Our audible memory is pretty bad and no doubt it gets in the way routinely. But if it's so bad, how is that the high-end audio industry even exists? If you truly belief our echoic memory is so bad, why are any of us high-end audio enthusiasts?
I didn't watch the youtube video yet, but I'm guessing they make no mention of some who are able to train or develop an ability to discern / interpret what we hear? I find it odd how audio enthusiasts can so easily accept that none of us are inheritly born with the developed skills to be a connoisseur of fine art but they must first be educated and/or trained. Yet, when it comes to our listening skils many think we were just born with such abilities to discern / interpret what we hear so long as we passed a hearing test two years ago.
Good questions. IÂ’ve been into high end audio since the late 80Â’s. Took me 25 years to address and understand the answers those same questions.
1. All our senses can be fooled. Our eyes can even make us hear things differently as strange as that is. Echoic memory is 2-4 seconds, Iconic or visual memory is half a second...
2. All experts are also fooled as documented by wine experts, professional violin players, recording engineers and many others when it comes to not being able to see or not having other information to rely on. Hence far from perfect.
3. Define high resolution... recording engineers, the guys that work with the music were 50/50% or random guess determining high resolution. Recording and careful mastering is much more important than resolution. High resolution, as a measure of quality of the build of the gear itself, as in preserving the fragile signal and remaining faithful to the groove, tape or ones and zeros is obviously important but it is also dependent on the source itself or recording quality or it is wasted or only serves to highlight the flaws of the recording itself.
4. 1 in 10,000 people has pitch perfect hearing. I do not so canÂ’t comment. Perhaps they can hear things differently. Judging by blindfolded violin test fail, maybe not so different than the rest of us...
5. LetÂ’s get philosophical... What are your goals in this hobby? I know my goals and they are to acquire gear to listen to my favorite music that beings me pleasure. Mission accomplished. Period. No new shiny boxes every month for me. What I have is completely satisfactory and I have had serious gear in the past.
If your interest lies in the gear itself, great, itÂ’s your hobby, passion and money. Does a new shiny box, new cables, new power conditioner bring you closer to music? If yes, there you go.
6. What absolutes are you trying to achieve? Our hearing declines with every year that ticks by, many suffer from at least mild tinnitus, hearing loss, 3% of the population suffers from a condition they are born with called phonagnosia, where they do not recognize voices of even loved ones.
So why does high end audio exist? Why does any hobby or passion exist? Cars, art, watches, fine wine or even gourmet food and fancy restaurants? I think the answer is obvious. Yet the wine experts still fail... confusing white for red blindfolded.
The moment Diana Krall’s piano and voice rang out “temptation” in that studio, on that day in space and time, just like we are no longer in the same place in the universe, so is that moment, forever gone and replaced by a less than perfect copy of the event. You weren’t there, I wasn’t there, what I hear at home is absolutely fine for my purposes of this hobby. Perhaps you need to get closer still.
Will a new cable get me closer to the less than perfect recording? Even if it did, I have been perfectly happy with my speaker cables for over a decade now, whatever they do or donÂ’t do. IÂ’m listening to much more music than ever yet interest in gear is just about nonexistent unless I decide to setup another system or need to change due to new technology pushing me there.
Perhaps others have other ideas and a different philosophy.
