How Science Got Sound Wrong

I know what he’s thinking: Why is he talking to me like that? What did I do? 🤗

Ethan, is that you? Here’s another quote you might enjoy.

“During the 1980s I became involved in the research into the apparent anomalies on Mars, initially working with Richard Hoagland and later with the Society for Planetary Seti Research. I'm still on the fence about some of these Mars features, but to me the most interesting part of that experience was my encounter with the bizarre irrationality and bullying tactics of the debunker community, many of whom fancied themselves scientists but were happy to behave perfectly unscientifically when it came to controversial subject matter.”

Is that my cue?

“Seeing with humility, curiosity and fresh eyes was once the main point of science. But today it is often a different story. As the scientific enterprise has been bent toward exploitation, institutionalization, hyperspecialization and new orthodoxy, it has increasingly preoccupied itself with disconnected facts in a psychological, social and ecological vacuum. So disconnected has official science become from the greater scheme of things, that it tends to deny or disregard entire domains of reality and to satisfy itself with reducing all of life and consciousness to a dead physics.

Science seems in many ways to be treading the weary path of the religions it presumed to replace. Where free, dispassionate inquiry once reigned, emotions now run high in the defense of a fundamentalized "scientific truth." As anomalies mount up beneath a sea of denial, defenders of the Faith and the Kingdom cling with increasing self-righteousness to the hull of a sinking paradigm. Faced with provocative evidence of things undreamt of in their philosophy, many otherwise mature scientists revert to a kind of skeptical infantilism characterized by blind faith in the absoluteness of the familiar. Small wonder, then, that so many promising fields of inquiry remain shrouded in superstition, ignorance, denial, disinformation, taboo . . . and debunkery.”

When the first atom bomb exploded in the desert a lot of theories suddenly became facts. Duh! 

Most definitely not an English majors? OK. Let me guess, History major? Am I close? I thought we got rid of that “you can’t prove anything” philosophy when the Beatles broke up.

teo_audio
As god knows, since science says there are no facts and all is theory, as thing change constantly..well..

>>>>Whoa! Huh?! That makes no sense on any level. Are you maybe an English major? 

The bass frequencies of CDs aren’t that great, either, if you ask me. I’m just trying to be helpful here. The bass of CDs - unless certain uh, protocols are followed - lack definition, depth, fullness, slam, pop, bloom and pizazz. In fact, I’d opine bass frequencies are largely missing in action. Afterthought - the midrange ain’t that great, either. Yes, I know, a lot of people out there will say, But my system sounds fabulous! 

I’m afraid things are much worse than audiophiles think they are. Are sensory perceptions are influenced by not only the obvious physical conscious reality around us but also by the subconscious physical reality, that over which we have no control. It is what it is, it’s the way we developed over hundreds of thousands of years, how humans selectively evolved to be able to survive in a world fraught with danger. Danger all around. Danger from above 🦅 danger from below 🐊 danger from all manner of man eating beasts 🐅. His senses of hearing and vision are especially alert 🚨 to any hint of danger. And his adrenaline starts pumping and his legs start moving as soon as he detects a threat. Feets don’t fail me now! 🏃‍♂️

Man has very evolved extremely complex and clever threat detection and threat avoidance systems. You could say the brain is like a transceiver, operating consciously and subconsciously. You can’t just turn them off. You could even go so far as to say it’s akin to Mind-Matter Interaction. Or even ESP. In this modern world with all manner of potential threats colors, some “unnatural” shapes, our personal communications devices 📱 connected to an uncertain and dangerous world 😬 and many other things too numerous to list here can affect our perception of sound.

As fate would have it, humans are in virtually CONSTANT stress because there are so many “triggers” in our local environment. Thus, Mr. Audiophile sitting in the comfort of his Lazy Boy cannot distinguish between the conscious physical reality and the subconscious mental reality. He can’t blame the sound entirely on the integrity of the acoustic waves.

It’s not the CD, it’s the CD player. The CD data is fantastic by and large. The problems are all in the CD player. Even “digitally remastered” cassettes are more “musical” than CDs, generally speaking. It’s not really an industry problem, though, it’s more like a CD player design problem. At the same time the digital vs analog debate suffers the problem of too many variables. Final answer.

One thing you can’t hide is when you’re broken inside. 🎶

If you could hear what I’ve heard with my ears.

It’s not very difficult to find a vinyl system that’s better than the average CD system. But it’s very hard to find a CD system that is better than the average vinyl system. Of course, if you can stand the blandness and boredom of CDs you’re one up on me.

Moops you’re always funny, I don’t care what anybody says. You’re almost ready for standup.

atdavid, you’re being much too modest. 

But that is only because you know everything and no one else understands.

ruraltraumasurgeon
These arguments are mostly specious, as was the original article that was referenced. Most neurons exhibit graded spikes - few exhibit fixed amplitude. An optimal example is three-dimensional auditory space in the mesencephalon which contains "incidence detector neurons." Also - human listeners compensate for a range of auditory incongruities - we are not digital as has been suggested. The medial orbitofrontal cortex is the site in the human brain where the highest level of auditory processing occurs, including compensation.

>>>>>>Is there any compensation for translating that paragraph?

You can’t handle the truth. 

You can control the loudness with the volume knob. But there’s nothing you can do about dynamic range. It is what it is. By the way, it’s not a trade off. There is no advantage to overly compressing dynamic range during remastering other than being able to increase level on the CD. It’s for the iPod and iPhone generation. You know, the folks who buy most of this stuff. Hel-loo!

Lack of dynamic range automatically makes the music $hitty. The good gnus 🐃 🐃 🐃 is most systems don’t have an excess of dynamic range anyway.

It looks like it’s you and the teeny boppers, glubson. That sounds about right.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t smart enough to realize sending Dr. Ellie Arroway into a black hole in order to get her to Vega in his book Contact was a one-way ticket to oblivion. Fortunately, Kip Thorne of LIGO fame convinced him to change the mode of travel to a worm hole.

atdavid660 posts12-05-2019 11:06amYou are referring to something that some people actual like ... whether we do or not.

>>>>I assume you mean teeny boppers, I.e., someone who doesn’t know the difference.

Mahlman
It’s aggressivedynamic range compression I’m referring to. You know, the suffocation of the music. 🥵
OK how do you reverse such a thing, if it can be done? Have you tried Audacity? For my purposes it does seem to make things better most of the time.

>>>>>I don’t think it can be reversed. The best thing would be to stop doing it. But since they probably won’t stop it - it’s actually gotten much worse - I obtain CDs issued prior to the start of the Loudness Wars, mid-late 1990s. I also consult the Dynamic Range Database if I’m debating buying a more recent issue. 

atdavid, You appear to be blissfully ignorant of the Loudness Wars. But that’s OK, it’s a common newbie mistake. What I’m referring to isn’t simply dynamic range compression which a great many recordings have always exhibited to some degree. It’s aggressive dynamic range compression I’m referring to. You know, the suffocation of the music. 🥵

wyoboy
I doubt he has any hearing left anyway--especially after all those sessions with Crazy Horse--i suppose i could cut him some slack and interpret his rants as being solely about compression of dynamic range in digital? Nah, even though i like his early work he’s still full of it...

>>>>Sadly Neil Young was onto the whole CD scam before dynamic range compression set in. But that probably didn’t help. Apparently there are people in this world who find CDs completely objectionable, you know, what with the thinness, shrillness, two dimensionality, and missing information.

Neil Young would probably have had a much different outcome had he known any audiophiles who were into tweaks. As I’ve oft observed not much good can come of playing untreated CDs on stock un-tweaked systems, especially in-tweaked CD players. 

Well, for one thing it’s a giant logical fallacy, I’m just not sure which one. It’s possible it’s the sky is blue logical fallacy. Or is it the we are all robots fallacy? Difficult to say. It might also be the I know everything but you don’t understand fallacy.

I suspect we know pretty much everything there is to know about what’s out there in the great behind, I mean great beyond. Time to move on. Get over it. 

While not on the topic exactly, it’s an interesting observation nevertheless that nuclear fission, long thought impossible, was confirmed and explained 8 1/2 months prior to Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Also of some interest is that fission occurs in heavy elements because the nucleus of the atom behaves like a drop of liquid.

mahlman
Hey GK, I only get like a half bar on my phone and what would the bar level be on average with the TT? Have you ever thought about adding solar flare protection to the tweak?

>>>>That was included in version 1.2.2. Free downloads to customers. Just point your phone at the sky for 5 minutes.

ieales

Musicians. Now, there is a group of people who cannot hear!

said the guy who knows one.

Of the hundreds of musicians and engineers I worked with, I’d say most could hear better than your average NASA crank.

>>>>I assume you’re referring to construction work. 

Don’t hurt yourself.

glubson
Did I finally get to the bottom of this?

>>>>You got to the bottom of your bottom.

Musicians. Now, there is a group of people who cannot hear! I’m not sure why but I’m guessing it’s because of being blasted by all those instruments 🎺 instruments 🎻 at close range, but who knows? One of the worst systems I even had the displeasure to hear belonged to the first oboist of the National Symphony. He had great equipment, too, all Cello electronics and monster 8’ Cello speakers. He was a Cello dealer. That Cello stuff ain’t cheap plus he has $10K worth of room treatment. He just couldn’t hear, that’s all. That’s evidence, baby! 🤗

Without giving away any secrets I can tell you the following. 

1. There is no limit to the distance the TT will work. It would almost certainly work on Mars or the Moon is there were any audiophiles there.
2, Not only does the customer’s system not have to be ON at the time the TT is performed but the caller doesn’t have to be home. In fact, he can be calling from another city or country or from an aircraft.
3.The caller will find his reception has improved a couple of bars after the TT has been performed
4. If the customer’s system is ON and playing music at the time I do the TT I can instantly hear the improvement over the phone as I’m doing it.
5.The customer is free to listen to the TT or not. Some choose not to listen. 😬
6. The TT is permanent until the customer replaces the phone. In which case the TT must be done on the new phone.
7. For best results all phones in the house should get the TT.

There are several topics under discussion. One is why digital sounds so horrible. Especially why digital generally can’t match the tonality or dynamic range of vinyl. Also, why digital playback seems to be missing a considerable amount of information. Agree? Disagree? Talk amongst yourselves.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The basis of most of the elements of an Aerospace Engineering curriculum lies in 🔜theoretical physics 🔚 such as fluid dynamics for aerodynamics or the equations of motion for flight dynamics. There is also a strong element of empirical science as in wind tunnel testing and rocketry. 🚀

As far as I know they don’t teach this in Engineering school. “If you consider the short answer as a kind of joke the answer to what is relativity is that formerly it was believed that if all material things disappeared out of the universe time and space would be all that was left. But according to relativity theory time and space would disappear along with the things.” A. Einstein

At Virginia my Aerospace Engineering program like any school included mucho physics, theoretical physics, statistical thermodynamics, mucho math, chemistry, theoretical propulsion, fluid dynamics (physics), statics and dynamics (uh, physics), nuclear engineering (physics), indeterminate structures, and many other courses.

I don’t do this too often but I’m going to reveal something about the Teleportation Tweak. Introduction to How the Teleportation Tweak Works (the whole story can finally be told),

“Now, there’s been a lot of speculation that the Teleportation Tweak involves sending subliminal messages over the phone - which actually isn’t a bad idea lol ..."you are getting sleepy and your system sounds just like a really really big system...Magicos and Continuum Caliburn and the really big DarTZeels..." or sending frequency sweep audio signals or low frequency demagnetizing fade signals over the phone, akin to the demag tracks of the XLO Test CD. But those aren’t what I do, not even close and a little too mundane, anyway. Fact is, when I do the Teleportation Tweak for a customer his system doesn’t have to ON at the time, nor does he even have to be in the house! Hel-looo! So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give away some of the "tricks" involved with the Teleportation Tweak. Watch this space. I will be running around doing a bunch of things today and the next few days and will be filling in the blanks on the fly.”

We didn’t understand. Thanks for correcting us. 😬 It won’t happen again. Scout’s honor. ✌️

atdavid
Arguably rarely right. The naysayer is almost always wrong. Sometimes they are right, and they end up with a Nobel prize, not selling a "Teleportation Tweak" to gullible customers.

“If I could explain it to the average Joe Blow they wouldn’t have given me the Nobel prize.”

“People would generally be much better off in their lives if they believed in too much rather than too little.” - PT Barnum (gee, that quote seems tailor made for Mr. Smarty Pants 👖)

glupson

I’m the most successful one selling things on this site.

Is Teleportation Tweak considered a "thing" or it is some other state of non-being?

>>>>That’s a commendable question. Personally I’m not sure what it should be considered. But I know it’s both the lightest audiophile tweak AND the only audiophile tweak that doesn’t involve shipping or costs thereof. It also cannot be reversed, unlike phone calls. Yet, it is guaranteed. You don’t see that kind of customer support too much, I’m afraid.

Audiophile tweaks are like pudding. The proof is in the eating. No technical arguments or explanations are required. And if one is desired I have the definitive explanation of how the Teleportation Tweak works on my web site.

I never said I was the only one selling things. What I said was I’m the most successful one selling things on this site. Good luck with your little lens project. 

Malman, I’m not trying to set the world on fire, just start a flame in a few hearts. I can always use another stalker, though. It’s all good. Welcome aboard, cowboy! 

malman
Everybody, at least almost everybody, picks on geoffkait’s wares for being, ummm, slightly questionable. He is the joke of audiogon never taken seriously.

>>>>Be that as it may I am no. 1 in sales and feedback. Have been for a great many years here. Guess I get to have the last laugh, cowboy. When I was in school I told people I was going to be a comedian one day and they all laughed at me. Well, noone’s laughing now! As for looking at your virtual system I’ve think I’ve seen enough. But thanks, anyway.

I apologize for glubson, too. 

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. 

What would that prove, Junior? You think these hands have been soaking in Ivory Liquid?

Just as I suspected all along, malman is a virtual pinhead. 

Half a wit is better than no wit at all. Congrats, atdavid! 🤗

Did you think of that all by yourself? Maybe you should consider getting someone to write your jokes for you as yours are not too good. Comedy is subjective. Maybe you should get someone to debate for you, too, now that I think about it. See, that’s funny! 😛

OK, want to hear a joke? What do you get when you cross a mentally slow learner with a community that abandons him and treats him like trash? You get what you deserve! An angry pseudo-skeptic. 😡