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've been around and doing this long enough to know there are all kinds of things that are easily heard but so far as I know impossible to measure. Directivity is only one of them. Directivity is so obvious that one time when a new cable came it sounded so bad I was complaining to the seller- until it dawned on me I was in a hurry and had not checked and sure enough had put it in backwards. 

Why does my system continue to sound better and better hour after hour even after it has been on a good ten hours or more? Surely it does not take a full day to warm up? I had Chris Brady over one time, at the end of the evening he told me he was sure it sounded better than earlier. He was right, of course. But I knew he was coming, had it up and running several hours before he got there, for precisely this reason. Yet even after all that it still was getting better, and by enough that a guy like Chris could hear it.  

It would be nice to know why. We ourselves seem to be sort of hard-wired to want to know why. It is a shame though when this insistence on knowing why, or maybe more to the point being the one to know why, gets in the way of being able to use and appreciate what is going on, whether we understand it or not.  


I had Chris Brady over one time, at the end of the evening he told me he was sure it sounded better than earlier.



Time + Alcohol = Change in Physics of the Universe
Sound position of a plug?

Is there a freeze position for my freezer?
English is not his mother tongue but Russian  but even me i understand what he want to say here...

 Then all your post here present no argument only your insulting nose  abilitity....

 Be honest....
No mahgister, really it is not stupid, arrogant, or otherwise.


It is like me trying to tell a PhD biologist how a complex biological process works because I read some articles on the web written by people who are no where near the level of that PhD biologist. That is where we are at in this conversation. I dismiss things out of hand, because that is the appropriate response. It is like discussing calculus with someone who has not mastered basic arithmetic or functions.
I am not knowledgeable in electronics or electricity, but only a slight reading of Anton site demonstrate some dedication and knowledge....

A big part of your strategy is dismissing ad hominem...then why are you here if we are all under you?

The first one were Essien ....He is not a crook by all means but a very honest researcher... And he knows what he speak about, i cannot argue with you in electrical matter but you will not sell me fish for a piece of red meat in other fields...

If you dont let the opponent argue his point perhaps no discussion will be possible...

You are knowledgeable but the problem is that you listen to no one and understand not at all your own limitation, perspective and blindspot...


I say that without any acrimony or anger against you on the contrary, i learn a lot arguing with you....Thanks to you....I am only sad that an interesting matter is dismissed with the back of the hand....

But there is more at stake here than cables matter.... It seems nobody see that or very few....



but only a slight reading of Anton site demonstrate some dedication and knowledge....


Science does not give out participation awards


The first one were Essien ....He is not a crook by all means but a very honest researcher... And he knows what he speak about, i cannot argue with you in electrical matter but you will not sell me fish for a piece of red meat in other fields...


It is cute that you think the depth of my knowledge is electronics. Essien knows what he made up. This is not a Ghostbusters movie. Real scientists either prove and peer review or find themselves in a 3rd rate college teaching those that could not get in anywhere else.