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
It’s what we don’t know (scientifically measured) but feel/sense that can make a difference.
What we feel in listening must be CORRELATED by concrete change, modification or experiment....Or measures if possible...Our sixth sense is often a response not always the initiator of the experience...

We listen perhaps by a magical individual connection but also with for example acoustical and psycho acoustical law we can use and control...

The "gist" of the matter is relating feeling and thinking in one perceiving act...Not rejecting one for the other...

The war between subjectivist and objectivist is the result of a childish philosophical perspective... i reject each one in his narrow corner or introduce each one to the other for a dialogue.......

then correcting your affirmation i will add that it is also what we could learn, what we know that ALSO can make a difference...

There is NO magical "tweaks"...

There is only controls in the working embeddings dimensions related to ANY audio system...

But why some of these "controls device" work sometimes is not always very clear "scientifically"...

Anyway even if you cannot measure all there is and even if some phenomenon could not be measured for sure, we must work with the feeling and the thinking process together not one against the other....




On the same points you have to explane your EXACT statement, that you made not long ago:

Dletch2Does not work that way. If the error is simply frequency response, the relationship between the perfect and imperfect signal never changes...


No I don't have to explain it. YOU have to learn to understand it. You are not paying me for a university level education. 

Anton,

In your direct quote, there is nothing like a logical analysis of the possible occurrence of audible distortions in the signal circuit when changing the power cable. I have to repeat, in order for your words to be at least somewhat similar to the evidence, you must provide:


I don't have to provide anything, because 1, I never claimed a power cable would make any changes, and 2, see above, it is not my responsibility to educate you with the knowledge you lack.


However, for those that are interested ....

  • Any increase in the line/neutral resistance or inductance of the power cord will in almost all cases reduce the ripple on the output of power supply in the piece of the audio equipment, with more reduction at higher harmonics of the line frequency.
  • Any increase in the line/neutral resistance or inductance of the line cord will reduce the transmission of conducted EMI into the piece of equipment.
  • Any increase in the line/neutral resistance and/or inductance will reduce the conducted and radiated emissions of the product that is connected to that line cord.
  • Variation of the instantaneous ground potential between two pieces of equipment, which can be impacted by the line cords, can, dependent on the audio equipment design, result in noise being conducted to the audio signal and/or jitter in digital cable connections.


As a small starting list, none of which communicates audibility, but does not negate that these effects are real and detectable.

Where is Ernest Hemingway when you need him? And my insomnia is confirmed as I am still awake. 
mahgister
I had the impression to look in myself when i listen this music and look in this avatar

So deep down you are a Russian Mahgister. This is very unexpected and pleasant.

I haven't listened to these songs for a long time and once again i note how emphatically all his unique intonations are conveyed in the pre-war 78 recordings. No modern recording can do that way, isn't it strange? Completely outdated shellac beats technological HI-FI in some very important music features.

Thank you.
dletch2, your explanation on the power cable can only impress those who do not know at what level the changes in the signal circuit are possible when replacing one cable with another. But let’s leave it on your conscience. As I understand, you agree that the audibility of the power cable can not be caused by physical reasons, and this is actually all that we need for the moment.

Meanwhile you put forward a second assumption that in a short piece of wire the frequency response can change when the wire is reversed. And It follows from the content that these changes in the frequency response go without the presence of signs of electrical asymmetry of the wire. According to Ohm’s Law, this cannot be.

What formulas you are relying on to assert such things can be possible?