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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: Re: Hmmm, let's see - will the sun come up tomorrow - now prove it! posted by JDK on January 24, 2001 at 17:35:19:
Can you clarify what you are saying - seems to me you saying that if they say they heard burn-in, then they heard it; but if they didn't hear any change then they weren't listening hard enough?Not at all. If they don't or can't hear a shift in the characteristic of the component during burn-in then experience has shown that there is usually one of two issues:
The first is system related. I have had systems and have visited peoples homes where it was very difficult or impossible to hear the differences between interconnects, power cords and other component swaps. In about 50% of the cases there were severe room acoustic problems that were obscuring much of the ambient detail and subtle low level information in the music. The other half of the cases were caused by a component or cable that has a significant roll-off in the high frequencies or has a bad case of time smear or phase shift (speakers).
When I moved to a new facility, last year, I sent up the reference system a room that seemed that it would be a good audio room. In this room, I could hardly hear the difference between our lowest priced product and our reference product - very disturbing to be sure. After months of tweaking and messing with sound treatment I moved the system to another room - bamm, everything snapped into focus and even the slightest tweaks were easily discernable.
I never put someone down or discount their opinion when they say that they cannot hear this or that. I realize that if you or I were to go to that person's house and listen to their system, that we may very likely come to the same conclusions as they have. I've been there - I know that there are sometimes vast differences between systems and the people that are doing the listening.
Which brings me to the second issue: the person and their preferences and their listening abilities. I have been in a room with several people. We were all listening to the same system and the same music. Later i would ask them what they thought of the sound. Some might say that it was one the best systems they had ever heard. Others might say that it was truly awful and that they couldn't wait to get out of the room. The rest were somewhere in the middle. I believe that the term "personal preference" needs to be more fully examined and explored. It is sometimes used in passing conversation as if it were a subtle or insignificant issue. It is not - it is huge!
I question the people further to try and determine "exactly" what it is that they are focusing upon when listening to the system. Many audiophiles have trained themselves to listen for very subtle variations in frequency response. This is one of the major differences that separate many loud speakers. There are other variations that are quite audible including transient blur, phase anomalies and various forms of noise. There are simply some people that are either not sensitive to these last variations or they are not important to them. Burn-in (except for speakers) does not usually affect the frequency balance of the system. Rather, it is the purity, transient blur and subtle noise distortions that do shift. If a person is not sensitive to these variations then they will not perceive a difference during burn-in. Very often the same people are also not sensitive to cabling changes. (I use the term "sensitive" loosely meaning that they either do not hear a difference or that they DO hear a difference but it is not significant within the context of their personal preferences inventory)
That being said, I do find it quite amazing that people that don't hear something believe that the other 50% of the population have gone into a trance, been hypnotized or drugged just because they can hear a certain characteristic.
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cg
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Follow Ups
- Re: Hmmm, let's see - will the sun come up tomorrow - now prove it! - Caelin Gabriel 18:53:57 01/24/01 (0)
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