Why HiFi Gear Measurements Are Misleading (yes ASR talking to you…)

The fireball sounds were a "long standing mystery" according to the article I read. Not some source of mockery for those who claimed to hear them, although there always are some mockers out there of absolutely everything. The problem comes from people insisting that their explanation of the sound they are perceiving is adequate when it isn't. The explanation for this one has been hard to come up with, partly because it's hard to be there on the scene with test equipment when it's happening. But if you come up with a plausible explanation and then test that idea by generating your own bright light that's sequenced to play a tune, and that tune can be audibly heard and recorded from a black surface receiving the light, then you've done something that sheds some light on the subject. 

I'm sure they could do a blind test easily with this. Just cover people's eyes and have the indicate when they hear sound emitting from the surface. If they accurately indicate the right times that correspond with the light emission then you know they are actually hearing the photo acoustic effect. Blind test - should be easy to pass. If it's not, you have to ask yourself why, and at least question whether or not it's really a sound wave that you're perceiving. 

If anything this whole story validates the usefulness of plausible hypothesis and then measurements to verify perceptions that are surprising and unexpected. When it comes to high end audio not too many serious people are doubting that audiophiles are really perceiving differences in sound. The debate is about people's unverified hypotheses about why they're perceiving those differences. 

Here is an example of the good work the folks at Audio science review group do for the community. About a year ago, a speaker company known as GR research perpetrated a hoax on the audio community and came out with a cheap little speaker which they called a Little giant killer. It was essentially a cheap wooden box with a single small cheap driver in ’em. The simplest speaker you could possibly have.

News got out and eventually ASR decided to get their hands on them and test them. The results were shockingly bad and the hoax had been exposed.

It is work like this which the audiophile community needs. ASR are the unsung heroes of the audio community.

Who cares. 

If someone who bought it was able to derive some kind of enjoyment from it, why bother with testing it? 

Please stop supporting the man. Let him speak for himself.

We have to test the product to see how good it really is. Its not a question of enjoyment. Its a question of TRUTH. If you dont care about how accurately your system can reproduce the signals you put in then you are in the wrong hobby. A speaker should not be enjoyable it should be neutral. The enjoyment should come from the music itself not the equipment. 

Accuracy is a fools game, you can never achieve it no matter how good the measurements are, it will never sound identical to the actual musicians playing so why not enjoyable.