Isolation Ward From ebony pucks to magic foil, mystical and controversial tweaks.

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RE: New readings

Posted by May Belt (M) on May 16, 2010 at 10:44:04

In Reply to: New readings posted by unclestu on May 7, 2010 at 12:13:21:

>>> "I have often posted that a posting of something sounding "better" does not lead to progress in the audio field, as "better" is a qualitative factor and not easily replicated by others who may have different tastes. It is far better to state that, say, "The highs are more extended" or that the bass becomes tighter, than to simply say that the sound is "better"." <<<

I don't think it can be described as simply as you would like, UncleStu. Many times the improvements in the sound which people report cannot be corralled into simple descriptions as "The highs are more extended" or "the bass becomes tighter".

I would agree more with :-

>>> "Sometimes the perception comes before the vocabulary arrives. This can be seen in HP's early forays into the sound description where he often spent many issues attempting to describe what exactly he was hearing and then developing a vocabulary to define it." <<<

Hence the various struggles to describe what people are experiencing end up with the variety of descriptions :-

"Better pace and rhythm, better air and space around instruments, better sparkle, transparency, openness, imaging, soundstaging, naturalness and musicality. !!!!!"

I would come in on the side of 'vocabulary comes in after perception' in an attempt to describe what was being experienced (in whatever field it was being experienced).

I would, however, go along some way with the concept (as outlined by Edelman) :-

>>> "the 100bn or so nerve cells within the human brain are born over the nine gestational months and during early childhood, during which time they also form the 100 trillion connections through which they communicate. But it turns out that many more cells are born and connections made than survive into adulthood. Experience during development - including learning - strengthens some connections, while others atrophy and die." <<<

And :-

>>> ">>> "It is because each person's brain is uniquely shaped by our specific developmental experiences that each person's consciousness is unique." <<<

that the existing (at any given time) environment could have an influence on the neural development of the embryo and on the neural development of the young infant but underlying all that will be numerous basic evolutionary influences.

I.e. Different people can react differently to similar events in different environments, or even react in different ways to each other in the same environment - depending on what has been of influence to them in the early stages of their development BUT there will still be basic evolutionary programming which will be common throughout.

For example. Evolutionary programming dictates that a human being's body will be reading/sensing the temperature of it's environment every millisecond of every second of every minute of every hour of their lives and comparing each 'reading' with the previous 'reading' - in order for it to be able to maintain a constant body temperature. Early neural influences may, yes, dictate whether one person reacts far quicker to a one or two degree rise in heat temperature than another person (i.e usually described as 'feeling the heat more than the cold') or whether another person reacts far quicker to a one or two degree lowering of the environmental temperature (usually described as 'feeling the cold more than the heat') BUT, a human being's body is programmed, by evolution, to read/sense the temperature of it's environment in order for it to maintain a constant body temperature !!! And, it does it completely automatically, whether we are aware of it happening or not or whether we want it to or not !!!

So, unless a person's body is not functioning correctly, the body's corrective response to changes in temperature will be instantaneous (i.e instant monitoring and adjustment) although a person's individual DESCRIPTIONS of the changes in temperature of their environment may be different - and, yes, could well be depending upon the early influences on neural development !!!!!

I don't mean that each human body will react differently to the one or two degree change in environmental temperature but that one person's DESCRIPTION of the effect could be different to another person's.

Back to the different descriptions given by different people when experimenting with certain so called 'audio tweaks'.

Say, a person describes their sound as quite "boxy" (coming directly from the speaker box). Then they do one or more 'tweaks' and now describe the sound as "no longer boxy", now as "open, with greater height, greater width, greater depth, with more air around the individual instruments, better separation of instruments, the sound now filling the room".

A narrow, simplistic description that "the treble is better", or the "bass is better" is just NOT sufficient for such experiences !!

THAT is why we have a more descriptive vocabulary !!! Because so many things just cannot be described in the narrow way you would like it to be described, UncleStu !!

I would suggest that, in many cases, after carrying out many of the numerous 'tweaks', the 'treble' alone is not better, the 'bass' alone is not better - more that the working memory is now receiving far more of the (allround) musical information to enable it to resolve the musical information better, in order for it to present a better 'musical sound picture' to the brain - hence the better 'sound picture description' of "open, with greater height, greater width, greater depth, with more air around the individual instruments, better separation of instruments, the sound now filling the room". And, I am not referring to 'tweaks' carried out solely on the speaker cabinets or the speaker drive units !!!!!!!!

When one reads the quote by Robert Deutsch from the Montreal Show in 2010 on hearing the effect of such as the Quantum Qx2 and Qx4 Resonant Technology "power purifier" devices :-

>>> "I can't say that I really understand the technical explanation of how these devices work, but the demonstration showed that they certainly do work, the sound—which without the Quantum devices was actually better-than-average—acquired greater dynamic freedom, sharper imaging, and the soundstage became more spacious." <<<

This type of description is exactly what I am meaning. I don't think that Robert Deutch's description can be condensed down to simply "the treble was better", the "bass was better".

Another example is Martin Colloms review in Stereophile (August 1993) of the Harmonix room tuning devices :-

>>> "The Harmonix Room Tuning Devices were fascinating in that they had zero effect on the primary room acoustics, the room's low-frequency model resonances, or the early reverberation pattern. Yet something WAS significantly different. The room seemed to allow a wider dynamic range, sounding strangely "quieter" and allowing for darker, deeper silences between musical notes. The decay structure of individual notes was cleaner and clearer, while, in many cases, the definition of note values was substantially improved.

Freeing the end points of notes from a previously unsuspected straight-jacket of blurring, muddle and obfuscation. Moreover, stereo focus and image uniformity were surprisingly improved. Some stereo image distortion that I had assumed to be due to reflections from local boundaries was lifted away.
Singing voice became more natural and articulate, with a surprising improvement in intimacy and presence. Complex material was definitely clearer, while massed choir showed better definition and clarity with less hardness and "clogging up". Even more remarkably, the music's dynamics, rhythm, and timing were significantly improved, to the extent that I just sat back and ignored the details, the subjective analysis and the attempt to describe how it works. You just relax and enjoy the greater swing in the music, the flow, the clarity, the easy dynamics and the control.
Another fascinating aspect is that the room tuning device treatment not only makes the Hi Fi sound better, it also improves the sound of the radio, TV, piano." <<<

I don't think that Martin's description could be condensed down simply to "Oh, the treble was better" or "the bass was better" !!!!!!

Regards,
May Belt,

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