The Ten Biggest Lies in Audio World ?

[AltecLansingFan]

This article (4 pages) I found on the internet. What do you think of it

True or Not True.

You can read it, and if you have an opinion, please let us know.

pag.1 http://ip565bfb2a.direct-adsl.nl/art.../10-Lies-1.jpg
pag.2 http://ip565bfb2a.direct-adsl.nl/art.../10-Lies-2.jpg
pag.3 http://ip565bfb2a.direct-adsl.nl/art.../10-Lies-3.jpg
pag.4 http://ip565bfb2a.direct-adsl.nl/art.../10-Lies-4.jpg

[greyhound]

yep its al true.........
except for the golden ears ofcourse, beacause those are mine

truth is im not convinced when it comes to tubes. but the main reason for that im not able to listen to tubes a lot.
a brief impression at someones house gives me more info on the acoustics in the room and the speakers.
so if my dutch forum will do a good test with tubes vs transistors ill be there.

audiocritic is great

[Allanvh5150]

Ever heard a tube guitar amp manufacturer claim that his amps had that great transistor sound?

[lovethatsound]

Wow, those are interesting!

Thanks for sharing.

[Vintage Nut]

Ever heard a tube guitar amp manufacturer claim that his amps had that great transistor sound?

No, but I wonder how much of that has to do with marketing.

Just wondering.

Does the transistor manufacturer claim his amp sounds like a tube? And, if so, how much of that is marketing too?

Again, just wondering.

By the way, nice article! Keeps me grounded, as if I could afford not to be. =)

[speakerdave]

Argh. Just rack it up with everyone else's opinion and listen to what you like.

The root assumption of this article seems to be that the exaggerations of advertisers are of the same order of reality as listeners's experience, that there is no mutual causal relationship or ontological difference between the two; therefore they can be used as interchangeable counters in his argument. Nothing could be further from the truth. Writer is simply promoting his own supposed acuity. Bosh.

1. Cable: I haven't systematically explored different cables, but I do know they ALL sound better on the little trestle thingies.
2. Tubes: Bosh.
3. Digital v. analogue: Bosh. "Once again the lie has little bearing on the mainstream where digital technology has gained complete acceptance" You mean the folks lunching at McDonalds who listen to their music on Zenith Allegro's? Am I being elitist? Yes. I think it's interesting that we seem to accept social and financial elites but cultural ones are geeks or eggheads or "mandarins." The writer here does acknowledge the importance of execution. What's missing from the discussion here and elsewhere is that vinyl played on a midfi Thorens with a midfi Shure cartridge through a '70's Japanese receiver sounds better than any CD played on your typical mass market player loaded with cheap IC's in the analogue output. And MP3's--jeez. Is it news to anyone that most people will sacrifice quality to price and convenience (and liberty to safety)?
4. Listening tests. ABing can help decide between two pieces of equipment, but who has the technology to determine SPL matching to <.5dB difference? And I should think that using a listening test to evaluate listeners would add tension to the equation. Would anyone's subjective experience or objectivity be unaffected? My experience of listening evaluations is that contrasts are immediately discernible, but the "ear" adjusts very quickly. I think that for evaluating equipment and media subjectively listening to the music over longer periods and being aware of one's own emotional and aesthetic responses to it is superior to analytically listening to the sound.
5. Negative feedback. I have not listened to enough different equipment to be able to isolate the effects of this. I do have a zero-negative feedback preamp which a really like in some ways and not so much in others. Whether either effect is related to its lacking feedback I don't know.
6. Burn-in: Does it cost anything to believe this?
7. Bi-wiring: Beats me whether this is silly or not.
8. Power conditioner: The cleaner the better, but I would put the money in other places first.
9. CD Treatments--I don't know anything about any of them, but . . . . The writer equates the physical medium with the digital data and says that since the digital data is undegradeable (as he claims) the physical medium is too. But everyone knows better.
10. Golden ears: This is interesting to me. The only place I've seen more exposure anxiety than a gathering of audiophiles is in church.

David

[Allanvh5150]

All the things he talks of can make a difference to a ponit. then it becomes a matter of diminishing returns for your dollar. The monster cable debate is a classic. If the resistance of a cable is less, it must transmit more power to your speakers. Having said that, 2.5 square mm cable is plenty good for 1000 watts or so. Changing to silver will give you more power to you speakers but at these levels 10 more watts doesnt make a difference. Cd treatments on brand new CD's make no difference although I have used various treatments to solve problems with old CD's that skip and some of the processes work ok. Of course these are working on the optical quality of the plastic. If a CD is dirty and it is skipping, you clean it and it doesnt skip. Makes sense to me. But all in all, our hobby is rather subjective. If you like what you are listening to it is all good.

[edgewound]

Does the transistor manufacturer claim his amp sounds like a tube?

Yes...Yamaha did in the 1970's. I had one...and it didn't. But it was reliable. I could rely on it to not sound like a Marshall.

Ok...but it did work trouble free.

[edgewound]

My experience of listening evaluations is that contrasts are immediately discernible, but the "ear" adjusts very quickly. I think that for evaluating equipment and media subjectively listening to the music over longer periods and being aware of one's own emotional and aesthetic responses to it is superior to analytically listening to the sound.


David

David...That was brilliantly and very thoughtfully stated.

[rek50]

First off, I'm not a "Sharpie" flipper, have no connection to them, bla, bla, bla.
After reading about treating the edge of a CD with an exclusive product (can't remember the name), to "Smooth" out the "Digital" sound, I thought
here we go.......another snake oil.....

Some years later, the green edge treatment, popped up again on another
"Nut" forum. Some swore by it, others claimed it was bunk. For chits an grins, I decided to prove them wrong.

I had an elcheapo Ozzy O's greatest hits CD. It was shrill, raspy.....NFG.
I took out a green sharpie marker, colored the edge, let it dry, and gave it a spin. WHAT, how can this be? It did sound better. The sharp raspy highs were toned down.

No risk, no investment (if you happen to have a green sharpie). See for yourself. It can be removed with alcohol.........

BTW, I think my car runs "Smoother" after a proper "Detailing"......YMMV

[louped garouv]

i have heard of marking up the edge of a CD to bypass pirating technology, but not to make them sound better...

[Allanvh5150]

The "Tube Transistor" debate will rage for many years to come. From my point of veiw as a sound engineer, when doing live production work I like an amplifier to be cold and clinical with absolutely no colour at all. We always work very hard to make our speaker systems as flat as possible but why not the rest of the electronics? If I used tubes in this analogy there would be too much colour and it would be difficult to get a "flat" eq. The same goes in the recording studio IMO. However, on playback I like to have the best of both worlds. Big mosfet amps below 1000hz and tubes above. I have built some monster tube power amps in my time but I feel they lack the control down low. But for guitar amplification where the amp is pushed way into overdrive, you need a tube. Most of the odd harmonics are cancelled in the output transformer and the harmonic distortions are even order. These add to the total sound and give the feeling of warmth. A tube HiFi amp can have a distotion figure of 5% or more but it will still sound pleasing to the ear.

[Mr. Widget]

The placebo can at times be more powerful than any other drug. Then again, if you are a diabetic and need insulin, if you forgo the insulin for the placebo, it will likely kill you.


Widget

[Allanvh5150]

The placebo can at times be more powerful than any other drug. Then again, if you are a diabetic and need insulin, if you forgo the insulin for the placebo, it will likely kill you.


Widget

[greyhound]

in my opinion the article tries to tackle the ridicioulous claims that the manufacturers make when it comes to things like silver cables and how they were made by elves in the mountain of mordor and will let you hear things in recordings that arent even there.

or people who pay 40 dollars for a miniature bottle of cd cleaner that will make the sound more transparant and tighten up your bass.
thay dont tell em that a big spray of dashboard cleaner has the exact same ingridients. and costs maybe 2 dollars.

all the things said in the artickle are true but its up to you if you do anything with it.
i know these things but in the end my ears and mood wil decide.
because thats what i need and use whan listening to music.

if you think your music sounds better because of an expensive netfilter
please use it.
i wont say its not possible