ralphpnj wrote: > The quote from Robert Harley read: "Those who attempt to remove human > "subjectivity" from audio engineering forget that the listener isn't a > passive observer, but a fully active, engaged, and even creative > participant. From nothing but patterns of varying air pressure, we > conjure in our minds living and breathing musicians. The traditional > yardsticks of sound quality are meaningless without recognizing the > vital role our imaginations play in music listening."
Yes, our brain actively influences how we perceive how we hear. No one should dispute that. However, the one big drawback of subjective reviewing is that Mr. Harley's vivid imagination -- i.e., what his brain does with all of those non-audio factors such as appearance, knowledge of brand name, price and so on -- is impossible to reliably transfer to other listeners. The good vibes that Harley's subconscious attaches to a thick-milled front panel with special blue lights may well invoke the opposite response from someone else. It is always interesting how many "enormous" differences under sighted listening conditions shrink significantly in size when auditioned under truly blind conditions. I just wish the subjectivists would stop the silly pretension of insisting their imaginative perceptions are always and only due to some obscure technicality that anyone with golden ears could hear. If you don't hear what they hear, you become a clod with an inferior system. Now that Mr. Harley has admitted he has an imagination, it'd be nice if he could take the next step and admit that perhaps some of what he hears is due to that instead of claiming that he is hearing the difference between a signal at -112 dB vs -110 dB or some picoseconds of jitter, etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ mlsstl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9598 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=98300 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
