Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Sound Science › A very interesting presentation at AES
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

A very interesting presentation at AES - Page 2

post #16 of 42
1/26/10 at 1:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdupiano View Post
Headphone user's are pretty much in the minority when it comes to dealing with hi-fi audio. Audiophiles tend to have the means to have big speaker set ups and a lot of questionable audio products are geared towards them rather than the headphone community (eg the dots and pebbles).
There are more than a few questionable products aimed towards headphone users. We are not being ignored, not even close.

And while it's not a scientific issue, the headphone community has more than its share of shills and questionable sales practices, too.
Reply

Head-Fi's Best Sellers

post #17 of 42
1/27/10 at 1:22am
Great presentation, Ethan makes some great points - thanks for the link Nick.
Reply
post #18 of 42
1/27/10 at 1:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sbtruitt View Post
Great presentation, Ethan makes some great points - thanks for the link Nick.
When I get some spare time I am going to try the generational AD/DA/AD loss tests on Ethan Winer's site...
Reply
post #19 of 42
1/27/10 at 5:11pm
Nice post. Pretty much exactly what I was looking for in the 'sound science' section.
Reply
post #20 of 42
1/28/10 at 2:55am
This is an awesome post and reflects many of my ideas/thoughts. Double blind tests are always the gold standard for science. When I read an article in The Absolute Sound arguing against this...well...it's the last time I read a magazine from them.

I have also done similar tests and found the results to be the same. I told a very picky audiophile friend that I had done a remaster from vinyl. He proceeded to listen to it and then discuss how the rumble, wow and flutter were audible. How there was still a bit of noise but he did compliment me on the warm, analogue sound. The truth: It was a regular CD I owned, transferred to my computer using EAC, then burned on a CD-R. Evil...perhaps but it goes to show (to me at least) that people hear what they want to hear.

It's even worse in the "pro" community where everyone seems to judge you on what gear you own and how many studio rooms you have with X treatment. I have heard some mastering engineers work whose mastering chain is worth around $20,000.00...that's right - $20K!! I got better results that he did with a $20 graphic EQ. Why a $20 EQ? Because it sounded better in this case than my other EQ's. In the end, I only trust my ears and maybe consider those of a friend or two but that's it. It's all about one's ears and enjoyment of music - not about the gear or what others think.

In case anyone is curious...here is a $20K mastering chain vs. my $19.99 graphic EQ.

It starts out with my master then switches to the other at the beep.
Reply
post #21 of 42
1/28/10 at 3:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by LFF View Post
This is an awesome post and reflects many of my ideas/thoughts. Double blind tests are always the gold standard for science. When I read an article in The Absolute Sound arguing against this...well...it's the last time I read a magazine from them.

I have also done similar tests and found the results to be the same. I told a very picky audiophile friend that I had done a remaster from vinyl. He proceeded to listen to it and then discuss how the rumble, wow and flutter were audible. How there was still a bit of noise but he did compliment me on the warm, analogue sound. The truth: It was a regular CD I owned, transferred to my computer using EAC, then burned on a CD-R. Evil...perhaps but it goes to show (to me at least) that people hear what they want to hear.

It's even worse in the "pro" community where everyone seems to judge you on what gear you own and how many studio rooms you have with X treatment. I have heard some mastering engineers work whose mastering chain is worth around $20,000.00...that's right - $20K!! I got better results that he did with a $20 graphic EQ. Why a $20 EQ? Because it sounded better in this case than my other EQ's. In the end, I only trust my ears and maybe consider those of a friend or two but that's it. It's all about one's ears and enjoyment of music - not about the gear or what others think.

In case anyone is curious...here is a $20K mastering chain vs. my $19.99 graphic EQ.

It starts out with my master then switches to the other at the beep.
i wish i could go through and figure out the bitrate at which its indistguishable to the lossless version, but unfortunately i dont know of any ABX software for the mac, does anyone else? as it is i just use lossless just in case, but it eats up a load of hdd space i wouldnt mind saving on my laptop.
Reply
post #22 of 42
1/28/10 at 3:23am
The video talks about comb filtering and how that impacts the reliability of listening tests. How much of an issue is comb filtering in headphone listening? I'm sure it's still an issue with headphones, but is it as much of an issue as it is with speakers and room acoustics? I know some types of headphone crossfeed circuits or algorithms can cause comb filtering problems so we've got that to worry about.
Reply
post #23 of 42
1/28/10 at 10:43am
LFF, do you have two separate files of this? The beep is very annoying..
Reply
post #24 of 42
1/28/10 at 1:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by xnor View Post
LFF, do you have two separate files of this? The beep is very annoying..
Here you go:

Someone else

Mine
Reply
post #25 of 42
1/28/10 at 2:46pm
Can't wait to give this a watch once I get home!
Reply
post #26 of 42
1/29/10 at 11:17am
Awesome link! Fascinating stuff -- especially the one where he slowly degrades the bit depth of the output. No, also the one where he slowly buries that massive noise more deeply into the signal. That showed me how noise can exist but not be an issue.
Reply
post #27 of 42
1/29/10 at 11:24am
A very enjoyable presentation. Thanks for posting.
Reply
post #28 of 42
1/29/10 at 5:41pm
Very informative. Our brain definitely plays tricks on us, with all of our senses.
Reply
post #29 of 42
1/31/10 at 3:34pm
I could only get through the first few minutes because I can't get youtube to load fast enough. Looks good though, I will have to let youtube load the whole thing at some point.
Reply
post #30 of 42
1/31/10 at 3:56pm
The first few minutes are the only enjoyable ones, after that it's just nag nag nag 'I'm being scientific here!' with crappy demo samples repeating stuff that's been said 173257 times already.

Sorry, I'm not a fan.

Although I mostly agree with what's being said, but who doesn't?
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Sound Science

Head-Fi's Best Sellers

Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Sound Science › A very interesting presentation at AES