I Am Tired of Bogus Measurements


My expensive shoes have measurements but it doesn’t matter, all I want to know is will they fit. My expensive new suit has measurements but it doesn’t matter, all I want to know is will my expensive new shoes match.

The people being misled by measruements aren’t being led my manufacturers, they are being misled by reviewers. Idiotic rankings of digital gear based on measurements outside the range of human hearing. Cancelling entire brands who put out features customers actually want as they sell to humans, not bats. The worst of these websites will rant about their own superior $$$ equipment but mot even one person will ever use speakers in a klippel matchine, they actually put them in a room! The horror. The cancelling of brands, the talking down to the customers, is bogus.

You need to measure what matters! Are the customers actually happy? Is the warranty honored? Most importantly is their an in home audition period?
I don’t need someone to tell me if I could or should like a product. My room is not a test bench, or a klippel machine. Who cares what the component measures by itself because unless its a clock radio I’ll never use it by itself, I have to interconnect it in a "system" with "high quality" cables, (as in all cables are not the same).

If you want to measure something measure how your personal system of curated components interact with your room. That’s it. The rest of the stuff you could forget because these days if a brand overpromises and under delivers they will be following a formula for losing money, an no company likes that.

kota1

Interesting article on measuring speaker cables, are high priced cables bogus, or not? The bogus websites deny, deny, deny that cables matter, offer them proof and they deny, deny, deny the very "measurements" they claim to embrace.

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a simple experiment to identify the performance of a number of different speaker cables by measuring the “error” introduced into an audio system by each cable, i.e., the voltage drop between the amplifier and the speaker. The signals used are both white noise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_noise) and music.

The results show that the principal factor determining the error of a cable is its geometry. Cables with very widely spaced conductors have the greatest error, closer-spaced conductor cables have less error, and very closely-spaced, flat conductor cables have the least, or near zero error. [Townshend Audio’s Isolda speaker cable is such a design. – Ed.] The results have been presented both visually and sonically at https://youtu.be/v11hmOE1Vcc.

The experimental method has been described in detail, to enable researchers to repeat the tests in order to verify the conclusions. The results of this experiment may embarrass those cable sound deniers who have hindered the advance of hi-fi for the past 50 years, and hence may allow the quality of high-fidelity sound reproduction to advance.

 

How can a measurement, unless it is inaccurate, "cancel a brand"  ?  Can you point out some very specific examples of this and how the measurement was inaccurate and cancelled a brand?

"Talking down to customers" ?  Do you have a specific person in mind and example? Specifics matter. If you mean the general tone at Audio Science Review  to those that don't believe the same thing without stating it, I would not totally disagree, it can be toxic, but I would hope you can then also agree that the treatment is no different here to people that disagree, it is equally toxic.

 

What proof do you have?

What, do you think I am going to post bills of material?  How about doing some research on audiophile speaker component tolerances and comes back to us with your report. +/-5% total tolerance on a film capacitor for audio is pretty standard, but depending on the vendor, 95% or more of their distribution is +/- 3% or less. It comes down to who is going to pay for screening. Air core inductors are typically much better than +/- 3%.  Even cheap iron core inductors are +/-3%.  High tolerance high wattage resistors are surprisingly expensive, so you ensure your designs are more tolerant of variation. Fortunately, where resistors are used, that is often the case.

@thespeakerdude 

What, do you think I am going to post bills of material?

If you want to at least appear credible post your system and in room FR measurements.

I want to know why some people claim you have to level match when listening to different speaker cables of the same Gauge, but different design. You shouldn't have to level match in this situation, after all they tell us that cables don't make a difference.

The experimental method has been described in detail, to enable researchers to repeat the tests in order to verify the conclusions. The results of this experiment may embarrass those cable sound deniers who have hindered the advance of hi-fi for the past 50 years, and hence may allow the quality of high-fidelity sound reproduction to advance.

 

@kota1 , I realize you are trying to post counterpoint, but like the AES article, it would be best to validate what you are posting for relevance and accuracy first. You may want to ask an EE for a review of this before putting your name to it by posting.