Paul's view on Cables, Audio Precision Analyzer, etc.

[Blake]

Some may have already listened to this interview and I already posted it in another thread, but I personally found this to be a very interesting interview, worthy of its own thread.  For those interested in the objective/subjective/measurement discussions here on AS, I think it is definitely worth a listen.  I tend to stay out of these sorts of discussions and have no agenda in posting this.  Anyone can feel free to comment as they want.

 

I recommend listening to the whole interview if you have the time, its not just about usb cables. Personally, I think it gets more interesting later on in the interview.

 

https://darko.audio/2020/02/expert-opinion-paul-mcgowan-ps-audio/

 

[Blake]

A follow-up piece to the original article I posted at the beginning of this thread:

 

https://darko.audio/2020/02/period-pain/

 

[Blake]

I enjoyed both interviews.  The interesting tidbits to me from the two interviews:

 

1. PS Audio has the Audio Precision Analyzer.  Paul says the AP will show no measured differences when Ted Smith updates operating system code for PS Audio's Directstream DAC, yet it seems users definitely hear differences between different firmware code versions.

 

2. None of the engineers polled by Darko (PS Audio, Simaudio, MBL, HEED, Gordon Rankin) sell usb cables, but all say audible differences can exist between usb cables.  So they don't have a financial interest in making those claims.

 

3. Simaudio's Costa Koulisakis seems to be very much in the objective, measurement camp, but still believes usb cables can make audible differences.

 

I agree with what John Dyson wrote earlier. My current thinking is, all the objective/subject debates revolve around the issue of whether the current measurement gear available today is capable of measuring every single sonic aspect/element that humans can perceive.  This also assumes we can characterize all aspects of sound and then set up measurement parameters for all of these sonic aspects.

 

If you believe we can measure all sonic aspects, then game over.  Things become very simple.  It also follows that if two components measure the same, they will sound 100% identical (identical sound staging, imaging, same sense of the acoustical space where the music was recorded, same amount of detail, timbre, tonal balance etc.).

 

If you believe there are at least some sonic aspects we cannot measure (even if say, we can measure 95% of what humans can detect), then things are not so straight-forward and one has to rely on our subjective observations for those aspects we cannot measure. 

 

Isn't it really as simple as that?  And regardless of which camp you are in, we should not draw battle lines over this issue.