D-Sonic peak current output compared to other

Simon, I noted the last comment in that article. You might be interested to know that there have been studies of how the brain reacts to music- and where that music is processed.

The studies were conducted by Dr. Herbert Melcher, a neuro-chemical scientist.

What his studies show is that there is a tipping point that occurs in the subconscious brain. Normally music is processed in the limbic portions of the brain (which is the source of emotional reaction). Unlike the conscious portions of the brain, the subconscious parts are not fooled by poor audio reproduction. There is a tipping point wherein if too many of the human hearing perceptual rules are violated, the processing moves from the limbic centers to the cerebral cortex (seat of the conscious brain).

I thought that you might find it interesting that he has some pretty hard numbers on this subjective experience :)

I see this as the tip of the iceberg. The more we know about how the ear/brain system perceives sound, the better we can make audio systems for musical reproduction. It seems pretty obvious that we want the limbic centers to do the work :)

Dear Athmosphere:

Thank you for Dr. Melecher info - I was not aware of that.

I am absolutely, totally, unconditionally agree with you and as you have read, this is what I wrote in article and you also probably noted that I quoted your writings a lot, particualrly in brain/sound interface !

I don;t know if you would agree with some of the premesis of my article that one of the main , if not the biggest, reasons why people experience "listening fatique' is the presence of DISTORTIONS !!!!!! (next is wrong matching etc)

One idiot/wiseman/audiophile (forgot his name - but obviosuly reviewer) wrote that "distortions of SET amplifiers are glorious"..... I am, on other had, the enemy of all distortions, glorious or not, did a lot of experiments with tube "glorious" distortions which support strongly this belief.

Probably the most accurare amplifiers today are correctly designed and PROPERLY used OTL amplifiers.

Thank you !!!

Simon

That ETM article seems to ring true to me based on my experiences to date, including with Class D switching amps.

Simon, I think we are on the same page- IMO, distortion is pretty much the name of the game!

It turns out that the ear hears distortion as tonality. This is why SETs sound so lush, because of that 2nd harmonic. Its been my experience that if the system is working right, you can play it at high volume without really being aware of how loud it is, because there are no artificial loudness cues (which are higher ordered harmonics like the 5th 7th and 9th). IOW, if the system ever sounds loud, something is wrong.

The more you get rid of distortion, the smoother, more relaxed the presentation is, along with increased detail, as the presence of distortion masks detail.

" The more you get rid of distortion, the smoother, more relaxed the presentation is, along with increased detail, as the presence of distortion masks detail."

so, so, so, so, so, so TRUE !!!!!

Amen

Simon