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Hmmm. I think you might be confusing some terms

I am not sure why you felt the need to precede a valid review of a turntable with an argument about "objective" vs. "subjective", especially when linking the latter to various items that you clearly believe belong in the category of witchcraft, which I don't really think is fair.

As someone who has had scientific training, I question the belief that measurements in audio are the golden standard. There is so much variability involved, frankly, that without listening to a system (and these are systems, not individual components) . To objectivists, there seems to be something deceitful about the idea of making a judgment on musical reproduction by actually listening, sort of like saying that judging a wine by tasting instead of measuring it is wrong. I don't get it, personally, and I don't find such an approach scientific at all.

One of my findings over the years is that there are, at times, clearly audible differences in the way music is being reproduced, but that some people actually cannot hear those differences. But this turns out to be true in wine tasting as well - some people cannot taste the differences. Others are expert in their ability to taste the differences, and to describe them. I believe the same to be true in musical reproduction. More strangely, as least to me, is that I have also met individuals who can hear differences, but don't care....I don't understand these people.

I don't have any issue with measurements at all, but I need them to correlate with what I am hearing. If I hear something different from the measurements suggest, I believe that I have enough experience in listening to a wide variety of music both live and reproduced to discard the measurements as invalid. Direct observation is a key element of the scientific method.

Another is reproducibility - one must be able to reproduce results consistently - and others need to be able to do the same. This is where it gets trickier in audio. Is live music truly the standard? I have heard clipping in the chorus of the finale of the Resurrection Symphony live - audible distortion in live music, due to the hall (this was the old Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA) - so an "accurate" rendering of this concert would include distortion.....I doubt very much if Zubin Mehta would have approved the results. Davies Hall in SF is notorious for sounding very different in different locations. So how should a live recording made there actually sound? And which objective measurements do you use to evaluate it?





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  • Hmmm. I think you might be confusing some terms - TGR 10:49:07 03/24/15 (0)

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