Rob Watts talk at recent CanJam NYC 2023

[IAtaman]

Must be incredibly noisy for Rob to keep hearing all these electrons wheezing by!

Poor guy. Talk about a noise floor. Given he can detect -300db, he must be hating listening to Chord Dave with it's 120db SINAD.

 

[voodooless]

Nope, that is a paper deriving Johnson-Nyquist noise from quantum mechanics. The original theory is based on statistical mechanics which is classical.

Here the abstract of the original 1928 paper. Hope we can put this to peepee measuring contest to rest now please.

Almost The only thing I’d like to add is that getting somewhere first doesn’t make it “better” or more true. Clearly both approaches are valid and give comparable results. In a different universe it could have been the other way around You would have said that the noise would have originated from quantum theory, but that there was also found an explanation using classical physics.

 

[IAtaman]

Almost The only thing I’d like to add is that getting somewhere first doesn’t make it “better” or more true. Clearly both approaches are valid and give comparable results. In a different universe it could have been the other way around You would have said that the noise would have originated from quantum theory, but that there was also found an explanation using classical physics.

Yes true in a sense, as quantum mechanics claims to be the underlying mechanism for everything, maybe except gravity. Theoretically we can derive aerodynamics from quantum mechanics as well. It does not mean aerodynamics is a quantum theory though. Anyway, in the original joke I was trying to say that the levels he is talking about are so low, we are getting close to single elemental particle level. Maybe I should have said that

 

[voodooless]

Anyway, in the original joke I was trying to say that the levels he is talking about are so low, we are getting close to single elemental particle level. Maybe I should have said that

Indeed we are. I did a similar experiment a while back:

Distortion down to -300 dB, what exactly does that mean physically?

As some of you guys might know, the famous Rob Watts has mentioned on more than one occasion that he can hear and measure distortion down to -300 dB. Cited by @amirm here for instance. He also says something similar in this video: Staring at roughly the 17min mark. Now I was thinking about a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[DSJR]

Rob says, and I quote, "the only way of actually recognizing that you are not hearing true transparency is if it is more emotionally involving or not more emotionally involving".

That is an astonishingly sneaky way of giving yourself the creative freedom to claim whatever the hell you want. Rob's talents are being wasted in the audio world.

I heard a full Chord system not long ago - M-Scaler, Dave, fancy new pre and power amps an' all - I walked out as the sound was bland, awfully 'muted' and not a patch on my fifty year old prosumer amps and Harbeths, which keeps me listening until other commitments get in the way (and I ain't saying my old stereo is an especially good one either!!!).

 

[Zensō]

• Assume SPL of mosquito fart is 0 dB SPL at a distance of 1 mm.
• To attenuate to -400 dB, it will require 400/6.0206 = 66.44 doubling of distance
• Distance required to attenuate to -400 dB SPL = 0.001 m * 2^(66.44) = 0.001 * 1e20 = 1e17 m = 10.6 light years

You have way underestimated Watts.

This is absolutely awesome. Someone needs to send this to Watts.

 

[IAtaman]

• Assume SPL of mosquito fart is 0 dB SPL at a distance of 1 mm.
• To attenuate to -400 dB, it will require 400/6.0206 = 66.44 doubling of distance
• Distance required to attenuate to -400 dB SPL = 0.001 m * 2^(66.44) = 0.001 * 1e20 = 1e17 m = 10.6 light years

You have way underestimated Watts.

I am worried that he might say our calculation of 10.6 light years is off by a meter and will sell us a $1200 calculator with an FPGA in it.

 

[IAtaman]

Indeed we are. I did a similar experiment a while back:

Distortion down to -300 dB, what exactly does that mean physically?

As some of you guys might know, the famous Rob Watts has mentioned on more than one occasion that he can hear and measure distortion down to -300 dB. Cited by @amirm here for instance. He also says something similar in this video: Staring at roughly the 17min mark. Now I was thinking about a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I read a few pages of the thread and watched the video around 17 min mark as you suggested. Holy moly. He looked people in the eye and claimed his 9 year old son could hear the difference between 120db and 160db distortion from TV broadcast if I understood correctly. That is astonishing.

 

[voodooless]

I read a few pages of the thread and watched the video around 17 min mark as you suggested. Holy moly. He looked people in the eye and claimed his 9 year old son could hear the difference between 120db and 160db distortion from TV broadcast if I understood correctly. That is astonishing.

Yeah, kids these days!

 

[IAtaman]

Yeah, kids these days!

Yeah that plus cartoons these days! BBC must be broadcasting them with 24bit uncompressed audio back in 2016 I presume..

 

[Palladium]

Poor guy. Talk about a noise floor. Given he can detect -300db, he must be hating listening to Chord Dave with it's 120db SINAD.

I exhaled quietly into my phone mic and that alone registers a 70dB peak at 60Hz on a SPL meter app, lol.

 

[Newman]

What is -400db on the shout-o-meter? A mosquito farting on Pluto?

• Assume SPL of mosquito fart is 0 dB SPL at a distance of 1 mm.
• To attenuate to -400 dB, it will require 400/6.0206 = 66.44 doubling of distance
• Distance required to attenuate to -400 dB SPL = 0.001 m * 2^(66.44) = 0.001 * 1e20 = 1e17 m = 10.6 light years

You have way underestimated Watts.

Very good! Although you have way overestimated the depth of the earth's atmosphere, because of which, the -400 dB point is probably more like 100 kms.

 

[kemmler3D]

claimed his 9 year old son could hear the difference between 120db and 160db distortion from TV broadcast if I understood correctly. That is astonishing.

If that's true, they literally have superhuman hearing and should go to a lab to have it verified right away. They'd not only walk away with a father-son world record, they would advance the field of audiology dramatically in a single afternoon.

Superman can hear someone crying for help across the city, say 8 miles away.

Loud screaming is maybe 95dB at 1m. Attenuating that to -300dB gets us 6342 lightyears. So Superman is profoundly deaf compared to Watts.

You really have to feel for the guy. He can literally hear every sound on the planet all at once. Must be hard to concentrate.

 

[MacClintock]

Is it me or does Rob decrease the audible level of noise floor modulation by 50dB or more each time he talks? I've seen his early mentions of about -200dB being audible, then -300dB. In this talk he mentions -350dB! His ears are amazing, and need to be preserved and studied by science for centuries to come

Yes Rob Watts's ears, the equivalent to Einstein's brain.

 

[RayDunzl]

In this talk he mentions -350dB!

Wow.

That would be a voltage difference (multiplier or divider) of 316,227,766,016,837,950

316 quad-rillion...

 

[Zensō]

I read a few pages of the thread and watched the video around 17 min mark as you suggested. Holy moly. He looked people in the eye and claimed his 9 year old son could hear the difference between 120db and 160db distortion from TV broadcast if I understood correctly. That is astonishing.

What’s astonishing is that many people keep believing his absurd claims and buying his overpriced products.

 

[fpitas]

What’s astonishing is that many people keep believing his absurd claims and buying his overpriced products.

That's the art of salesman "science talk".

 

[solderdude]

Rob Watts has (expensive) things to sell.
He has a huge audience that believes everything he says.
Most of what he sells seems to measure well and have good build quality so there is that.
Rob Watts is not the only snake-oil salesman in the business but a very vocal one and has the attention of many folks.
Fortunately no one forces me to listen to it nor do I buy any of it (words and gear).
But sadly many people believe some of the BS he states. No doubt he also says sensible things.
A bit like grandpa Paul.
The problem is that the people eating Rob's (and grandpa Paul' and Richie's) words lack the ability to know what is BS and what is not.

 

[Music1969]

Yikes

 

[Music1969]

Oh dear he now resorts to people being deaf. Sad