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Re: HE2005: The Great Debate

Well, it was a good debate. For the record, the scream was part of Arny Krueger's account of what happens when as listeners become trained at discerning sonic differences: they find they now discern all sorts of flaws in their systems! Aaarrrghhh! And not only that, they know what they are! So listener training is a two-edged sword. Aaarrrghhh!

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, Arny Krueger was able to answer all objections put forward in an adequate manner. I'll mention a couple of points I think are significant. First of all, there is research to quantify what sorts of flaws people can hear, and Arny brought this out. I am providing below a link to a series of short articles on Human Hearing by Mark Sanfilipo on the Audioholics.com site.

Second, he pointed out that in fact DBTs do find audible differences and that his website offers software that people can use to do just that. Atkinson, of course, has participated in DBTs where differences showed up, as well. However, Atkinson argues DBTs are very difficult to do properly and that high end reviewers generally audition components under the same sorts of conditions that consumers do, by listening to music. He points out that the reviewers for Stereophile and other high end magazines also report differences--however, I don't think he really came up with any convincing arguments to establish that they could do this consistently and reliably.

Arny thinks that even good amplifiers have differences which are not very far below audibility. Thus, if a signal is passed through them several times, the differences begin to become audible. This was not explained too clearly in the magazine accounts I have seen.

Arny also points out that in a good system, polarity inversion should not ordinarily make much difference on music, although he and John Atkinson both know it has been proven with test signals. Distortion (presumably in the speakers) makes polarity inversion more audible.

Arny came up with what could be a good tip for auditioning equipment. Usually, it is just short passages where differences show up, so they have collected some and Tom carries this with him at the shows. I think this is a good idea, since in a less sophisticated manner, I have long found a number of recordings which do seem to bring out differences in speakers so I use some of them in auditioning equipment. Works for me.

I think John Atkinson deserves credit for taking part in a debate with Arny Krueger and I think he makes about as good a case for subjective reviewing as done by Stereophile as could be done. However, I think Arny is right.


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---Heraclitus of Ephesus (trans. Wheelwright)

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