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Maybe being discerning isn't that good for us?

A topic I touch on now and then, I think about what the average person hears, what I hear, and what it means to be discerning. What good is it for us, our community, and the industry?

I’ll touch on a couple of clear examples. I was at a mass DAC shoot out and spoke with one of the few ladies there. To paraphrase her, she said this:

Only with DACs made in the the last few years can I listen to digital music without getting a headache.

I never had that problem, but we both experienced a significant improvement in sound quality at about the same time. Lets take her statement as 100% true for this argument.

On the other hand, I am completely insensitive to absolute phase issues which some claim to be. I’m also VERY sensitive to room acoustics, which many fellow audiophiles can completely ignore.

Lets assume the following:

  • The lady really did get headaches due to some issue with older DACs
  • There really are people very sensitive to absolute phase.

I’ve also found the concept of machine learning, and neural networks in particular truly fascinating. In areas of medical imaging, in specific areas such as breast cancer detection, neural networks can be more accurate than trained pathologists. In the case of detecting early cancer, discernment has an obvious advantage: More accuracy equals fewer unnecessary procedures, and longer lives, with less cost. Outstanding!!

Now what if, like the trained neural networks, I could teach myself to be sensitive to absolute phase? This is really an analog for a lot of other things like room acoustics, cables, capacitors, frequency response, etc, but lets stick to this.

Am I better off? Did I not in fact just go down a rabbit hole which will cause me more grief and suffering? Was I not better before I could tell positive vs. negative recording polarity?

How do you, fellow a’gonner stop yourself, or choose which rabbit holes to go through? Ever wonder if you went down one too many and have to step back?
erik_squires
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,938 posts
 
I too grew up in a very dysfunctional household and can see how that would make one more discerning for that coming blow. That, and it makes one more empathetic to others, situations, and in our case, audiophildom. 

Finely tuned senses lead to hobbies like ours and cameras, mechanics, art and anything that tends to minutiae. From there, the descent into the rabbit hole is a given. 

Also, it just begs isolation so as to enjoy, uninterrupted. This is not to say that all here are here for those reasons, but I am.

As to the novice lady friend who appreciates the newer DACs which parallels the preferences of the experienced listener, I'd say she has the advantage of still hearing things as they should be.

She never had to go through long sessions of listening, examining and questioning her beliefs, perceptions, institutional audio memory, all along second guessing themselves until they could pin down what was right.

The lady friend just happened to come along when it all matured while the avid listener had to go through learning curves and the pain of it all.

All the best,
Nonoise


dwmaggie
222 posts
 
Erik, the Turtles first lp was recorded with all voices to the left and all the instruments in the right channel.  It could be just the opposite as I haven't seen that lp in over 50 years.  This was great for aspiring musicians.  When they played at the local college, the sound was quite normal and spread across the stage.  XLO Reference Recordings does a vocal out of phase then next track in phase.  You can't miss the difference, the sound disappears between the speakers and spreads farther out left and right.  A very exaggerated soundstage.  
erik_squires OP
16,395 posts
 
Erik, the Turtles first lp was recorded with all voices to the left and all the instruments in the right channel.


I believe you.  My point was, it wasn't recorded like this, it was cut like this. :) They probably originally recorded it intending to go to mono.  Stereo hit and they didn't have the mixers to do anything else.
cat_doorman
237 posts
 
I’m not sure I see much of an upside. You don’t usually miss what you’ve never had. Every new level of experience is expensive to me.

The one who hears the cat has to get up and open the door. 
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
  • "She noted that studies show very heightened listening capability among those who grow up in highly stressful households, because you learn to listen veeerrry carefully for nuance in tone before someone explodes."

I didn't grow up in a stressful household, but I did have a very long career in sales where voice inflections are very important. So many times, buying signals appear in the slightest change in those inflections. When that happens, you know it is time to ask the closing question. 

When it comes to audio, the sales training has served me well. It has been said many times on this site, in different forums, that one of the keys to really enjoying the hobby is not to just listen, but to learn what to listen FOR. 

The early stereo recordings such as the early Blue Notes drive me crazy with the dual-mono they used at the time. I don't like that big hole in the middle, so I just hit the mono switch on the phono stage and enjoy it that way. Out of phase recordings drive me nuts too. In that case, I just hit the phase switch on the preamp and all is fine again.

Frank
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