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In Reply to: Or...it could be easier than you think :-) posted by P Fowler on April 16, 2009 at 16:33:36:
We're both talking about playing music, not sounds.
I'm dropping preconceptions about diy left and right as I evolve, which means study, research, and rabbitting away on sound projects of all kinds.
But to some people it doesn't mean that. To some it means not much research, not much study, and untested, unverifiable results that are earnestly cited with that epic self-prophesying fallacy : "sounds good to me !"
Here's the most ridiculous claim in the diy (or any other) book : "If it sounds good it is good".
Try that line of logic with anything--- automobile manufacture, restauranteur practice, sub-prime lending, parasailing, aquaculture shrimp farming --if it seems good it must be good-- and you may have disasters of many shapes & sizes. At minimum you're risking multiple flaws, seen or unseen.
Untested, seems-like/sounds-like/oughta-be results ---aren't reliable results. Sorry. My music collection and my finite time to appreciate it deserve better.
You make the point that commercial gear is tested and often doesn't sound good. Fine, but that's going around the other end of the discussion to prove not much.
Accomplished diy comes from those who know as much or more than the commercial designers, and also manage to vet and verify as much as the commercial concerns, even though not having their financial overhead. They don't all test their specs in-house, some send it out, but they all test, which is expensive one way or the other.
To me that's a rare skill set combined with investment in overhead, encompassing much and likely not held in common by all of the internet diy community out there.
I suspect that you're more of the research and test/vet contingent, but who knows. This is the internet. It sounds as good as anyone says that it sounds. Regardless of how it would be judged by veteran sound pros, say, or a panel of experts armed with EEs.
Tell me, should I build, say, a two-way speaker system and just tinker till I can say, with all honesty but no testing--- 'sounds good to me'..? I don't think that's adequate.
The spirit and wide-open horizon for the Diy concept is inspiring and encourages greater understanding of the audio sciences; but it has to be grounded in real test-able, vet-able practice.
I refuse to subject my brain to somebody's untested "idea" of a speaker system or amp for which there has been no testing, no check to see if it does more than play--- I need to know it performs to minimum spec to want to invest any time in listening. Or to invest my music collection in systems that may have weird peaks, dropouts, rolloffs, jitter, funny eq, etc.
It's not rocket science, but it is audio science, and to know if you're getting adequate project results, you need adequate assurances --freq response, maybe a run of some test-tones on the scope, that kinda thing-- to know that you're not just playing diy games with your own self-appreciation.
housepet in a box ©
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Follow Ups
- RE: Or...it's getting easier by the day - J.D. 18:52:20 04/16/09 (2)
- RE: Or...it's getting easier by the day - P Fowler 20:14:10 04/16/09 (1)
- RE: easier by the day - J.D. 21:04:59 04/16/09 (0)