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What do we hear when we change the direction of a wire?

Douglas Self wrote a devastating article about audio anomalies back in 1988. With all the necessary knowledge and measuring tools, he did not detect any supposedly audible changes in the electrical signal. Self and his colleagues were sure that they had proved the absence of anomalies in audio, but over the past 30 years, audio anomalies have not disappeared anywhere, at the same time the authority of science in the field of audio has increasingly become questioned. It's hard to believe, but science still cannot clearly answer the question of what electricity is and what sound is! (see article by A.J.Essien).

For your information: to make sure that no potentially audible changes in the electrical signal occur when we apply any "audio magic" to our gear, no super equipment is needed. The smallest step-change in amplitude that can be detected by ear is about 0.3dB for a pure tone. In more realistic situations it is 0.5 to 1.0dB'". This is about a 10% change. (Harris J.D.). At medium volume, the voltage amplitude at the output of the amplifier is approximately 10 volts, which means that the smallest audible difference in sound will be noticeable when the output voltage changes to 1 volt. Such an error is impossible not to notice even using a conventional voltmeter, but Self and his colleagues performed much more accurate measurements, including ones made directly on the music signal using Baxandall subtraction technique - they found no error even at this highest level.

As a result, we are faced with an apparently unsolvable problem: those of us who do not hear the sound of wires, relying on the authority of scientists, claim that audio anomalies are BS. However, people who confidently perceive this component of sound are forced to make another, the only possible conclusion in this situation: the electrical and acoustic signals contain some additional signal(s) that are still unknown to science, and which we perceive with a certain sixth sense.

If there are no electrical changes in the signal, then there are no acoustic changes, respectively, hearing does not participate in the perception of anomalies. What other options can there be?

Regards.
anton_stepichev
dletch2
455 posts
 

anton_stepichev OP98 posts
04-29-2021 5:49am
dletch2
I have accused you quite clearly at least twice of misstating what I said, writing things you claimed I wrote, when that was not the case. I got tired of pointing it out.

Well well well.. Out of the four, there are already two left. I hope you understand that until you show where and how exactly i changed the meaning of your words, the accusation remain nothing more than libel. I'm waiting for proof.


Let me rephrase it. I did not accuse you. I proved that you did.  Yes you did libel.
dletch2
455 posts
 
Next thing is all known subjective tests including blind tests are designed to detect audible differences in the acoustic signal, but we already know that these differences do not exist.

So what else can we prove with blind tests in our situation?


Most people of normal functioning will make the leap that if you cannot identify an audible difference, then the audible difference does not exist. If that is not obvious, then there is no point in continuing. It is called placebo effect. You convince yourself there should be a change, so you find one (in your head). But there is no change.

djones51
4,947 posts
 
No one, is going to be able to prove anything to a naysayer with measurements or blind tests. It has to be tried in ones own system. But they will never try...

And this of course requires that the system be good enough to reveal the subtle differences, otherwise, it's a waste of time.

Unless it's a proper controlled blind test the whole thing is a waste of time.  

I don't do blind tests on everything I buy but I don't make blanket statements that something definitely sounds better,   especially cables. I have preferences for the sound I like it's why I use DSP and room treatments. What constitutes a "good enough " system?  I am also amused by the claim , "But they never try...". How else do you think bias has been shown to affect decisions unless it's been tried? 
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,011 posts
 
A " learned bias" like someone listening a musical instrument and learning how to hear it in his most subtle behaviour under the hand is not something to be put in the "placebo/ drawer...

Someone designing a tube amp with "wiring" direction is in the potentially same situation not in the placebo drawer ...

Then someone reducing all biases to the same category, all to be eliminated only, and explaining everything not there by the virtues of his numbers measuring tools to be placebo, create a childish simplification...

It will be a pity if a so interesting thread would be put at rest by too stuffed ears/brain...

I will not speak of your other accusations because anybody could read this thread and make his mind..

I don’t do blind tests on everything I buy but I don’t make blanket statements that something definitely sounds better, especially cables.
You just disguise and distort his claim here to make your point...is it not evident for anyone to read?

He claimed something about "wiring" direction in a tube amplifier experiment .... He does not sell cables and assimilating him to the pretense of any "cable" marketer is not fair at all....

It is evident that testing what he speak about has anything to do with " picking" some audiophiles to test the claims about cables on a theater....

Someone must do the experiment with the directed wiring of an amplifier before that and after that testing this "direction" differences with the same amplifier and learn how to characterise it... It is a learned bias experiment not something to be erased right on the spot with a placebo accusation....

All biases are not equals.... Some are beams and some other are only a speck of straw....

Read your classic....
djones51
4,947 posts
 
" learned bias" like someone listening a musical instrument and learning how to hear it in his most subtle behaviour under the hand is not something to be put in the "placebo/ drawer...

Everything is in the placebo drawer, everything to do with listening to music from where you listen to how and what you listen with is in the bias drawer. There is no one immune to bias, there is no getting around it, it's effects are ingrained into the human experience from conscious descions to subconscious desires. To use the words of one who seems to think he's a God above such mundane effects like bias are thinking like Children. 
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