Home Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

Re: The Importance of Audio Measurements

On the subject of overkill, I once heard someone say that anyone with an unlimited budget ought to be able to build the best. It's the engineer who has to design to a real world budget that has the real challenge. Rowland is not the most expensive gear in the world, but Jeff certainly has a lot of lattitude within his budget constraints that others don't. Whether my Model Twelves at $14,000 retail can out perform John Curl's JC-1s at $6,000 I don't know, but I'll be comparing them soon.

As to the multi-tone measurements and cable microphonics, it would be nice to see some quantified results, and of course, DBTs. But you already know that.

Yes, I certainly agree. One reason I picked this particular quote is because it seemed to have a little more engineering detail than most high end websites. Nonetheless, it raises more questions than it answers, and obviously has its share of hype-factor.

I would point out that Rowland does seek to correlate measurements with sonic characteristics. Does that make him an objectivist in principle?

Probably, but we don't know where he stands on blind testing, and, despite some of the doubts and questions I've raised regarding blind testing, I still maintain that blind listening tests will be the only way that true objectivity can every be achieved in audio (and I understand that for some that is not necessarily their objective). It always has seemed a little strange to me that not a single manufacturer of high end electronics can, to the best of my knowledge, claim that the effectiveness of their various theories of technological superiority has been subjected and validated through blind testing. Of course, I know to many objectivists this doesn't seem strange at all, since they strongly suspect those claims cannot be validated.

Too bad more designers don't or won't participate here. For all the grief I and others have given John Curl, while he may have deserved some of it for his abrupt responses, I give a lot of credit to him for being willing to open himself up to all of us and for being extremely honest and blunt in expressing his own personal beliefs. I wish more designers would show the willingness he does to participate. For example, wouldn't it be interesting to press Jeff Rowland a little on some of the statements he made in that article?



This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Amplified Parts  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups


You can not post to an archived thread.