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
I think we have some marmalade in the fridge. An experiment for tomorrow night.
Beware about the quantity: almost nothing....

Dont blindfold yourself here....

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I must be too traditional when I see it as a sign of decline of civilization.
I guess we are around the same age....I see a decline too.....But i myself ascend, thanks to my next book....

glupson
7,542 posts04-20-2021 10:52pm
"When you set it to a temperature other than boiling..."

Blasphemy!



Couldn’t understand why my Oolong tea at home never tasted as good as the restaurant. Then I discovered it was all about water temperature. Green, white and Oolong teas if they are brewed too hot taste bitter. At the right temperature, they lose the bitterness and you can brew several pots from the same tea leaves, with a slightly different taste for each pot.


I used to backpack when I was younger. Now I just find that is work. A UVC water bottle would have been welcome back then. I would use filters and iodine. Not the tastiest stuff.
When there is no friendship there is only waste of time....

Great thread here !

The difference of opinions about cable direction are no more an obstacle ....


«When the pie portions are gone the center stay forever» - Groucho Marx Platonician meditation 🤓

«Tea is gone but kettle stay»-Chico Marx

«Unlike sound, music has no prefered direction»- Harpo Marx

«Wrong! melody is time itself» -Gummo Marx

dletch281 posts
04-20-2021 7:47pm

A very weak conclusion, not at all supported by evidence in the paper which is mainly just a bunch of ramblings to support statements/conclusions attributed in general and specifically that are not even factual.

I must admire his conclusion which does not even recognize that he could be wrong, which, without establishing any evolutionary influence for music negates his conclusion. Frankly, the whole work basically implies that everyone has a super simplistic view when pretty obviously we understand there are complex mechanisms right from physical detection up to interpretation. The whole thing is a mess.


Definitely, everything you said can be applied to your own message, especially "does not even recognize that he could be wrong". Essien refers to a lot of authoritative opinions, and you just reduce all their thoughts to zero without any doubt.

Essien's main contribution is that he discovered the unsolvable problems in understanding of sound and explained what they are:

"(In our perception) the instruments do not mix together and produce one instrument, and the singers are seen as separate individuals, different from the instruments. In like manner, when the singers sing accompanied by the instruments, the ear sees them as separate entities; they do not mix in the ear and produce one sound quality... At the acoustic level, however, all the vibrations issuing from the different instruments and human singers mix to form the chaotic acoustic jumble "a meaningless jumble (Hirsch & Watson)" and establish the well-known production/perception paradox—the most defiant challenge to hearing scientists to untangle the cobweb and explain hearing by psychoacoustic procedures."

This is indeed an unsolvable problem, and within the framework of modern knowledge, sound can be described and investigated only partially, its part, related to the most subtle perception, remains behind the scenes.