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!
@juanmanuelfangioii no better quoting that offensive remark. |
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There have been a few attempts at finding new measurements that better reflect what people hear. For example "transient intermodulation distortion" (TIM) or "slew-induced distortion" (SID) have been put out there to measure distortion caused by an amplifier's inability to respond quickly enough to abrupt changes in the signal level. This is a particularly interesting measurement because, in an attempt to reduce more conventional measurements of distortion, such as harmonic distortion, amp manufacturers may employ a lot of feed back. Feedback adversely affects TIM/SID measurement. I tend to not like amps that employ a lot of feedback so, perhaps, this less common measurement might have some meaning.
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