What is going on with audioSCIENCEreview…

[caught gesture]

I’m losing the signal in the noise.

 

[Curvature]

Example?

 

[caught gesture]

Just my general feeling of having to wade through so much non-scientific bickering. It is becoming tiresome.

 

[solderdude]

DNL might help reduce the noise.
At least... I thought it worked great for cassette tape.
Just flip the switch and the noise disappeared.
I wish it could be done here as well.
I reckon it is the price one pays for popularity ?

 

[Matias]

Just my general feeling of having to wade through so much non-scientific bickering. It is becoming tiresome.

Every few months someone opens a thread like this complaining ASR is getting too many new users and there is much more noise than signal (=useful content) than before. Many pages of discusssion. Thread gets old and buried.

After a few months someone opens a thread like this.....

 

[Curvature]

I think it's fine since most people are learning in one way or another.

Takes effort.

 

[Sokel]

There are measures taken by other (more private,invite only mostly) forums when they want to avoid the usual noise.
Examples are forbidding double posting,one word postings,gifs,etc,things done mostly by people thinking they own the forum or just trolling.
But something like this requires heavy moderation and when a forum is big enough that's a hard job.

 

[NiagaraPete]

U

Regardless of the topic, it seems inevitable that when a board grows beyond a certain size the signal to noise ratio will take a nosedive. The only fixes I’ve seen work are either much more heavy-handed moderation, or limiting access to paying members only.

i own a forum that’s been running for over 25 years.

My solution was impose a fee per year to non experts so to speak.

Not a perfect solution and it took awhile for folks to except.

 

[pablolie]

There will never ever be an internet discussion forum which 100% caters to one's expectation and every post is relevant to one's interests (or current mood).

 

[RF Air]

DNL might help reduce the noise.
At least... I thought it worked great for cassette tape.
Just flip the switch and the noise disappeared.
I wish it could be done here as well.
I reckon it is the price one pays for popularity ?

I think I have seen the DNL used with Vinyl Records, I think they were sold in the Military PX, BX AAFES Stores. Navy never played LP's on ships, I'm guessing.

 

[Graham849]

With no new members any forum will wither into an echochamber.

With new members noise and repetition increases.

I try to use search to see if my questions have been previously answered.

Without some subjectivity science cannot remain objective.

'gotta to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em“

 

[phoenixdogfan]

The only way to bring new, fresh perspectives into any forum like this is to tolerate some amount of noise. Over time the newbies will get the hang of things or move on. Last thing we want to be IMHO is an insufferable, inbred clique of cognoscenti bores. SBAF is already filling that bill nicely.

 

[restorer-john]

More people, more noise. But with a larger membership, comes a lot more signal. S/N ratio is maintained or even increased.

I’m losing the signal in the noise.

Engage effective filters to suit your requirements. Running any acquisition system's bandwidth 'wide-open' isn't a good idea. And averaging helps a lot with lowering the noise floor so the signal stands out.

 

[Keith_W]

There are measures taken by other (more private,invite only mostly) forums when they want to avoid the usual noise.
Examples are forbidding double posting,one word postings,gifs,etc,things done mostly by people thinking they own the forum or just trolling.
But something like this requires heavy moderation and when a forum is big enough that's a hard job.

That's a good idea - getting rid of one word posts and double posts. Amir would need to recruit more moderators though.

 

[restorer-john]

That's a good idea - getting rid of one word posts and double posts. Amir would need to recruit more moderators though.

Absolutely.

 

[Ricardus]

It's a forum. Get over yourself.

 

[caught gesture]

It's a forum. Get over yourself.

You are right. Just a knee jerk reaction to another followed thread degenerating into useless to and fro. I’m yet to see Godwin's law at work here, so that’s something!

 

[solderdude]

I think I have seen the DNL used with Vinyl Records, I think they were sold in the Military PX, BX AAFES Stores. Navy never played LP's on ships, I'm guessing.

For quite a few years it was present in Philips (Magnavox) cassette tape recorders, alongside Dolby-B.
Eventually it disappeared again (unlike Dolby).

It worked quite well and gave the impression of substantially reduced tape noise without affecting the treble.

It worked with cancellation of higher frequencies at low levels only.
The input signal high pass filtered, amplified and then soft clipped. That signal was inverted in polarity opposite the original signal and was then 'mixed'.
This way only the softest higher frequencies were 'cancelled' while larger higher frequencies were only marginally reduced (inaudible amount).
It worked with tape because the noise levels were pretty well determined. With vinyl or other noise sources it would not work as well.

In the forums we have to do our own filtering. Best not to let it get on your nerves (annoyed) by it.

 

[caught gesture]

In the forums we have to do our own filtering. Best not to let it get on your nerves (annoyed) by it.

Absolutely. I just need to occasionally remind myself that we are only discussing music playback equipment and not creeping fascism, climate change, inherent racial bias, inequality, pollution and a myriad of other subjects that are of far more importance.

Thanks everyone for the reality check!

 

[OnLyTNT]

Just my general feeling of having to wade through so much non-scientific bickering. It is becoming tiresome.

How did you measure it? Any data?