Ultraviolet
Your point about headphones is curiously counterintuitive to me.
Shouldn't transducers just next to, or even IN, our ears be capable of resolving fine detail and differences? I have never liked them, but dont many audiophiles go on and on about their Sennheiser 600s or whatever? The pros them in the studio during mastering blah blah blah?
Of course one way to test thsi theory is to simply run this iPod type stuff into your big rig.
As you can read in another one of my threads on this same subject, I found the difference between WAV and MP-3 files wasy to discern EVEN IN MY CAR. A PORSCHE. CONVERTIBLE. WITH AN ILLEGAL STAINLESS STEEL EXHAUST?!?!?!?!?!?! We're not talking Maybach here.
(Not sure what the exact MP3 settings were but I did use the geeky EAC and LAME encoder.)
So to respond to the points above about driving motorcycles and horrible signal to noise ratios, I disagree.
No offense, but maybe those posters could save a lot of money on audio equipment and not care.
I dont think I have the worlds most golden ears, but I have been at this for about 25 years and I am well tuned into the differences of good and bad audio.
I once heard an audio salesman in the 70's complimenting the allegedly golden ears of one of his colleagues, saying the "trick" was "knowing what to listen for".
Isnt that a bit like saying the "trick" to expert wine tasting is to not be suffering from a cold and congestion?
A lower noise floor - of course - contributes to a greater sense of dynamics, a greater sense of detail etc.
But I dont need perfect dead silence, the worlds greatest speakers or some gifted ability to "know what to listen for" to detect a hard edged, strident, fatiguing, compressed sound being blasted directly into my ears.
If you brought a lawnmower into your listening room while cranking your analogue and vacuum tubes, it wouldnt make your stereo sound BAD?!?! It would just add noise.
So with headphones, on a motorcycle, in an airplane -- I still wish these things sounded better, but despite the progress which has been made its still all processed cheese to me.
Your point about headphones is curiously counterintuitive to me.
Shouldn't transducers just next to, or even IN, our ears be capable of resolving fine detail and differences? I have never liked them, but dont many audiophiles go on and on about their Sennheiser 600s or whatever? The pros them in the studio during mastering blah blah blah?
Of course one way to test thsi theory is to simply run this iPod type stuff into your big rig.
As you can read in another one of my threads on this same subject, I found the difference between WAV and MP-3 files wasy to discern EVEN IN MY CAR. A PORSCHE. CONVERTIBLE. WITH AN ILLEGAL STAINLESS STEEL EXHAUST?!?!?!?!?!?! We're not talking Maybach here.
(Not sure what the exact MP3 settings were but I did use the geeky EAC and LAME encoder.)
So to respond to the points above about driving motorcycles and horrible signal to noise ratios, I disagree.
No offense, but maybe those posters could save a lot of money on audio equipment and not care.
I dont think I have the worlds most golden ears, but I have been at this for about 25 years and I am well tuned into the differences of good and bad audio.
I once heard an audio salesman in the 70's complimenting the allegedly golden ears of one of his colleagues, saying the "trick" was "knowing what to listen for".
Isnt that a bit like saying the "trick" to expert wine tasting is to not be suffering from a cold and congestion?
A lower noise floor - of course - contributes to a greater sense of dynamics, a greater sense of detail etc.
But I dont need perfect dead silence, the worlds greatest speakers or some gifted ability to "know what to listen for" to detect a hard edged, strident, fatiguing, compressed sound being blasted directly into my ears.
If you brought a lawnmower into your listening room while cranking your analogue and vacuum tubes, it wouldnt make your stereo sound BAD?!?! It would just add noise.
So with headphones, on a motorcycle, in an airplane -- I still wish these things sounded better, but despite the progress which has been made its still all processed cheese to me.