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
I think it’s far too easy to be too discerning, even the mere fact of being an audiophile hints at that.

Ultimately it is a question of priorities, if not now, it definitely will be one day.

What matters to you most?

Relationships, children, personal health, financial security, psychological well-being /sense of ease regarding your present or near future, or the fact your system might have a gentle suckout at at 9kHz? 

Life has a funny way of continuously reaaringing these priorities. And for some of us it’s damned difficult to stay ahead of its curve.

But then we don’t really have any other choice, do we?

Right now for me music is a still a great way to give my mind some rest and stimulus at the same time.

Can someone explain and provide when they experienced a "gentle suckout at 9khz"?
Thx ..
Detecting absolute phase (polarity) depends on how accurate your speakers are. If you have crossovers placing the different drivers out of phase with one another, the speaker is not phase coherent.  Polarity detection requires a phase coherent speaker to hear the benefits best.  Crossovers can often times be wired out of phase between tweeters and the other driver.
Its why I always look for a first order crossover if the speakers are to have one.  My current speakers are crossover-less and full range..  I hear a difference when switching polarity with either speaker type.  One noticeable area is how the bass impacts the sound. When a bass note should be pushing towards you, reverse polarity will have the speaker pulling instead.
When in correct polarity = extrovert.
When in reverse polarity = withdrawn.
When not a phase coherent speaker?  Schizoid effect when reversing polarity.  What's heard can not be about realism, but rather about taste for whichever effect one prefers.  May get masked depending on how crossover is effecting drivers.  Bass might be better in one setting, but high and mids withdrawn a bit.