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Re: Klaus - thanks for biting. That is my point exactly!

Further information in the JASA article (I am providing below) appears to indicate that there's the assumption on the part of the Author AND the Editor that this is all pretty much self-evident or, shall we say, an Open And Shut Case).

And I quote:

"It will be hard for those who seek to improve Hi-Fi systems by
legitimate means to distinguish themselves from those who
just sell false hope. As a last psychosociological note it is
worth pointing out that such devices are given short shrift in
the world of professional audio systems, where the audience
neither knows nor cares what has been done to the equipment,
and is therefore immunized to the power of suggestion.


V. CONCLUSIONS
We are unlikely to see another Wilford Hall or Battell arguing that the fundamental theories of acoustics are mistaken, because acoustics is no longer sufficiently novel. Contrarians have long since moved on the denying the validity of relativity, quantum physics, and cosmology. But fantastical powers are still regularly ascribed to acoustic and vibratory phenomena that can be understood with elementary physics. Furthermore, the language of acoustics forms a significant part of the new-age lexicon, replete as it is with resonance, harmony, vibration, waves all good, and rays usually bad.

Without evidence I can only offer the conjecture that this is
because this mindset saw a great growth in popularity in the
1960s and 1970s, when supersonic flight was front page
news—if the TV series Dr Who were starting today I do not
think its hero would depend on a sonic screwdriver. In the
present day a key goal of scientists and educators is clear: to
ensure that our students in the broadest sense of the word
are equipped with the critical thinking skills necessary to
avoid falling into any of the traps listed here, or becoming
ensnared in others of their own making.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This article is based on a lecture first prepared for the EPSRC Summer School on Mathematics for Acoustics, and subsequently given to other audiences in Southampton and
Cambridge. Thanks are due to all the audience members
whose encouragement led to the writing of this article and
whose questions and comments helped to improve it. Several
examples of Hi-Fi pseudoscience were made known to me
by James Randi’s online newsletter “SWIFT.” Thanks are
also due to the following people for assistance, discussions,
and suggestions: David Chillingworth, Frank Fahy, Martin
Gardner, Martyn Hill, Lars Hinke, Sheilah Mackie, Christo-pher
Morfey, Allan Pierce, James Randi, Christine Shadle,
Harry Swinney, Niels Søndergaard, Jeff Volk, and Jim Wood-house.

This article was written while supported by an
EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship.
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23 S. Edwards, “Sound Health Inc.,” 2001, URL http://
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24 Interestingly the suggestion that magicians, as well as scientists, should be
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25 J. Randi, “James Randi Educational Foundation,” URL http://
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26 URL http://www.indigo.com/tuning/scientific-tuning-forks.html.
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30 “P.W.B. ‘Real’ Foil—the entry point into the Real World,” URL http://
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31 N. Ribe and F. Steinile, “Exploratory experimentation: Goethe, Land, and
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32 B. Bowers, Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS 1802–1875 HMSO, London,
1975.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 120, No. 4, October 2006 M. C. M. Wright: A short history of bad acoustics 1815


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  • Re: Klaus - thanks for biting. That is my point exactly! - geoffkait 07:13:37 03/30/07 (0)


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