Do you believe in Magic?

"If one listens to live music every day then his or her perception of recorded sound isan educated onethough experience.
My perception is just that my perception, Right or wrong it is right for me. Everything sounds different to everyone so is it not the "perception" of the live sound how we evaluate sound?"

Promoting live sound as some sort of benchmark or ultimate criterion might not be such a good idea when one considers that there isn't any real consistency to the sound for various live venues any more than there is in home systems. Obviously we woudn't wish to consider bad sounding or mediocre sounding venues as ideal. What then is the ideal for live sound? And who will determine which venue produces fhe perfect sound that all audio systems should be measured against? One is faced with the same problem in evaluating live sound that one faces when evaluating sound in home audio systems. Where is the absolute sound, who has heard it?

Update... I have not forgotten about my promise to A/B (and preferably, blind A/B) the grounding pigtails that I thought were effective. There was a little snag...

As I mentioned, since my crossovers are sealed in a cabinet in the wall, I was going to A/B the grounding pigtails on a friend's system that I am familiar with. As fate would have it, his system is temporarily down, due to the fact that, during some crossover modding, he blew a tweeter half way across his room. And btw, the first dealer quoted him a $1300 replacement cost for the tweeter. The second dealer gave him a "great deal" at $800. That is just greedy, IMO. I don't know if it's the dealer or the manufacturer or both. I won't mention any names, but the tweeter is made in France from beryllium. It's Focal.

Anyhoo, I will make good on my promise to A/B the grounding pigtails when his system is up and running again. For that purpose, I have purchased EVS Ground Enhancers, which are made from Litz wire, like Audio Prism's Ground Control. But the EVS version is 1/6 the price of Audio Prism's. So not everyone is greedy.

In the meantime, I've been experimenting with other forms of Magic. At the moment, it's Hifi Tuning fuses, which do indeed seem to make an audible difference. I should probably blind A/B these when I blind A/B the Ground Enhancers, though that gives me two chances to look like a fool.

Bryon

Hi Bryon,

Thanks for the update. My one comment is that in assessing the effects of the upgraded fuses on the power amp I would suggest that you make a point of separately assessing the results with music having narrow dynamic range and modest peak volume levels, that presumably would not cause your amp to leave Class A, and, for example, symphonic music having wide dynamic range and brief peaks that reach very high volume levels.

My expectation is that the fuses would be most likely to make a difference when the amount of current flowing through them fluctuates widely and rapidly with the music, which it will not do in the case of analog components that are operating in Class A.

Best regards,
-- Al

the original subject of this thread "magic", may be irrelevant, as one's perception of sound is influenced by unconscious bias or expectations. its a form of the placebo affect.

what i am saying is that explantions as to why one hears something may be inaccurate, as they discount our unconscious expectations of what we expect to hear.

04-17-12: Almarg
...I would suggest that you make a point of separately assessing the results with music having narrow dynamic range and modest peak volume levels, that presumably would not cause your amp to leave Class A, and, for example, symphonic music having wide dynamic range and brief peaks that reach very high volume levels.

My expectation is that the fuses would be most likely to make a difference when the amount of current flowing through them fluctuates widely and rapidly with the music...

Your expectation was borne out by my experience. It went like this: I installed a Hifi Tuning fuse in my Meridian preamp. Sat down, listened...

Hmm, not sure. Is it a little better? I think it's a little better. Maybe I'm imagining it. I can't tell. I better order one for the amp to make sure.

That's an exact transcript from my brain, which I am sorry to say, reflects very poorly on my judgment as a consumer. I buy a frivolous item for $35, and when I'm not sure whether it does anything, I buy another one for $50. Good thing my wife controls the money around here. But that's not the point. The point is: I bought another fuse for the amp. Installed it, sat down, listened...

Well, that's definitely something. A little less grunge. A little more relaxed. Neat. Let's enjoy some music.

And I did. Here's the important part: When I went from John Lee Hooker's acoustic blues to this recording of L'Estate 2 from Vivaldi's Four Seasons...

What the [expletive deleted]!!

The headroom had increased by, say, 30%. I was stunned. I scratched my head...

Maybe the old fuse was dirty. Or defective. Or maybe these things actually work.

My money is on #3. All $85 of it. Plus shipping.

And btw, Al, all of this happened BEFORE you posted your comment about trying music with a wide dynamic range. So my experiences aren't so easy to dismiss as a product of my overactive imagination (I'm looking at you, MrT).

Bryon