

I wish people would stop trying to use Arbitrary Incomprehension generators as research tools.

 

[Oddball]

Yeah obviously noise you can't hear is a noise that you should not really care about. But you want that noise to be as low as possible, so quiet room will generally be a better room for solid quality material. And quiet system will be a more reference than the one that has higher noise level (e.g. hiss through speakers when powered on).