My lying ears!

What's the old saying about "lies, damn lies and statistics." Stats or specs used in the wrong way are deceptive. Some measurements correlate very nicely to my sound preferences and I pay attention to them. Some don't and I generally ignore them.

A full band width, flat response curve for an integrated system and room is a good example of something important to me. SNR is another. Impedance matching is critical in matching sources, pre amps and amps etc.

Others stats like THD mean very little to me. I would rather have some distortion in an amp (particularly 2nd harmonic) than one with a loads of poorly executed negative feedback and super low distortion. Even power ratings like watts per channel aren't very telling. I would rather see peak outputs for voltage and amps if I had to choose just between the two.

I guess what I am saying, imo measurements matter if they matter and don't if they don't. I know that sounds silly but I think its mistaken to draw a conclusions about the entire concept, one way or the other. I thinks some tend to dismiss them dogmatically as being totally irrelevant to better sound. I think that works to there disadvantage. I think others hang there hats on irrelevant numbers and convince themselves they hear a difference. I know I have done both at one time or another.
 
FlexibleAudio said:
What's the old saying about "lies, damn lies and statistics." Stats or specs used in the wrong way are deceptive. Some measurements correlate very nicely to my sound preferences and I pay attention to them. Some don't and I generally ignore them.

A full band width, flat response curve for an integrated system and room is a good example of something important to me. SNR is another. Impedance matching is critical in matching sources, pre amps and amps etc.

Others stats like THD mean very little to me. I would rather have some distortion in an amp (particularly 2nd harmonic) than one with a loads of poorly executed negative feedback and super low distortion. Even power ratings like watts per channel aren't very telling. I would rather see peak outputs for voltage and amps if I had to choose just between the two.

I guess what I am saying, imo measurements matter if they matter and don't if they don't. I know that sounds silly but I think its mistaken to draw a conclusions about the entire concept, one way or the other. I thinks some tend to dismiss them dogmatically as being totally irrelevant to better sound. I think that works to there disadvantage. I think others hang there hats on irrelevant numbers and convince themselves they hear a difference. I know I have done both at one time or another.
Click to expand...

The thing about taking measurements regularly and correlating it with listening, you learn HOW to correlate what you see on the screen with what your ears are hearing. I've gotten to the point where I can sit and listen to a couple tracks I know for 30 seconds each, and in 5 minutes draw a 20hz-20khz graph with pretty high accuracy. I can also tell you the areas that have higher IMD, I can easily hear phase mis-matches between drivers, and energy storage is obvious to my ears as well.

It took a few years, but I'm very glad now that I took the time to learn that skill.

And btw, when it comes to speaker, just about all manufacturers lie about their specs. It's shameful, but since most reviewers don't take measurements, they can't challenge the claims and the manufacturer gets away with it.
 
Fun read. Anyone who has built electronic/speakers/etc or worked in studios/production, etc. long enough, can probably relate.
Twiddling with EQ settings...only to find it was in bypass:facepalm::lol:
 
Vapor1 said:
The thing about taking measurements regularly and correlating it with listening, you learn HOW to correlate what you see on the screen with what your ears are hearing. I've gotten to the point where I can sit and listen to a couple tracks I know for 30 seconds each, and in 5 minutes draw a 20hz-20khz graph with pretty high accuracy. I can also tell you the areas that have higher IMD, I can easily hear phase mis-matches between drivers, and energy storage is obvious to my ears as well.

It took a few years, but I'm very glad now that I took the time to learn that skill.

And btw, when it comes to speaker, just about all manufacturers lie about their specs. It's shameful, but since most reviewers don't take measurements, they can't challenge the claims and the manufacturer gets away with it.
Click to expand...

Measurements challenge the opinionated only review/Reviewer , so of course they hate measurements, most reviewers today are really not qualified to be reviewing audio equipment , not to mention some of the poor listening environments used ...
 
a.wayne said:
Measurements challenge the opinionated only review/Reviewer , so of course they hate measurements, most reviewers today are really not qualified to be reviewing audio equipment , not to mention some of the poor listening environments used ...
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Even at the risk of opening the proverbial can, I'm going to have to agree with you ;)
 
Here we go with the reviewer bashing again. A. Wayne, you seem to have it in for reviewers in general and some reviewers in particular. Why don't you tell us why you have a constant need to grind your ax and which reviewers aren't "qualified" to be reviewers in your expert opinion? What kind of a room does a reviewer need before he can review equipment? Who says all reviewers hate measurements? Why don't you start up the A. Wayne reviewer academy and certify people to be reviewers since you seem to know it all when it comes to reviewing?

Frankly I'm sick of your constant reviewer bashing and if you aren't reigned in soon AS will become one more forum with no reviewers left as members.
 
Projecting ? you are the one with the personal bashing and dogma, any reason for this personal attack on my opinion and AS on a whole ..


interesting way to have a discussion ...
 
a.wayne said:
Projecting ? you are the one with the personal bashing and dogma, any reason for this personal attack on my opinion and AS on a whole ..


interesting way to have a discussion ...
Click to expand...

Nice try at deflection. Let's see if Mike buys it because I'm not.
 
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