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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: Objective vs. subjective not the point. You can measure better than you have can hear. posted by jsm on December 14, 2005 at 14:23:32:
While I agree that we have devices that can measure to extreme sensitivities, a few things do tend to be missed by these assertions:Coherence: Which machine can measure the effectiveness of the illusions of stereo that can only cohere in the brain? Do you know of any specific measurements that can identify the effective illusion of depth and three-dimensionality or pick out the oboe from the woodwinds as they play together ... and locate it within the illusion of the soundstage? Many people find it easy to simply express confidence and faith that it could be done, but no one has done it yet ... and this is the very essence of the stereo illusion. This is because, buried within the complex matrix of vibrations emanating from our stereo rigs are abstractions - and abstractions only cohere in the mind.
Human sensitivities are still more sensitive than machines in some cases. Take the olfactory apparatus: while the flavor-synthesizing industry has extremely sensitive machines that can parse the most diminuitive parts-per-million, it was reported by Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation that the old schnozola is still something like 2 or 3 times more sensitive than these machines. Considering the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue generated by these industries, the effectiveness of their machines seems to me to be extremely important - the more sensitive the machines are, the better they will be able to parse and ultimately synthesize flavors authentically.
Measurements are useful so long as they are useful - beyond that usefulness, we must employ ancillary methods of parsing the effectiveness of our products. How do you know a flavor is accurate? Ultimately someone will taste it ... and at that point, regardless of what the data may indicate, the judgement will depend upon the feedback from a living, organic meter - a real live person! If it doesn't taste right, you need to doubt that machine and the measurement - not the person.
Likewise with audio: If it doesn't sound good, you need to doubt the measurement - not the person. It's never a matter of whether your measurements are accurate - it's a matter of whether or not they are meaningful to the end result.
The science of measurement provides us with useful tools, methods of determining attributes from which we can express philosophies of design. But the same tools can be used to arrive at many different designs (just look at how many different crossover designs are out there!) - the tool doesn't legitimize the design, the proof in the listening legitimizes it.
It consistently baffles me how readily some audio people deify measurements in the name of Science, as if "Science" is somehow the ideal all by itself. If the effect achieved is not acceptable to the listener, even if it measures "perfectly," it is worthless.
If you cannot make the music lover happy when they listen to your design, you have failed. No matter how many pages of measurements you can produce to "prove" the perfection of your design, if you cannot make the listener happy - you have failed.
So the upshot to me is that, while we can produce some very good measurements from extremely sensitive instruments, we must first describe the goal of design. If the goal is to produce perfect measurements, then by all means it is right to reply upon machines to judge the accomplishment. If the goal is to produce joy in the client when they listen to music, then you must live at and breathe by the maxim: "The proof of the pudding is in the tasting."
"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." - Yogi Berra
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Follow Ups
- Measureable or Not? - Sommovigo 21:35:53 12/14/05 (2)
- Thanks for an excellent post!...N/T - musetap 11:14:36 12/15/05 (0)
- This is all EXACTLY RIGHT. Read it, EVERYONE. nt - clarkjohnsen 08:56:47 12/15/05 (0)
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