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I Just Don't Hear It - I wish I did

I am frustrated because I am an audiophile who cannot discern details from so many of the methods praised by other audiophiles. I joke about not having golden ears. That said, I can easily discern and appreciate good soundstage, image, balance, tone, timbre, transparency and even the synergy of a system. I am however unable to hear the improvements that result from, say a piece of Teflon tape or a $5.00 item from the plumbing aisle at Home Depot. Furthermore, I think it is grossly unfair that I must pay in multiples of one hundred, or even one thousand just to gain relatively slight improvements in transparency, detail, timbre soundstage, etc., when other audiophiles can gain the same level of details from a ten dollar tweak. In an effort to sooth my frustration, I tell myself that my fellow audiophiles are experiencing a placebo effect of some sort. Does anyone else struggle to hear….no wait; does anyone else struggle to comprehend how someone else can hear the perceived benefits gained by the inclusion of any number of highly touted tweaks/gimmicks (brass screws, copper couplers, Teflon tape, maple hardwood, racquet balls, etc.) I mean, the claims are that these methods actually result in improved soundstage, image, detail (“blacker backgrounds”), clarity, bass definition, etc.
Am I alone in my frustration here?
2chnlben
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,951 posts
 
For tweaks that filter out external vibrations, it would be cool if there were a gadget that could measure the vibration levels a component is subjected to both before and after tweak. That would settle the issue of whether that particular tweak worked or not. Then the next question would be if it did work, did it make a difference in the sound? Scientifically, that still might be impossible to measure objectively.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,951 posts
 
Power conditioning tweaks might be measured objectively as well. It would require a sound spectrum analyzer with very high resolution and digital measurement and comparison of the signal levels for a test recording both before and after conditioning.
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Gregm, Telluride, Colorado had the first Tesla power company.

Mapman, yes it would be valuable to have such a measure, but judging from the meter on the Halcyonics Micro 40, the vibration are many and of short duration. I can remember all the activity of these measures at the RMAF in 2007, at least during the day. At night it settled down to what I see in my room. Also, what most surprises me is that women excite (pun) it the most. Of course, footfalls show up also.

When I saw the video of using the copper coupler on a Marantz cd player's IEC using a sensitive voltage sensor, I got one thinking as you do, that this would be a good aid in assessing that tweak. Instead, I found that all hinged on the sensitivity setting. At one setting I got a warning everywhere near any cables. I never could find a setting that showed any benefit on my player using a copper coupler.

What we really would need is an instrument that says, "vibrations just altered the music signal." I would, of course, have to have its own sense of what the signal was supposed to look like as well as what it did look like. And it would have to deal with real music, not steady state signals.
2chnlben OP
595 posts
 
Do you know the town where Tesla started an electric power company?

Gregm, Telluride, Colorado had the first Tesla power company

Tesla's first company was the Tesla Electric Light & Power Co. located in NJ - so Gregm was NOT wrong.

Wasn't the electric company near Telluride (actually located in Ames) started by L.L. Nunn (not Tesla)? It later became the Telluride Power Co. It was in Ames that the first AC current was generated and transmitted to a gold mine operation. Mr. Nunn saw his "opportunity" by way of the real hero - Tesla (Nunn was a lawyer - go figure).
jimjoyce25
215 posts
 
Let's put the point somewhat differently:

Let's suppose the audio issues tweak manufacturers are trying to solve are indeed material ones, so that their solution would produce a material improvement in sound.

Let's also suppose that the problems are very difficult to solve.

Wouldn't we expect the majority of tweak manufacturers to fall far short of the goal? And therefore that most tweaks would have only a marginal positive effect, if any? But that perhaps a small group would actually solve these problems, producing great results?

If that were in fact true, that would explain the fact that most of the posters on this thread don't report great results with the tweaks they have purchased, but some have.
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