Interesting link on hifi stuff (2)

I think you're too harse in your criticism. His biggest faux-pas is presenting opinion as fact, but this a very common failing. That aside, here are a few excerpts I agree with :

"is often accompanied by a resonant peak, which can add ringing and a boost in level at that frequency. Therefore, designing a transducer to respond beyond 20 KHz. is useful because it pushes any inherent resonance past audibility"

"there is nothing inherent in gold that makes it sound better than a clean connection using standard materials"

I would also say to JCaudio, that, often basic theory does not explain all of the strange quirks of audio, but fuller theory, including, most importantly, the effects of real-world constraints and imperfections, will always explain audio effects. I get quite upset when people suggest that we should ignore the theory and use our ears. In fact we should do both ... use our ears then develop the theories, to back them up.
Also we should blind test more often. There are many subtle and unusual effects in audio that have surprised me, but there have been just as many "emperor's new clothes" over the years.

Seandtaylor, I think that just having a couple of non-controversial points in his otherwise ludicrous essay is akin to putting a couple of drops of coffee in your poison to make it taste better. There is such total disregard for known fact in his article, that the 2 things that you mention cannot begin to lend credence to his ramblings.

Seandtaylor, While I tend to agree that theory should be relevant in analyzing certain aspects of audio, my experience has been otherwise. As an example some theorists will say that a power cord brings ac to your component. How can this possibly affect the sound. Who knows, but it does. To a large degree I might add. There are so many things that engineers have tried to convince me that can't possibly make a difference in audio. Ultimately things like cables, transports, power supplies, parts quality etc.etc. do make a huge difference. To dismiss this fact leads me to believe that the system used to evaluate and make such claims is not very revealing.
His article seems more like his experience or opinions with a tiny bit of electrical engineering thrown in to substantiate his arguments. That is his opininon. I can respect that. I have mine also. I guess that is what makes this hobby so interesting is that not everyone hears or cares about the same things. Happy listening.

TWL : agree ... but I'd like to think that we're in the business of critiquing such web pages, not trashing them. In general I find your posts very interesting and I'm quite keen to listen to a low power valve amp with high-efficiency full range drivers (my system is Spica Angelus w/solid state), since I have never had the time or money to play with valves/lowthers. However there are a couple of salient point in that chap's web page so I thought I'd draw them out.

JCAudio. I have never experimented with power cords, and I expect that whether they change the sound of a system is heavily dependant on how transparent the system is. My system may or may not benefit, so I'll try one someday. That said, I think that the effects of RFI, inductance, capacitance, and the filtering of noise which the component drives back out onto the power supply (particularly cheap CD players !) are all factors which could cause a power cord to make an audible difference, and which should be measurable. I'm interested in the postings of P. Qvortrup, since he raises issues I'd never really considered with respect to impedance matching, valve amplification, DAC filtering. However I respect that he raises these issues in a scientific way, pointing to physical, measurable effects.

I am very very skeptical of ANY product that does not explain the physical phenomena in its marketing and I'm convinced that there's plenty of snake oil and fairy dust out there, but equally there are plenty of real second-order effects, not immediately obvious to the pure theorist. I am interested in trying to separate the two, because my budget is very limited, and I don't enjoy being parted from large amounts of cash !

One of the problems I have with web sites and articles such as this, is that they portray the audiophile as a sap, who is just waiting for the next magic trick to sink his hard earned money into. I have found that much the opposite is true. The audiophile is generally an intelligent and informed consumer, and knowledgeable about the subject at hand. Quite often he is not rich, and is very interested in getting good value for his dollar. I can't think of anyone here on this site that would pay good money for a power cord upgrade, if they honestly couldn't hear the difference. So, my point is, that these people are actually "trashing" us. They consider us deluded, obsessive lunatics. I resent that.