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Consilience (long)

Posted by unclestu (D) on April 8, 2011 at 17:02:28

In Reply to: interesting reading posted by unclestu on March 31, 2011 at 15:27:36:

Wilson's book was written in '98 or '96, and is an appeal to the ecology of climate change to great extent. Not surprising as Wilson's claim to fame has been the authoritative he work he did on ants.

He has also written or co authored a book on genes and culture. Again interesting as although acknowledging the individual variance in human diversity (genomes and remember his book was written before the human genome was mapped out) it believes that the epigenetic evolution is what leads or at least influences human culture (the sum total of the various effects of the human genome, say the incest taboo). His works I believe have strongly influenced the works of Stephen Gould and Richard Dawkins ( Dawkins is interesting:" when theorizing about the possibility of a "God" gene to a Rabbi, the Rabbi replied, "why shouldn't God have had inserted such a gene into humans?").

What I find more fascinating is his multi faceted approach to any subject.

In my thinking ( not directly associated with Wilson's, but inspired by Wilson), we need to do the same with audio.

One can loosely segregate the advancement of audio into four sections:

Technology/engineering...............Culture

environmental.............................biology

Imagine a cross hair separating the four sections. All sections are equally important in the achievement of superb audio, but good sounds come from an interaction of all four ( simplistic, I know, and there may be more sections).

The technology and engineering is the easier part: it is the part most of us are very familiar with: the design and manufacture of our typical components. Amplifiers, transducers and their kind, with published numerical measurements deemed as being important.

Environmental includes, obviously, the acoustical environment in which we place the component the technology has produced. Quite obviously it includes the listening room, the "treatments" applied to the room and such, again are fairly common audiophile fare.

It should also include the electrical/magnetic environment which is also imposed in that room. In modern environments, with advent of TV, radio, wifi, cell phones and such, the airwaves are flooded with an invisible pollutant, which can adversely affect sound.

One solid state manufacturer and designer once told me that his oscilloscope did not have enough frequency response although it went into the gigahertz range. He claimed that his power supply always drew a bit more than than theoretical draw of the circuit and attributed it to RF oscillation, and it is increasingly an issue because more of the modern transistor designs are being designed with digital amplification which requires very high frequency response. The ultra high frequency response, he believes, leads to subharmonics being generated which then leads to a "bleaching" out of certain frequency ranges within the audible spectrum.

As a corollary, use of the Enacom and Walker devices on speaker cables certainly warms up the sound when grounding out the ultra high RF frequencies.

The biology we are also very familiar with also. The condition of the mechanical portions of t our biology: the cochlea, tympanic membrane and such, but also the neural pathways into the brain.

Less known and obvious is the function of the brain itself. Here the works of Oliver Sachs are quite interesting in an analysis of the role of the brain and its sections in the interpretation of sound and the role of certain parts of the brain. His book "Musicophilia" is highly recommended although I do admit others on this forum have long been aware of his writings. Here, May Belt seems to be particularly interested, especially when she makes the claim that her devices are ac ting upon the human brain ( consciousness, is how I interpret the statements).

The culture part is something I believe, being immersed in, we tend to ignore. Being a world wide forum, there are definite cultural differences in how we perceive sound. Ask to parody an English speaker most Americans come up with "Bond, James Bond", a slight lowering of the voice. Asked for a French speaker the Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau emerges. Any one listening the the NHK broadcasts following the massive earthquake and tsunami can not be struck buy the fact that the male Japanese newscasters tend to have a higher pitched broadcast voice.

Remember the late 60's when there was a "West Coast" sound as compared to the "East Coast" sound?

For classical listeners, orchestras of the 50's and 60's also tend to have a cultural shift. German orchestras had a very distinct sound from the French which had a much reedier sound and that often prominent vibrato ( think Maurice Andre, Gervase de Peyer). Italian, English and American orchestras had their own kind of sound also. Compare Capitol Beatles to EMI Beatles records and there is a sonic difference also.

These days with the advent of mass media, radio, TV , the ipad and such there is a far greater degree of homogenization, but there is still a slight difference culturally.

There may be more influences in how we, as individuals, perceive sound, but these are some underlying factors as we search for "perfect" sound. It is my belief that an understanding of all factors is important in the quest for "perfect" sound.

One noted speaker designer once asked that if perfect phase and timing and frequency response were the goals of all speaker designers, shouldn't there be a convergence of sound at a certain price point? The fact that even $100K speakers can sound radically different indicates that the designers are on very different planes when technically they should all sound very similar.

At any rate, comments are welcome and as usual YMMV.

Stu

PS. As an addendum Wilson, insists on using the known and established laws of math and physics.

Edits: 04/08/11 05/06/11 05/06/11 05/06/11

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