Testing audiophile claims and myths

[Ryokan]

A few months ago I was complaining that one of my iem's sounded shrill at times and often unpleasant to listen with and initially thought changing the cable improved them but switched back to the supplied cable and they sounded the same. I'm trying them again with a different source and they sound very good not like before when they sounded discordant and 'spicy' (their graph shows a spike around 7-8k). What could've changed, my ears which can play up, burn in with more use, better synergy with another player though they did ocassionally sound fine with another one, or something else?

 

[bigshot]

One of your sources might have had EQ or some other sound processing enabled.

 

[Ryokan]

I only EQ'd afterwards to try and make them more balanced sounding. The other possibility could be tips, going to a narrow bore instead of tips that show the whole nozzle like the tips supplied. But why would the manufacturer supply tips that create an imbalance?

 

[bigshot]

Because everyone’s ear canals are different. Just make sure the impedance match is correct and EQ it to correct for smaller imbalances.

 

[castleofargh]

A few months ago I was complaining that one of my iem's sounded shrill at times and often unpleasant to listen with and initially thought changing the cable improved them but switched back to the supplied cable and they sounded the same. I'm trying them again with a different source and they sound very good not like before when they sounded discordant and 'spicy' (their graph shows a spike around 7-8k). What could've changed, my ears which can play up, burn in with more use, better synergy with another player though they did ocassionally sound fine with another one, or something else?

I don't think it would be productive to try and list all the possibilities when knowing pretty much nothing. We'd just end up with a very long list and no clue as to what is the real cause.
If you want to know, you'll need to do some testing and measurements to narrow down what exactly is happening, so we can then have some hope of a shorter list for what could have caused the change.
The more data, the easier the diagnostic.

 

[Ryokan]

I'm just happy to now get use from an expensive iem knowing it wasn't the supplied cable which I initially thought (with it's high-purity silver wire) as I'm now using it without experiencing any shrillness.

 

[bigshot]

Cables shouldn’t affect sound quality. That’s one of the last places to look for a solution.

 

[573531]

Cables shouldn’t affect sound quality. That’s one of the last places to look for a solution.

Does this also include the cable companies on the sponsor page?

 

[573531]

Does this also include the cable companies on the sponsor page?

For example:… btw are we allowed to name names on the science thread, or is this place also muzzled?

 

[bigshot]

EVERY cable, as long as it is the right cable for the job, sounds the same. Transparent.

 

[bigshot]

It's the whole business. It's not just head-fi. Caveat emptor. It's up to buyers to figure things out for themselves. They can't ask salesmen to think for them. We here in sound science argue with people about this stuff all the time and people don't believe us. That is their problem, not ours. We've got great sound systems that didn't break the bank. They wasted money on wires. Ha ha on them, I guess.

 

[573531]

It's the whole business. It's not just head-fi. Caveat emptor. It's up to buyers to figure things out for themselves. They can't ask salesmen to think for them. We here in sound science argue with people about this stuff all the time and people don't believe us. That is their problem, not ours. We've got great sound systems that didn't break the bank. They wasted money on wires. Ha ha on them, I guess.

So head-fi as an example, will financially benefit from the growth of ignorant members, and might lose sponsors if everyone is educated and there’s no one left for these companies to moon?

 

[bigshot]

I'm not in the habit of accusing sites that I participate in, but I think we all understand that in order to support the forum, they need a revenue stream. I'm big on personal responsibility. I don't think we're ever going to see a world where people aren't going to take advantage of other people. But I do think that people have a responsibility to make informed decisions. That takes research, understanding of how things work, and a process for sorting out the truth.

The most extreme examples of blatant wrong thinking we've seen here in sound science are consumers who make absolutely no attempt to learn the truth. They don't want to know the truth. They'd rather trust their biases. That isn't the fault of snake oil salesmen, advertisers or Internet forums. That is 100% their own fault.

 

[573531]

I'm not in the habit of accusing sites that I participate in, but I think we all understand that in order to support the forum, they need a revenue stream. I'm big on personal responsibility. I don't think we're ever going to see a world where people aren't going to take advantage of other people. But I do think that people have a responsibility to make informed decisions. That takes research, understanding of how things work, and a process for sorting out the truth.

The most extreme examples of blatant wrong thinking we've seen here in sound science are consumers who make absolutely no attempt to learn the truth. They don't want to know the truth. They'd rather trust their biases. That isn't the fault of snake oil salesmen, advertisers or Internet forums. That is 100% their own fault.

but aren’t you automatically against headfi’s source of revenue by spending your time educating people here?

 

[castleofargh]

@Bwanaasifiwe

One could argue that the foundation of marketing is to deceive. Countries have laws deciding when the deceit is going too far. It's the only legal and official stand on what's fine or not.
IMO, anything beyond that is a personal choice, or some more general philosophy about good and bad as a utopian ideal we'd like to see. In the real world, a human who never lies probably does not exist.


I don't know why you're doing this, but trying that hard to make headfi as the bad guy on headfi is probably not going to end well for you. As for baiting someone else into saying it for you, even I have a problem with it. If you're going for a fight against the big guys, at least own it.