Originally Posted by drarthurwells:
One other factor is amplification of error effects in a source. A very small error (in reading a CD) goes through many steps of processing and amplification before it even reaches a speaker or headphone. A small reading error can then emerge as much larger an error before reaching a speaker or headphone. Related to large scale chaos eventually emerging from an insignificant small beginning.
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Originally Posted by Toe /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Any kindergartener who ever played the 'telephone' game can tell me that any message that goes through multiple carriers/iterations can end up much different from its origins.
If you're going to throw around a term like 'chaos theory' I expect a much more rigid scientific analysis. Otherwise you're just spouting off what you heard in some sci-fi movie, which is exactly why ezkcdude made the Jeff Goldblum reference.
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Art: It's like making a copy from a copy, then a third copy from the second copy, then a fourth copy from the third copy, and so on.
The last copy is very different from the original - adulterated in many ways. The very small effects of jitter are magnified and distorted along the signal path, which is analogous to making copies along the way.
The basic premise of Chaos theory is that initial minor changes in a system can lead to cataclysmic or large changes down the road. I think this is analogous to the jitter situation where very small and insignificant phase errors can result in audible effects.
As far as experimental testing of such effects using brief AB test comparisons - unreliable. Give me a week with A and a week with B, alternating over six weeks, and then I could detect a small jitter difference and could reliably tell you if A or B were playing - could not do this in a few 5 minute trials of AB.
So, skeptics will ask why if it takes such experience to hear a problem that is not more readily discernible, then why is it a problem?
The answer is that we listen over extended periods and learn to hear the good things and the bad things over time, and then get dissatisfied with problems we learn to detect with much experience.
A CD player with high jitter will sound good at first, but over months will become unsatisfactory. Most AB testing is "at first" - like meet sampling - and should be over months to really be discriminating.