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What covid research can teach us about audio measurements.

Recent studies in Canada for patients with so-called long covid show us on how science and measurements and research actually works.

Patients with long covid suffering from limited ability to exercise passed most "normal" tests but it took a new type of test to positively identify a mechanism that explained why the patients suffered.

 

Honestly there is a lot of snake oil and charlatanism in our hobby, and I don't claim to discount that fact.  What I do want to say is that science doesn't rest with 50 year old measurements.  It evolves to measure and explain constantly. 

The reason I am personally dissatisfied with audio measurements in the common literature is exactly because of this stagnation, and when these fail us we trust our ears and gut for lack of better tools. 

Anyone who runs the same 20 measurements on an amplifier or DAC and claims it is science and that these measurements are all that can be known is fooling themselves into believing that they are scientists or that we have reached the limits of understanding.

And above all, caveat emptor!

erik_squires
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hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,974 posts
 

Good point, Erik.

What has always seemed ignored in these debates is that human perception and brain science are incredibly young fields, relative to what there is still left to understand.

The supposition that acoustic measurement is adequate has to ignore the fact that half the equation -- our brain and even our ears -- is so poorly understood. Acknowledge that truth, and the sufficiency of acoustic measurement (objective, physicalist or subjective, listening testing à la Harman) is shown to be seriously incomplete (though still useful for some purposes).

jond's avatar
jond
5,794 posts
 

A very interesting comparison Erik thanks for drawing it and let's hope the mention of Covid, or measurements for that matter, doesn't spark any nastiness.

tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,588 posts
 

Good news for those with Long Covid and those that refused the vaccine and thought they were okay because of their superior immune systems and not dying.

Why inject your politics into a discussion about finding new measurements?  You just come off as angry and bitter.  Try to stick to just audio for a few days.  You may find it enjoyable.

I think that as long as there is a human race, we will find new things to measure and new ways to measure.

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