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Is the appeal to euphonic distortion learned?

Hi everyone,

I have been thinking a little bit about the idea of euphonic distortion. The idea that we can make an amplifier or preamplifier sound better by not being so absolutely true to the input. The common story is that by adding 2nd order harmonics the music sounds more pleasant to more people. Certainly Pass has written a great deal, and with more nuance and detail about this and makes no bones about his desire to make a good sounding, rather than well measuring product.

Lets keep this simple description of euphonic distortion for the sake of argument, or we’ll devolve into a definition game.

I’m wondering whether it is possible that this is in large part learned? For instance, if I grew up with non-euphonic amps and then was exposed to an amp with high amounts of 2nd order distortion would I like it? Is the appeal here one which you have to have learned to like? Like black coffee through a French press?

And this discussion is of course in line with my thoughts about the ear/brain learning process. That there are no absolute’s in music reproduction because we keep re-training our ears. We keep adjusting what we listen to and ultimately at some point have to decide whether the discrimination between gear makes us happier or not. (Go ahead writers, steal this topic and don't mention me again, I know who you are).
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by cleeds

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cleeds
5,657 posts
 
dave_b
... So much nonsense spewed out over such a simple equation ... Listen and decide for yourself and stop pretending to be able to quantify the experience!
It really doesn’t matter what other people do. But what’s odd is that the measurementalists here seem to insist that we are somehow obligated to them to provide things such as results of our own blind tests. Time and again, we read posts such as "the onus is on you to ..." when no such obligation exists. Those who resist such demands have - over just the last few days - been told their opinions are "worse than useless" and that they are stupid, or deluded, or have ulterior motives.

For those who seek absolute, documented, verifiable scientific data, I can only note: This a hobbyist’s group, not a scientific forum. Please take those demands elsewhere.

I’ve also noticed that the measurementalists don’t seem to offer the results of their own blind testing. Why is that?
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