Sound Science Corner Pub

[Bozzunter]

I had no idea that there was such a thing as placebo buttons, but I had a Philips SACD player that had a button to cut in "direct/pure" signal and I could never detect a difference or figure out what circuitry it was bypassing.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/placebo-buttons-design/index.html

Well, what about the filters on Chord Hugo 2? They allegedly work with hires music only, based on what Rob Watts repeatedly said. BS can’t go any further than that (I have the device by the way).

 

[sonitus mirus]

Well, what about the filters on Chord Hugo 2? They allegedly work with hires music only, based on what Rob Watts repeatedly said. BS can’t go any further than that (I have the device by the way).

When pressing a button, all it takes is a mechanical sound or a light to change, and if the overall volume difference is small, yet perceivable, it could be enough to make any listener believe something evolved for better or worse.

 

[bigshot]

Is it just me or is this a very strange image. I keep looking at it and puzzling at the giraffe neck, the anorexic shoulders, the man chin line and the weird angle of the hair all topped off with a cherry in the ear. It looks photoshopped, but I can't imagine that anyone would choose to photoshop a picture to look like this.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

So I made a huge error recently. I brought up my lonely sub from the basement, bought a miniDSP, got the response on my couch sweet spot nice and flattish with the sub crossed-over right, bought a bit more amp to make things loud enough, and then foolishley listened to music on the setup. Now I get depressed sitting at work listening to headphones Anyone else make this kind of mistake?

Be like me and spend the rest of my days trying to make headphones sound like speakers via not so mini DSPs...

 

[Glmoneydawg]

Is it just me or is this a very strange image. I keep looking at it and puzzling at the giraffe neck, the anorexic shoulders, the man chin line and the weird angle of the hair all topped off with a cherry in the ear. It looks photoshopped, but I can't imagine that anyone would choose to photoshop a picture to look like this.

Yep...it's strange,but if we are discussing it we have to consider it an advertising success.I doubt i will remember the product in a week or two...i will definately remember the image though.E.T. and a super model had a baby?

 

[Glmoneydawg]

love the blues,love the stones.Payin tribute here,the stones have made a point of supporting the blues artists that made their careers possible.If you can watch this without smiling you should seek help

 

[castleofargh]

for those who care, RMAF videos for this year are being uploaded https://www.youtube.com/user/RMAudiofest/videos
I usually try to watch them all and facepalm a lot in the process, but it's still an occasion to have a few interesting people who normally don't communicate much. and I feel that it's a nice occasion to get the "temperature" of the hobby.

 

[Zapp_Fan]

Seems to be a lot of discussion of MQA. I've read about it a bit but still don't understand why it's supposed to be so beneficial compared to other lossy codecs. And when 24/96 FLAC is something like 1Mb/s I don't see the need to be putting big resources into lossy stuff... why not just push (say) the Bluetooth SIG to implement FLAC support in BT 5.1? Most any connection including a Bluetooth one can handle that bitrate, and 16/44 FLAC would be no problem. Discussion of possible motives left to the reader...

 

[JRG1990]

MQA is not about sound quality it is about money https://www.linn.co.uk/blog/mqa-is-bad-for-music

 

[bigshot]

The Great Radio Bonfire of 1929. Old model radio sets were causing interference, so cities organized bonfires to rid the world of all those beautiful old radios forever. It's enough to make a grown man cry.

 

[Steve999]

Seems to be a lot of discussion of MQA. I've read about it a bit but still don't understand why it's supposed to be so beneficial compared to other lossy codecs. And when 24/96 FLAC is something like 1Mb/s I don't see the need to be putting big resources into lossy stuff... why not just push (say) the Bluetooth SIG to implement FLAC support in BT 5.1? Most any connection including a Bluetooth one can handle that bitrate, and 16/44 FLAC would be no problem. Discussion of possible motives left to the reader...

https://www.whathifi.com/advice/mqa-audio-what-it-how-can-you-get-it

MQA huh. Never heard of it before. Never want to hear of it again.

 

[Glmoneydawg]

The Great Radio Bonfire of 1929. Old model radio sets were causing interference, so cities organized bonfires to rid the world of all those beautiful old radios forever. It's enough to make a grown man cry.

Oh my...not sure if i'm more upset that this happened or that you where around to see it(i thought we where about the same age)

 

[bigshot]

I'm not quite antediluvian! My mom would have been around for that, but she would have been a baby.

 

[Steve999]

Curiosity got the best of me. These Superlux HD-681s are pretty cool. @castleofargh spoke well of the rtings.com web-site. The HD-681s are 30 bucks on Amazon. Comical build quality and no isolation, and you can find visible build flaws all over them, and you are scared you are going to break them when you adjust them, and the packaging is a joke, but they are comfy and adjustable and the sound is "wow" ! To me there is a moderate audible and to me subjectively pleasing bass hump between 48.999 hertz and 61.735 hz (tracked it down by ear on my piano) and the treble can be slightly to moderately emphasized with cymbals and whatnot, I'd take a wild guess in the 5khz-8khz zone. Prominent and treble-leaning mids to my ears. The sound is easy on the ears and impressive to me--very balanced and enjoyable and energetic sound overall.

Objectivish third-party stuff:

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/superlux/hd-681

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/1-2/graph#471/2031/290

They kind of split the difference between a Beyer DT880 and a Beyer DT990 (my two faves) sonically, but are not as super-comfy and not remotely as well-built, and their basic build is of the AKG paradigm. I'll let the rtings.com review stuff linked above take it from there. I've put up a comparison graph with the Senn HD800s just to be mischievous.

 

[bigshot]

Pinnahertz recommended some bluetooth cans from Monoprice and I got them to use as beaters at the studio. They have darn good sound quality. There are some good cheap cans out there. I think people convince themselves that price equates with sound quality. Sometimes it does, sometimes not.