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What do we hear when we change the direction of a wire?

Douglas Self wrote a devastating article about audio anomalies back in 1988. With all the necessary knowledge and measuring tools, he did not detect any supposedly audible changes in the electrical signal. Self and his colleagues were sure that they had proved the absence of anomalies in audio, but over the past 30 years, audio anomalies have not disappeared anywhere, at the same time the authority of science in the field of audio has increasingly become questioned. It's hard to believe, but science still cannot clearly answer the question of what electricity is and what sound is! (see article by A.J.Essien).

For your information: to make sure that no potentially audible changes in the electrical signal occur when we apply any "audio magic" to our gear, no super equipment is needed. The smallest step-change in amplitude that can be detected by ear is about 0.3dB for a pure tone. In more realistic situations it is 0.5 to 1.0dB'". This is about a 10% change. (Harris J.D.). At medium volume, the voltage amplitude at the output of the amplifier is approximately 10 volts, which means that the smallest audible difference in sound will be noticeable when the output voltage changes to 1 volt. Such an error is impossible not to notice even using a conventional voltmeter, but Self and his colleagues performed much more accurate measurements, including ones made directly on the music signal using Baxandall subtraction technique - they found no error even at this highest level.

As a result, we are faced with an apparently unsolvable problem: those of us who do not hear the sound of wires, relying on the authority of scientists, claim that audio anomalies are BS. However, people who confidently perceive this component of sound are forced to make another, the only possible conclusion in this situation: the electrical and acoustic signals contain some additional signal(s) that are still unknown to science, and which we perceive with a certain sixth sense.

If there are no electrical changes in the signal, then there are no acoustic changes, respectively, hearing does not participate in the perception of anomalies. What other options can there be?

Regards.
anton_stepichev
glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,702 posts
 
Never figured out how you all can hear directionality in a wire for an AC signal. I have done enough testing in various systems over the years and I can not hear a difference in direction other then sometimes with poor wire shielding and grounding (usually via noise). To me its a load of BS saying an AC signal on a wire can have a direction as it would only be the "correct" direction for half the wave length at what ever frequency the signal is at. Personally I feel much of this is the human brain. 

That said I've also tested cable runs on military vessels using a fluke cable tester ( a $40,000 unit not a multi-meter) it will show every connection on the run, every solder joint on the run, every cable tie holding the cables in the wire ways every place a EMF interference is on the cable, resistance/inductance/capacitance and where they fluctuate on the run, etc.  It shows these in real time with locations on the cable run that these issues are located in meters from the test unit. so yes cables can be tested and can make a difference (to a point).

 An AC signal on a wire is still going both directions so how/why do you hear a difference? 
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toddalin's avatar
toddalin
285 posts
 
The smallest step-change in amplitude that can be detected by ear is about 0.3dB for a pure tone. In more realistic situations it is 0.5 to 1.0dB'". This is about a 10% change. (Harris J.D.). At medium volume, the voltage amplitude at the output of the amplifier is approximately 10 volts, which means that the smallest audible difference in sound will be noticeable when the output voltage changes to 1 volt. Such an error is impossible not to notice even using a conventional voltmeter, but Self and his colleagues performed much more accurate measurements, including ones made directly on the music signal using Baxandall subtraction technique - they found no error even at this highest level.


The math is flawed so why would I belive anything else in the post?

A 1 volt change from a 10 volt average represents a change of 21% in power, not 10% as stated.
10V x 10V = 100V / 10 ohms = 10 watts
11v x 11v  = 121V / 10 ohms = 12.1 watts

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,191 posts
 
I will stick with my initial analysis. Poorly supported conclusion based on false summaries of other works, that I suspect he does not even have the academic background in many cases to understand let alone comment on.
You dont even know his basic affirmation...

You have not read it...

And you insult his intelligence without even knowing him...

I am flabbergasted by your prejudices....

But i will mute myself for now...

I have not study it enough either and i am not an audio specialist...

but you dont seems to have a clue about what this writer want to adress in psychoacoustic....

Why pitch perception, an objective phenomenon with human endowed with perfect pitch perception, cannot be completely reduced to physics concept of frequency or explained by it...The writer use mechanical experiments to point what is lacking to the frequencies approach of Helmholtz to explain pitch perception...He also touch phonology/phonetic deep problems in language and this part interest me very much also....

I am not competent to gives an authorized opinion for sure.... I am not sure you are either, his affirmation and experiments goes on a complete other direction than orthodox research in psychoacoustic...And even Lord Kelvin explained to all that physics in 1900 was touching the end...He cannot fathom the Planck revolution to come... Then i dont doubt the competence in physics of Kelvin no more than  your own competence in audio.... 

Anyway i will stay silent for the moment....And this thread is not about Sound but about direction in wires.... then...





dletch2
455 posts
 
@glennewdick

Never figured out how you all can hear directionality in a wire for an AC signal.


A wire can only be directional for AC signals. It cannot be directional for DC. You have it backwards. I am not saying there will be anything audible, only that you must have AC for it to be directional.

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