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RE: Ignore the doubters!

Joe, you sound like someone with whom it is possible to have a rational discussion. What would your response be to the following?

It is clear that at some level, if one is not going to be a gullible simpleton who believes everything he is told, one must make some sort of a judgement call about whether a reported effect even deserves any serious consideration or not. For example, if I report that by burying a teapot at the bottom of my garden I get a much improved soundstage in my living-room stereo system you would not (I hope!) give any credence whatsoever to the claim. You would be able to make an assessment, based on known and well-established understanding of how the physical world works, that the claim was simply ludicrous; it does not need to be tested before being dismissed.

So, what is one to make of somebody's claim that reversing the direction of a piece of signal wire changes the sound? There are (at least) two possible explanations for the reported effect. One of these is that there really is a genuinely verifiable effect on the sound. (And to me, the only way it could be genuinely verifiable is if the person reporting it could reliably demonstrate the ability to hear the difference in rigorous double-blind tests.) Another possible explanation is that the person has imagined the effect, with their expectation of a difference leading them to "hear" it when they make experiments reversing the wire.

To me, the possibility that the direction of the wire actually makes a verifiable difference is about as likely (that is to say, very very unlikely!) as that burying the teapot in the garden would make a difference. As gargoyle emphasised, one is talking about alternating currents here. Why on earth should there be a difference based on the direction the wire is connected? On the other hand, it is very well documented in countless experiments that people may "see" things that are not real, or fail to see things that are real. There are huge numbers of examples of optical illusions. I'm not so familiar with experiments concerning aural illusions, but it does seems to be the case that the brain is easily fooled into perceiving what it expects to perceive.

Given this situation, surely the overwhelmingly more plausible explanation for the alleged effect of reversing the direction of the wire is that it is entirely in the imagination of the listener? Why should it be given any more credence than the claim that burying a teapot will affect the sound?

Of course, there is in principle another conceivable explanation for a genuine effect, as has already been mentioned, namely, that because of some badly soldered joint, for example, there is some sort of crude diode rectification involved. That could be much better settled by making measurements with test equipment, not by delving into obscure corners of human psychology. And in any case, it would not be providing any sort of general principle about the direction of wires mattering. Rather, it would just be a lesson that shoddy soldered joints should be avoided.

Chris



Edits: 09/20/15 09/21/15
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