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Harley quote

Regarding two aftermarket power cables: "These differences in the shapes of the musical waveforms are far too small to see or measure with even the most sophisticated technology, yet we as listeners not only routinely discriminate such differences, we sometimes find musical meaning in these differences."

 Nonsense. Just because people claim to "routinely discriminate" differences doesn't mean it's true or they're right. Apparently many have witnessed UFOs but that doesn't mean they actually saw extraterrestrial visitors, does it? Some have seen/heard a deity speaking to them "routinely"; does that imply that they are surely communing with an unseen/unmeasurable spiritual force(s)? Can we not put a little more effort into confirmatory reality-testing first when "the most sophisticated technology" can find nothing in 2020? (Of course, speaker cables can measure differently as per here, here, even if not necessarily audible in many cases by the time we connect amp to speaker.)

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128x128fuzztone
soix
9,633 posts
 
I personally don’t discriminate. 
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millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Regarding two aftermarket power cables: "These differences in the shapes of the musical waveforms are far too small to see or measure with even the most sophisticated technology, yet we as listeners not only routinely discriminate such differences, we sometimes find musical meaning in these differences."

Thus demonstrating why Robert Harley, author of The Complete Guide to High End Audio is a legendary and respected high end audio reviewer. 

Nonsense.

Thus demonstrating why fuzztone is of no consequence, and probably never will be.
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone OP
5,631 posts
 
FuzzTone didn’t write it.
I know that comes to a shock to a feeble mind.
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,986 posts
 
When I grew up, there were four tastes -- sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Now there is a fifth, umami. Umami was identified, chemically, in 1908 but not understood by biology until the first taste receptors specific to umami were discovered in 2000. Were people tasting umami before their chemical or biological explanations were specified? Surely. Were there folk terms for something science had yet to measure or explain? Sure. "Savory" was one word. It seems reasonable to think that this happens in audio.

At the same time, people who go looking for a sensation -- for whatever reason -- might be able to convince themselves it's there. So, in the end, science settles nothing. We have to listen carefully for ourselves and find ways to test ourselves. And we have to decide whether or not to trust other's testimony that they hear a difference.
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