In Reply to: RE: Is Ralph Lauren making fuses now? posted by Brian Levy on September 28, 2014 at 10:02:38:
Cute, Brian, cute.
If you liked that one, here's another.
I posted a modified version of this on another thread (The future of hi/end audio & a rant on honesty in reviewing) but got no reaction.
It revives the old objective/subjective dispute about things that shouldn’t be observable (maybe like fuses)but seem to be anyway. Here’s at least one of the problems as I see it:
I personally--along with my audiophile buddies--hear differences in cables (and other things) and we develop preferences based upon those differences. We had a phono cable shootout a few days ago, repeating the same test we had performed a month or so ago. It was a single blind test: the swap-pees did not know which cable we were listening to; only the swapper did. The results were entirely consistent with those of the first test. All were high-quality cables in the $3,000 range.
I doubt that the differences would have been measurable by standard audio scientific methods. On the other hand, we cannot deny what our ears are telling us. One problem is a failure to communicate.
Listener group: “We hear differences when swapping cables”
Scientist/engineer: “What differences?”
Listener group: “Cable #1 sounds sweet and musical; Cable #2 sounds trashy and discontinuous; Cable #3 has no bottom end compared to #1 and #2.”
Scientist/engineer: “What the heck is anyone supposed to do with those observations?”
“I can’t measure musicality or sweetness”
“My instruments show only minute differences in bass response, noise, and phase.”
"Those minute differences could not possibly account for the perceived differences.”
And that’s when the fight starts.
Question: How do we get beyond this?
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Follow Ups
- RE: Is Ralph Lauren making fuses now? - throwback 16:34:49 09/29/14 (36)
- RE: Is Ralph Lauren making fuses now? - roio 11:02:52 10/01/14 (0)
- I think Billy is on to something. - Ralph 09:17:37 09/30/14 (0)
- RE: Is Ralph Lauren making fuses now? - Lew 19:05:49 09/29/14 (33)
- RE: Is Ralph Lauren making fuses now? - roio 03:08:50 10/02/14 (22)
- RE: Is Ralph Lauren making fuses now? - throwback 07:03:44 10/02/14 (21)
- RE: Is Ralph Lauren making fuses now? - roio 07:31:05 10/02/14 (20)
- Hold it!!! - Lew 10:35:05 10/02/14 (19)
- RE: Hold it!!! - roio 10:57:33 10/02/14 (18)
- RE: Hold it!!! - Lew 12:11:41 10/02/14 (17)
- RE: Hold it!!! - roio 14:20:34 10/02/14 (15)
- RE: Hold it!!! - Banat 06:29:28 10/03/14 (1)
- RE: Hold it!!! - roio 06:33:30 10/03/14 (0)
- RE: Hold it!!! - cpotl 16:54:33 10/02/14 (12)
- RE: Hold it!!! - roio 02:22:58 10/03/14 (11)
- RE: Hold it!!! - cpotl 05:50:16 10/03/14 (10)
- RE: Hold it!!! - Lew 07:28:31 10/03/14 (2)
- RE: Hold it!!! - throwback 11:07:14 10/03/14 (1)
- Case in point that you already know about... - Lew 13:56:44 10/03/14 (0)
- RE: Hold it!!! - roio 06:30:50 10/03/14 (6)
- RE: Hold it!!! - cpotl 06:55:31 10/03/14 (5)
- RE: Hold it!!! - roio 07:55:25 10/03/14 (4)
- RE: Hold it!!! - cpotl 21:14:27 10/03/14 (3)
- RE: Hold it!!! - roio 03:33:14 10/04/14 (2)
- RE: Hold it!!! - cpotl 05:29:27 10/04/14 (1)
- RE: Hold it!!! - roio 06:04:45 10/04/14 (0)
- RE: Hold it!!! - throwback 12:16:32 10/02/14 (0)
- RE: Is Ralph Lauren making fuses now? - roio 10:31:54 10/01/14 (0)
- I need a quick 'electrical' education - Cousin Billy 04:34:14 09/30/14 (8)
- RE: I need a quick 'electrical' education - cpotl 07:06:05 09/30/14 (0)
- RE: I need a quick 'electrical' education - throwback 06:02:04 09/30/14 (6)
- Excellent response' - Cousin Billy 07:28:27 09/30/14 (5)
- Depends upon the topology of the component - Lew 08:25:53 09/30/14 (4)
- What if I'm using a 'Balanced Power Supply'? - Cousin Billy 08:18:51 10/01/14 (3)
- If the ground is truly ground then 'no' - Ralph 09:56:23 10/01/14 (1)
- one additional note - Ralph 11:10:42 10/03/14 (0)
- RE: What if I'm using a 'Balanced Power Supply'? - Lew 08:33:39 10/01/14 (0)