Measurements & Sound Quality

[diecaster]

47 minutes ago, fas42 said:

 

IOW, if we were to listen to live sound on the other of a wall, where there were only two openings to the other side, mimicing the positioning of stereo speakers, it would sound just like a hifi system! Of course, no-one has done this sort of experiment; because it might expose an Inconvenient Truth ...

 

No, it wouldn’t. How could you think this?

[diecaster]

3 minutes ago, crenca said:

The problem is the subjectist audiophile myth that measurements are "unrelated"...

 

It's not that measurements and sound are unrelated. It's that that the measurements don't matter much because they don't measure what they need to measure to describe sound quality.

 

Transducers actually have more measurements that matter than say amps or preamps. But, frequency response measurements of a headphone don't tell you how the transducers sound. The standard measurements used to describe amps and preamps really mean nothing in the end. There are amps out there that sound like crap that measure fantastic and there are amps that measure adequately that sound incredible.

 

In the end, no matter how well or how bad something measures, you need to listen to it to know how it sounds. The measurements don't help hear.

[diecaster]

15 minutes ago, crenca said:

 

Wrong, wrong and wrong.  These measurements are related, do matter, and do describe the sound and its "quality" to a strong degree.

 

Your just repeating radical subjectivism as an article of faith.  Measurements have a long and strong track record of direct and obvious correlation to the sound, and the whole audio/electronic industry depends on this correlation...

 

Just repeating? Dude, I have been listening to audio gear for over 40 years.

 

Here is what Nelson pass had to say in an interview:

 

"Measurements and listening go hand in hand. There is a correlation between objective and subjective, but they’re not strictly causal relationships. Clearly, there are some amplifiers that measure great with “standard” measurements but don’t sound so good, and there are examples of good-sounding/bad-measuring as well. The discrepancies are interesting because they point to either things that have not been measured—more likely, misinterpreted—or aspects of perception and taste that don’t correlate to measured flaws. Or both.

In the end, the subjective experience is what our customer is looking for. Our taste in sound may not appeal to everyone, but it’s what we have to work with, and we only need a small segment of the market to be successful. I don’t neglect the measurements; I put them to work."

[diecaster]

23 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

Measurements can tell you everything you need to know about how a component will or does sound, you just need the knowledge and experience to figure that out.

 

What measurements, exactly, tell you how a component will or does sound? Please provide the whole list.

[diecaster]

18 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

lt would be much easier for you to get a EE degree yourself. No one could supply that level of information in a simple forum post.

 

No, I want to know which tests you think tell us how an amp will sound.

[diecaster]

Other than being cost effective, what is the draw for these NC400 based amps? The ones I have heard are too clinical. I can listen to them for long as they give me a headache after a while.