Why HiFi Gear Measurements Are Misleading (yes ASR talking to you…)
About 25 years ago I was inside a large room with an A-frame ceiling and large skylights, during the Perseid Meteor Shower that happens every August. This one time was like no other, for two reasons: 1) There were large, red, fragmenting streaks multiple times a minute with illuminated smoke trails, and 2) I could hear them.
Yes, each meteor produced a sizzling sound, like the sound of a frying pan.
Amazed, I Googled this phenomena and found that many people reported hearing this same sizzling sound associated with meteors streaking across the sky. In response, scientists and astrophysicists said it was all in our heads. That, it was totally impossible. Why? Because of the distance between the meteor and the observer. Physics does not allow sound to travel fast enough to hear the sound at the same time that the meteor streaks across the sky. Case closed.
ASR would have agreed with this sound reasoning based in elementary science.
Fast forward a few decades. The scientists were wrong. Turns out, the sound was caused by radiation emitted by the meteors, traveling at the speed of light, and interacting with metallic objects near the observer, even if the observer is indoors. Producing a sizzling sound. This was actually recorded audibly by researchers along with the recording of the radiation. You can look this up easily and listen to the recordings.
Takeaway - trust your senses! Science doesn’t always measure the right things, in the right ways, to fully explain what we are sensing. Therefore your sensory input comes first. You can try to figure out the science later.
I’m not trying to start an argument or make people upset. Just sharing an experience that reinforces my personal way of thinking. Others of course are free to trust the science over their senses. I know this bothers some but I really couldn’t be bothered by that. The folks at ASR are smart people too.
@nyev you can ask him yourself. but, audio equipment, and almost everything else, changes over time. That’s just how the universe works. but that is still not the point, the point you made is that we need keep our minds open, and you, yourself, keep your mind very closed, or you would have abandoned your straw man argument long time ago. You are the point of the point you were trying to make. |
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@amir_asr what about madrona digital, don't you own that company, and don't you sell digital audio equipment? |
@fredrik222 , I think the logic of your argument is absolutely sound. Where I totally lose you, completely, is the notion that everything about commercial audio gear is 100% understood and therefore science can explain everything. Believing that we know everything about a topic like audio gear, in scientific and measurable terms, is what I can’t get behind. I get that you feel that this position is closed-minded, but it is thoroughly debatable as to who is closed minded in this scenario :). There was a time when one popular theory was that human ears were not good enough to perceive the levels of jitter that exist in audio gear. I don’t even think ASR would support that belief at this point, and I think we are past that. As you stated, things evolve and so does our knowledge. Evan @noske was taking the position that no scientist should ever take the position of believing they know everything to the extent that in their minds, it is “case closed”. Which is what your argument seems to imply - we know everything about commercial electronics so there is no need to believe we hear something that cannot be explained. Who is closed minded? Would love for Amir to join in but totally understand and respect why he wouldn’t, considering the unnecessary nastiness going around! We should strive to keep the discussion and debate positive and constructive. We are discussing a subject we all care about whatever side of the fence we are on.
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