A certain other thread recently has been hijacked with a key discussion, between objective and subjective (my summary, not objective!). This has brought to me the need to concentrate on, well, what is science, and how does it relate to audio?
The scientific method can be summarised as follows: - Create a hypothesis. This may (preferably) be unpopular with the establishment, challenge current thinking and has every chance of being utterly wrong. - Develop and run tests to prove or disprove this hypothesis - Conclude, and let other people argue just how wrong you are. In respect of audio, I think everyone reckons that we need to do comparative tests, but there are two opposing perspectives: - The subjectivists reckon that listening is the only real test. Implicit in this position is the view that dedicated tester can hear all differences, and that their preferences are duplicated though others (their readers, if they are reviewers). They normally recognise the non-linear factors in hearing, but maintain that they can hear differences that can't be measured. - The objectivists maintain that all differences can be measured, and that the inability to be able to double-blind test and get 100% correlation eliminates all validity of the subjectivists' arguments. They argue that equipment must measure well to get past first base, although may allow listening test once the linearity of a given system is proven. A true objectivist would consider a measurably more linear DAC superior to 'DAC B' even if he preferred the sound of the latter. I think that there are many people who might consider themselves 'realists'. They are the people who think that equipment should measure well, of course, but not to the exclusion of the sound. My analysis of this is as follows (deliberate flame :) please remain chilled): Anyone who considers themselves objective is probably fairly high on the scale of autistic-scale disorders. A system cannot be linear or accurate, so the fact that you try to achieve this is a good indicator of your lack of touch with reality. The subjectivists are arrogant to an extreme - what gives you the right to declare your ears as 'golden', and any sort of guide to someone with different ears? If my system replicates the sound of the front row, rather than the second tier, what's it to you? Is it any worse? The realists are the worst of all. They cannot get off the fence - they can't bring themselves to buy equipment that either sounds good or measures well, so they are condemned to unhappiness and mediocrity. >From a scientific method angle, the subjective suffers as his experiments cannot be duplicated. His argument is that other things (the 'vibe') may be different, so blind testing is not always relevant. Conversely, the objective is measuring something totally irrelevant - who cares about THD, jitter, wow or flutter when the goal is musical enjoyment? Which leads, wafflingly, to my questions: - Are any of these approaches truly scientific? - If not, how should science be applied to audio? - Is it sensible to apply objective tests to one component (e.g. digital sources) but not another (e.g. speakers), just because it's easier? To nail my colours to the mast, I come down pretty firmly on the subjective side: I want a system that reproduces what I hear in a concert hall. Only I can judge this. I couldn't give a flying fig for any measurement beyond what my ears say. Every component I have bought has passed a simple test: within my budget, this reproduces, more accurately, real music. I have mid-price cables, some made myself, and the situation with all of these has been that they appear to help, but minimally, and the difference is small enough that it's not worth changing back and forth dozens of times - life's too short. Any thoughts? -- adamslim SB3 and Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28368 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
