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 hear a little voice in the back of my head saying, "Put them back the way they were!".
If these new models don’t agree with your preconceptions and biases you’ll dismiss them as well.

Anytime scientific model conflicts with observation, the science/scientific model is wrong.

A 100 years ago we believed we fall towards earth because of gravity. Today, we know there is no such thing as gravity. What we thought was gravity, is the distortion of space-time caused by the mass of the earth.

The theory of gravity can explain why we fall off building, but cannot explain why we age slower if we are on the ground floor than if we’re up in the penthouse. (Yes, time moves slower the closer we are to mass.) The theory of space-time explains this phenomenon. Trying to use the theory of gravity to disprove that time moves slower as mass increases is anti science.

The models we have today explain some things we perceive, but clearly not everything. They cannot be used disprove observation that they can’t explain. Science cannot be applied to prove a negative.
Great post!
The problem here is many who speak of science are techno cultist...

They think science= technology and technology =science ....

But a relation is not an equivalence and an equivalence is not an equality....



The problem here is many who speak of science are techno cultist...


I wouldn't go as far as calling them cultist. I see them as folks who's understanding of science isn't quite as advanced as what they believe it to be.