I think audiophiles sometimes forget what's the essential sense of this hobby..

[sphinxsix]

 

A reminder.

 

 

Have a good day everybody! 

 

[GregWormald]

Nice happy kid.

 

The reaction the music causes in me is definitely why I'm in this hobby, but I'm happy to leave it open for others to have different reasons. 

 

I'm into my current car because I love the way it handles, others love raw acceleration or status or the stimulation of memories or... It's all OK.

[John Dyson]

I really understand.   I think that the audiophile fix-it problems get started when there is a distraction in the sound.   Like many things, it is sometimes best to be ignorant (not in the rude sense -- but innocently ignorant) about the possible problems in audio.

 

People of a certain personality, once they hear a distraction or irritant, that distraction can become more and more obvious and more and more distracting over time.   Of course, sometimes those people get the idea that they want to 'fix' the problem.   This is the beginning of the vicious circle of trying to forever improve ones audio system.

 

Anecdote:  I have a friend who got hooked on drugs by 'trying something' once, and they 'trying' it a few more times.  He lost interest, and 'quit trying' the drug for a while.   He got sick, thinking that he had a cold...  Unfortunately, a 'friend' of his told him that he was in withdrawal, and he'd be okay if he took more of the drug.   This is the beginning of a vicious cycle, similar to the audiophile perfectionist habit.   Of course, the perfectionist habit is MUCH MUCH MUCH less destructive, but in both cases -- it seems like the victim is never satisfied.

 

I would rather for personal enjoyment reasons that people wouldn't be susceptable to the pseudo-addiction of perfecting their system.  Without people like that, we'd probably not have as many true advances in the consumer audio world, but still...   It is best for the individual not to get so caught up in a potentially frustrating situation.

 

Sometimes best to simply be innocent.

 

[NOMBEDES]

What joy.  Love it. Good on you @Sphinxsix!

[fas42]

Hey!! ... I copied her dance moves while it was playing ... 🙂

[fas42]

9 hours ago, John Dyson said:

I really understand.   I think that the audiophile fix-it problems get started when there is a distraction in the sound.   Like many things, it is sometimes best to be ignorant (not in the rude sense -- but innocently ignorant) about the possible problems in audio.

 

 

Yes. A system needs to be able to play something like ZZ Top at full bore, with zero audible issues. Most fail, and that's where the problems begin ...

[Allan F]

9 hours ago, John Dyson said:

People of a certain personality, once they hear a distraction or irritant, that distraction can become more and more obvious and more and more distracting over time.

 

Is this the explanation for your obsession with Dolby A?

[John Dyson]

4 hours ago, Allan F said:

 

Is this the explanation for your obsession with Dolby A?

I have ZERO obsession with DolbyA -- in fact, I am surprised that anyone would get that impression (truly.)   Maybe I overestimate the intellect of people in general.

 

I have MUCH more obsession with the deception &  totally GARBAGE quality recordings that you and other people listen to.

The 'Emperor's new clothes' syndrome is strong in the high-fidelity listener wanna-bes.

 

The recordings CAN be corrected with a bit of technology which JUST SO HAPPENS to be related to DolbyA technology.

I only found that FACT 2 yrs after the audio recording correction project started.   It took a lot of work to move forward beyond that point.

 

So, yes - your commerical recordings are being cr*pped on by an array of DolbyA units -- that bothers me.

Does that mean that you LOVE DolbyA, and the associated distortion created by the compression units?

 

Frankly, I am disgusted by the distortion.   Some people instead THINK that they are helping by spending $10K on

speakers that only makes the distortion more distinct...   Maybe I AM over-estimating the intellect of the audiophile

music listener?   They certainly are NOT hi-fi listeners, more than likely, just frustrated tweakers.

 

I truly pity the sad, frustrated tweaker -- and have tried to help them with reality.   Instead, just go back and tweak....   It takes a LOT

more than just tweaking to fix the problems in the beloved commercial recordings.  (I am not talking about the boutique-direct-from-engineer stuff,

as those can be good recordings.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[yamamoto2002]

Kids are rigorously trained to dance to the music in kindergarten.

They are demonstrating their achievement, the fruit of their steady efforts

[Allan F]

7 hours ago, John Dyson said:

I have ZERO obsession with DolbyA -- in fact, I am surprised that anyone would get that impression (truly)...

 

I have MUCH more obsession with the deception &  totally GARBAGE quality recordings that you and other people listen to.

The 'Emperor's new clothes' syndrome is strong in the high-fidelity listener wanna-bes.

 

The recordings CAN be corrected with a bit of technology which JUST SO HAPPENS to be related to DolbyA technology.

 

If you "have MUCH more obsession with...GARBAGE quality recordings" than with DolbyA, about which you claim to have "ZERO obsession", but which "JUST SO HAPPENS to be related to DolbyA technology"- to paraphrase a famous line from a Paul Newman movie - "What we've got here is distinction without a difference".

[John Dyson]

1 hour ago, Allan F said:

 

If you "have MUCH more obsession with...GARBAGE quality recordings" than with DolbyA, about which you claim to have "ZERO obsession", but which "JUST SO HAPPENS to be related to DolbyA technology"- to paraphrase a famous line from a Paul Newman movie - "What we've got here is distinction without a difference".

Yep -- I started working on the recovery of the recordings and only found TWO YEARS LATER that it was related to DolbyA.   DolbyA is not the driving factor, the garbage that you and most of the rest of listen to, but paid for full quality -- THAT is my obsession.   If you cannot distinguish the difference between my actual plan/goal instead of giving a rats ass about DolbyA, then what does that say about your critical/logical thinking?   My interest is in QUALITY & INTEGRITY only, and that is the reason why some professional from time-to-time lurkers here use the decoder.  It isn't about DolbyA AT ALL, it is about misuse of the tool.   In fact, there are other interesting projects in the future, it is just that DolbyA is the most ubquitious, and the misuse has damaged a lot more recordings than anything else right now.   YES, FA is infinitely worse than MQA -- those who don't like MQA, yet tolerate FA -- what does that say about their 'judgement'?*   One comment that I get from the DHNRDS users, from time to time:  'They don't seem to show much respect to you, do they?'

 

* Little known fact:  If you decode an FA encoded MQA signal, for all practical purposes, you can make the MQA lossage go away!!!   If the material is not FA, then all bets are off.

* If a murderer uses a hammer, and I am interested in the characteristics of that hammer to help solve the mystery, does that mean that I am obsessed about hammers?   Think about it...   I am interested in fixing the problem, not the 'hammer', 'gun' or 'DolbyA unit'.  Unfortunately, I have had to become probably the last DolbyA expert in the world, but WHO CARES?

 

OTOH -- those who have a HiFi hobby, yet tolerate the noise, dynamics distortion, true nonlinear distortions from the FA signal, KNOWS ABOUT THE PROBLEM, a solution is available, but continues to spend lots of money on HW that further exposes the damaged signal -- what does that say about their sanity and rationality?   Does it make any sense to be able to hear the noise and distortion in greater detail, INSTEAD OF MITIGATING IT?   Does it show any kind of rational thought to improve the accurate reproduction of the distortion in the FA signal, BUT NOT TRY TO IMPROVE THE SIGNAL ITSELF?   Hint:  single ended fixits don't work very well -- the decoder (DHNRDS) is a full decoder of an encoded signal, so is not a desperate hail Mary.

 

Which kind are you?  Want more clean, accurt distortion, or want more clean, accurate signal?   Even the defective decoders with EQ errors generally sound much better than the FA signal itself.  Sure, there might be bass issues -- I forgot about overwhelming bass back in my 20yr old days.

 

If you can even imagine that this is DolbyA driven -- that is the same kind of thinking that you can become a star if you get a microphone and TV camera...   Oh well, that is more true today than it used to be, but it is DEFINITELY cart-before-the-horse thinking.   DolbyA is a stumbling block, but is NOT an interest per se.   Do you understand now, or is your thinking still fogged up?

 

 

 

 

[Allan F]

 

6 hours ago, John Dyson said:

Do you understand now, or is your thinking still fogged up?

 

My thinking is that your verbose posts are becoming increasingly repetitive, a typically obsessive characteristic,. But you can have the last word if you must. Bye...

[sphinxsix]

I must say - due to this clip this was my first ZZ Top Easter ever!  I'm not a huge fan, for me it's simply fun/party easy music for the moments when I want to hear something blues related and pretty simple but I have a couple of their albums in 24bit and played some pieces from them for the first time in many years. I really had fun while listening, probably shouldn't mention a little bit of dancing - the girl does it much better than me! 

[sphinxsix]

One more thing - I actually wished I could hear this guy playing guitar in ZZ Top in pieces I was listening to, IMO the dude is really quite good (fingerpicking!) and also his Parker guitar (brand rarely used by rock musicians) also sounds rather nice in this piece..

[John Dyson]

18 hours ago, Allan F said:

 

 

My thinking is that your verbose posts are becoming increasingly repetitive, a typically obsessive characteristic,. But you can have the last word if you must. Bye...

You are on a real kick aren't you?   My writing is always verbose -- I guess you are trying to break-off your own obsession?  (Me.)

 

[sphinxsix]

Your help with proving the point of this thread is really highly appreciated, guys! 😊

[John Dyson]

1 hour ago, sphinxsix said:

Your help with proving the point of this thread is really highly appreciated, guys! 😊

There might really be a 'certain' personality that does get hooked on endeavors.

 

It is interesting about how people DO get hooked into audiophile tweaking, too bad that it isn't actually more productive than it is.   Then, the predators come in, and take advantage of the frustrated audiophiles.

 

If people could somehow unlearn the 'tells' for the distractions -- maybe less predation would happen against the innocent music lover.   There is too much gilding the lily, not just because sometimes it is unnecessary, but also because the gilding is often fake.

 

 

 

 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

On 4/4/2021 at 12:54 AM, fas42 said:

 

Yes. A system needs to be able to play something like ZZ Top at full bore, with zero audible issues. Most fail, and that's where the problems begin ...

 

First clue that there's trouble in paradise is when you are told a speaker or headphone is well suited to a particular music genre. 

[sphinxsix]

2 hours ago, hopkins said:

 

First clue that there's trouble in paradise is when you are told a speaker or headphone is well suited to a particular music genre. 

 

Even worse if it's to a particular band or instrument..

Great speakers for  trombone music!