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.
@bruce19 look again and read carefully; no one suggested the meteors are traveling at the speed of light. Is it the meteors that are travelling at the speed of light, or the radiation that is travelling that fast? What would make more sense to you? Hmmm.
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@nyev I am a bit of an amateur astronomer, so the meteor thing was not new to me. What may be new to you is that the theory of radio waves being the cause is not in vogue. I understand they were not able to prove it. The latest theory is the effect is photo acoustic; light/heat, the predominant radiation heating objects near us. If your story/cause was incorrect, what conclusion should we draw about audio? The electrophonic theory, that the sound is from RF exciting things near us, seems to be a torch mainly carried by amateur scientists. I think professional scientists have moved on. All meteors will produce RF, the levels are not high enough, and what is around us is not effective as a receiver. |
In case that got lost in the last post, the RF theory, has not been proven. It remains mainly the purvey of amateur scientist. Professional scientists measure the RF, then try to replicate and see if there is any sound. That experimentation has failed. The current theory is that it is light / heat energy. They have been able to simulate using similar light/heat levels and create sound.
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