Developing your Audiophile Style

[photonman]

20 hours ago, wgscott said:

 

(9) Pretend that 256kbps AAC (or mp3) is unlistenably bad...and the incineration of the Amazon rain forest.

 

I don't feel so ashamed now to admit that I [gulp] I am on Spotify and cancelled my Tidal.  Okay, I feel so much better now.

 

(As for the Amazon, you would think the world would have more of a sense of urgency.  Knocking out one of the worlds largest C02 scrubbers is not good!)

[Ralf11]

Developing your audiophile style really means deciding upon a search path thru the "n-dimensional hyper-volume"* of the "factor space" of ways to improve SQ.

 

There are many ways to navigate the large number of things that might improve SQ.  One tortuous path is this:

A. Lacking a basic education in acoustics, electronics, or cognitive psychology, the audiophile can easily become a victim of the "Everything Matters" shibboleth.  But not everything does matter (e.g. distortions that are 140 dB below the signal do not matter), nor do all factors matter as much as other things.  The uneducated are doomed to wander thru a miasmic fog of changes, leaking dollars bills all the item.  Worse, the "Audiophile Ecosystem"^ is infested with parasites, who will actively seek to mis-lead the consumer in order to gain his $$.

 

B. An Adroit Audiophile will conclude that some things matter a lot (recording, mastering, acoustics), while others matter very little (AC power cords).  There is another gradient too, and that is the cost of a putative upgrade, which must be weighed against the likely increase in SQ of its implementation.

 

But even for the consumer in bin "B" it can be troublesome to navigate the space defined by the large number of possible changes to make as upgrades.   

 

 

 

* to steal a phrase from G. Evelyn Hutchinson

^ to steal a phrase at least one MQA Shill

[mansr]

30 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

Developing your audiophile style really means deciding upon a search path thru the "n-dimensional hyper-volume"* of the "factor space" of ways to improve SQ.

The only sure method is to devise a space-filling curve through the factor space and traverse it.

[Sonicularity]

I'm glad that I jumped off of the crazy audiophile train long before it reached a destination with no available return ticket.

 

[Ralf11]

33 minutes ago, mansr said:

The only sure method is to devise a space-filling curve through the factor space and traverse it.

 

a LOT of work

 

perhaps a sparse matrix approach can be used for testing, a la Box, Hunter, Box

 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b9e0/4ec28d6c16ef898c5d4b1c8eacc6a7b56389.pdf

[mansr]

39 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

a LOT of work

 

perhaps a sparse matrix approach can be used for testing, a la Box, Hunter, Box

 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b9e0/4ec28d6c16ef898c5d4b1c8eacc6a7b56389.pdf

Maybe one of these methods can be adapted:

http://www.gksoft.com/a/fun/catch-lion.html

[Ralf11]

Promising, but I didn't see any of Zachs search path tortuosity of search path work in there - he worked on ovenbirds but they have already figured out what AI systems should be doing now..

[Teresa]

6 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

...the audiophile can easily become a victim of the "Everything Matters" shibboleth...

 

How about everything that's audible matters?

[wgscott]

19 minutes ago, Teresa said:

 

How about everything that's audible matters?

 

That is far too reasonable, pragmatic, level-headed and sane.

[wgscott]

4 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

ovenbirds

 

Those are one of my favorite warblers.

 

Sadly, I haven't seen one in years.

[esldude]

4 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

Promising, but I didn't see any of Zachs search path tortuosity of search path work in there - he worked on ovenbirds but they have already figured out what AI systems should be doing now..

How do they relate to the Yardbirds and this timeline.

 

[Ralf11]

not really

 

the trick is that they walk or hop along in a more or less straight line, but when they find a prey item (bug) they turn - this tends to keep them in the same area; bunch of math with it but after 45 years I don't recall it

 

it reminds me of the frontier in some AI course I looked at at Stanford a few years ago

 

so, when you find something that increases SQ, stay in that "area"

[wgscott]

They tend to scratch around on the forest floor a lot.

 

https://www.hbw.com/ibc/video/ovenbird-seiurus-aurocapilla/searching-through-leaf-litter

 

 

[Ralf11]

Take that simple statement, add some differential equations, maybe a Lyapunov function or two, and BANG!! - you can publish in the Journal of Armchair Ecology!

[AudioDoctor]

Does McIntosh equipment and an aged whiskey make me appropriately stylish enough for audiophilia? 

 

It could be argued the simplicity of the single box solution (almost) makes me more stylish than the one box per function set.

 

I also have some pretty damned stylish speakers if I may say so...

[emcdade]

11.  Sell all of your overpriced gear, buy a $1,000 used system and become an objectivist.  Tirelessly enter every thread and present your argument that all DACs, preamps, amps, cables, CD players, and PC's sound exactly the same when listened to in a double blind listening test.  Don't listen to actual music anymore, because tests and SINAD graphs are more interesting to you now.  You are very wise and objective, and anyone who disagrees is simply affected by sighted bias and a foolish audiophile.  Your Yamaha AVR sounds exactly like a Dan D'Agostino Relentless monoblock, and that is pretty cool.

[botrytis]

12 hours ago, wgscott said:

They tend to scratch around on the forest floor a lot.

 

https://www.hbw.com/ibc/video/ovenbird-seiurus-aurocapilla/searching-through-leaf-litter

 

 

 

I prefer this.....

 

 

[pkane2001]

12 hours ago, emcdade said:

11.  Sell all of your overpriced gear, buy a $1,000 used system and become an objectivist.  Tirelessly enter every thread and present your argument that all DACs, preamps, amps, cables, CD players, and PC's sound exactly the same when listened to in a double blind listening test.  Don't listen to actual music anymore, because tests and SINAD graphs are more interesting to you now.  You are very wise and objective, and anyone who disagrees is simply affected by sighted bias and a foolish audiophile.  Your Yamaha AVR sounds exactly like a Dan D'Agostino Relentless monoblock, and that is pretty cool.

 

12. Argue incessantly against all established science. No scientist or engineer or EE has ever listened to music, they are all deaf, their systems -- mediocre. Scientific approach completely fails in this one area of human endeavor. It must be completely replaced by the ears of the chosen few, those who have the gift. The rest will remain forever in the dark.

[marce]

14 hours ago, emcdade said:

11.  Sell all of your overpriced gear, buy a $1,000 used system and become an objectivist.  Tirelessly enter every thread and present your argument that all DACs, preamps, amps, cables, CD players, and PC's sound exactly the same when listened to in a double blind listening test.  Don't listen to actual music anymore, because tests and SINAD graphs are more interesting to you now.  You are very wise and objective, and anyone who disagrees is simply affected by sighted bias and a foolish audiophile.  Your Yamaha AVR sounds exactly like a Dan D'Agostino Relentless monoblock, and that is pretty cool.

so much anger!

So objectives don't listen to music, or maybe they listen to music and not the replay system...😀

[botrytis]

14 hours ago, emcdade said:

11.  Sell all of your overpriced gear, buy a $1,000 used system and become an objectivist.  Tirelessly enter every thread and present your argument that all DACs, preamps, amps, cables, CD players, and PC's sound exactly the same when listened to in a double blind listening test.  Don't listen to actual music anymore, because tests and SINAD graphs are more interesting to you now.  You are very wise and objective, and anyone who disagrees is simply affected by sighted bias and a foolish audiophile.  Your Yamaha AVR sounds exactly like a Dan D'Agostino Relentless monoblock, and that is pretty cool.

 

WOW - not all people are like that. Double blind tests do throw out the crap that subjectivists love....

[Ralf11]

1 hour ago, marce said:

so much anger!

So objectives don't listen to music, or maybe they listen to music and not the replay system...😀

 

maybe the emc in his screen name stands for electromagnetic confusion

[marce]

20 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

 

maybe the emc in his screen name stands for electromagnetic confusion

 Ah confusion, a weekend with 4 of the grand kids (SNR 100%) , all 7 or under, staying with their respective parents has increased my confusion somewhat, and reduced my tolerance for humanity😀, as to the mess you would think we have been burgled or hit by a tornado.

Audiophile forums are like heaven in comparison.

[Ralf11]

so the g-kids have raised your personal noise levels?  Is the S/N now so low as to inhibit communications?

[marce]

LOL yep.

[Ralf11]

there are some advanced pattern recognition AI systems now - maybe 'wire' one up