Music is art. Audio is engineering.

[W9TR]

I’m an engineer by training and a music lover. I may even be an audiophile, although I hesitate, as that term has become pejorative.

If you listened to FM radio in the 80’s and 90’s, before IBOC, there are better than even odds that you were listening through products I designed, especially if you listened to classical or NPR stations. I think this brings a unique perspective around audibility and measurements, what they tell us, what they don’t.

I am constantly surprised by hearing improvements that my engineering brain and current industry measurement practices just don’t capture. Why does my Topping D50 DAC sound like shit, and my Schiit Modi 5 sounds fantastic, even though they measure the same? At the same time, I’m amazed by the number of charlatans pushing products that have a tenuous connection to reality. I’m looking at you, Brilliant Pebbles.

Like any group of passionate people, here at AS we sometimes get caught up in the objective vs subjective debate. Both viewpoints are sometimes wrong, and I’ve tried to articulate this in a meaningful way and come up short. Every time.

Que up the recent AES Convention Keynote by Lars Risbo, CTO of Purifi.
Get a cup of coffee, it’s about a 15 minute read. Let me know what you think.

Unreasonable Audio Innovation

Keynote at the AES160th Convention Reception, Cityhall of Copenhagen,May 29th, 2026

purifi-audio.com

 

[Michaels HiFi]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Mikado463]

Great link, perfect timing a well thought out read..............

 

[Mr Peabody]

Excellent.

Now consider what the ear can actually do. The auditory system can localise sound direction at frequencies as low as 30 Hz — a wavelength of eleven metres — using inter-aural time differences measured in microseconds. Ten to twenty microseconds. Our hearing has been shaped by evolution to detect things our signal-processing models don’t account for. The ear is not a spectrum analyser. It is a pattern-recognition system with extraordinary temporal resolution, and we understand it poorly.

Mic drop

 

[crwilli]

For further thought.

 

[W9TR]

Excellent.

Now consider what the ear can actually do. The auditory system can localise sound direction at frequencies as low as 30 Hz — a wavelength of eleven metres — using inter-aural time differences measured in microseconds. Ten to twenty microseconds. Our hearing has been shaped by evolution to detect things our signal-processing models don’t account for. The ear is not a spectrum analyser. It is a pattern-recognition system with extraordinary temporal resolution, and we understand it poorly.

Mic drop

I had my spatial accuracy tested at the Audio Localization Facility (ALF) at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. I have a spatial resolution of about 2 degrees ‘head on’ which corresponds to an inter-aural time difference of about 18 microseconds. If you use the classic f=1/t relationship that would be a frequency response of 55 kHz, far beyond the 20 kHz sinusoidal frequency response considered to be the limit of human hearing.

I was reminded of this test sitting around our campfire last night when some wolves started howling. I could easily tell where they were located in azimuth. The ability to localize sound is a well developed human survival mechanism!

There’s a lot to unpack in that keynote address…..

 

[W9TR]

For further thought.

When Dr. Milind N. Kunchur published an AES Paper describing the physical properties leading to differences in cable audibility, the denizens of ASR were up in arms. They claimed the AES review board was incompetent (the AES review board are some of the best audio engineers on the planet) and the paper was wrong and should never have been published. Why? Because it challenged their world view. Kind of like flat-earthers. Kind of funny if it weren’t so sad.

 

[JCS123]

Great read, thanks Tom!

I couldn't help but think of politics, religion and food judgement when it comes to competing tribes - with each side thinking the other is out of their minds.

My Mom and Grandma both believed that in most cases, from aspirin to cold medicines to frozen vegetables to soft drinks, the name brand was better than the generic equivalent. I believed that they were practically the same.

Who was right? In some cases, I was. In others, Mom and Grandma were. But only through experimenting and an open mind was I able to concede that. I wish they were still alive today, so I could tell them one more time: You were right again!