Blind fold hearing test

Julian Hirsch and Hirsch Houck laboratories were synonymous; he spoke for the labs.

Although you had personal contact with Julian, we both had an affection for the man. Mine was from reading his reviews for so many years and considering every word gospel until I got into the "high-end"; that's because specifications don't mean as much, more is determined by one's ability to hear.

As we age, our hearing diminishes, that's a fact of life. While the price difference between high quality "mid-fi" and high end is huge, the audible benefits are only worthwhile if you have the ability to hear all the subtle differences. The same goes for tube gear with expensive NOS tubes.

In regard to "tubes" he states all the drawbacks, and skims over the reasons some of us have gone back to tubes; he states,

"I am less than enthusiastic about about them, principally because they appear to be inferior to comparable solid-state amplifiers in respect to cost per watt, heat generation, frequency response flatness, distortion, and perhaps ultimate reliability as well".

While that statement had much truth in it, the fact that tubes reproduce music better than solid state was left out.

In his reviews, he omitted the subjective part that was included at the end of a "Stereophile" review, relying solely on his technical measurements to speak for themselves.

Time, and time again he bypassed, or omitted anything that required a subjective listening or hearing call, and when he did, while he stated there may have been differences between high quality SS amps, he didn't hear the difference.

What I'm stating is my sum total of 20 plus years of reading his reviews on high quality SS audio amps; his omissions spoke volumes to me after I got into the "high-end" and heard all the things Mr. Julian Hirsch didn't hear.

             

If I’m not mistaken, what Julian Hirsch actually stated is that generally amplifiers that measure the same sound about the same. Which is obviously different than saying all amplifiers sound the same. Of course, today, 40 years later, we know there are many more variables involved in the sound of an amplifier including, but not limited to, vibration isolation, speaker cables, power cords, fuses, capacitors, and room acoustics.

I don't recall him reviewing "high-end" tube amps, but that didn't matter because I wasn't buying them at that time, but the kind he was reviewing were mostly high quality SS "Mid-fi", and I agreed with him that those amps which measured about the same, sounded about the same.

It was only when he commented on the differences between high end and mid fi; such as when you replace capacitors with very expensive "Black Gates", plus substituted other components, he couldn't hear the difference after this was done with a mid-fi amp; he stated that in his own words.

As knowledgeable as Mr. Hirsch was about all things audio, his ability to discern the audible difference between high quality mid-fi and high end amps was not the best, which is something that's probably going to happen to all the "golden ears" if they live long enough.

Maybe he didn’t know capacitors take a long time to burn in. 🤗

Let me carry this conversation that began between me and Viridian to the end of the line.

I shared my room in the hospital with a patient I really enjoyed talking to; that made for an easy stay, and we both had hip surgery. I told him I liked to putter around building things in my basement, an interest he shared.

That's when he began talking about his shop, which was something he worked as hard putting together as an audiophile would work putting an award winning rig together. As he went on describing his shop in minute detail, I could picture one you would see in "Popular Mechanics" that was so well organized that you could put your hands on whatever tool you needed with the lights out in the dark. I know what it takes to put that kind of shop together, and it's just another one of my dreams that I will never obtain.

After telling me about his magnificent shop in minute detail, he told me he was going to have leave it and move into an assisted living home; that brought tears to my eyes.

Not long ago, we had a conversation here about "audio holography". Some said it didn't matter, others said it was some kind of trick. I have it, and while it took many years to obtain, it's no trick; however, there is a trick to it, you have to have 20-20 hearing in order to hear it.

Recently I had problems I couldn't determine the cause of; my holography was not in focus. Since I couldn't find any fault in the rig, I went to an ear specialist. They told me the fault was in my left ear; it has some hearing loss. Now I clean it as best I can with hydrogen peroxide, and on some days I can still hear the holography. Such is life.