Exactly
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Expression is not less hard to reach than perfection...
As said the genius french poet René Char :
«Imperfection is the peak»😊
Occam's Razor: The Signal to Noise Ratio
Occam's Razor can be paraphrased as "the best explanation is the simplest one". In the case of audio, I suggest the best "explanation" for the best sound is the highest signal to noise ratio. We commonly pursue this with equipment topology, vibration isolation for turntables, electronics and speakers, electrical isolation with dedicated circuits, component isolation, cable hygiene and all our other efforts to eliminate noise pollution. I believe it extends well beyond this, culminating not in what comes out of the speaker, where I think many folks stop, but rather what finally hits our ears. This means wave interference in the listening room is one of our largest noise contributors.
I have been fortunate in having the time and means to curate a nice system, but I recognized that it would never deliver the best SNR if the signal that leaves the speaker is corrupted by the noise created as it careens throughout the room before it reaches my ear. Over the last few months, I have added room treatments that together cost more than any one single component in my system. I initially paid attention to first reflections, creating what I call the “circle of silence” with absorption on the walls, ceiling and floor. I also directed my efforts towards speaker boundary interference response with appropriate placement of the speakers and listening position. Bass traps and a distributed bass array deal with uneven lower bass response. Not wanting to dull the room with overabsorption, I added pure diffusion or a combination of diffusion and absorption.
What I now have is a system that not only provides a very accurate signal, but one that is not muddied by all of the other signals (noise) bouncing off the room surfaces. Instruments and voices are clear with an obvious start and stop. While the system always had decent width and height, they are greater now. The most significant contribution is that the soundstage now extends in front of and far behind the speakers. On a good rock recording, I can place the drum set, the bass, the keyboard, the vocalists and the guitars three-dimensionally. Classical and jazz are even more remarkable. It is stunning and at times, even startling.
I recognize that not everyone has a room they can devote to their audio pursuits, but within your means and what you and yours find socially acceptable, you should do everything you can to attend to the noise your room adds to your pure and pristine signal. Fuses, power cords, cables, amplifier design, speaker type, etc., all pale in comparison. No matter how your particular equipment tastes run, if you were to put your system in my room, it would likely sound better.
Bottom line, defend and protect your hard won signal from all the noise throughout the entire reproduction process. Everything counts, especially the room.
Showing 7 responses by mahgister
Heifetz is so above most musicians, than someday i remember listening to him in a quintet of Schubert and it will not be my reference version even if i liked it for sure because Heifetz perfect sound control put him unvolontarily in the front seat... It was more a concerto with a soloist than a quintet... It was not his fault his mastery and perfection sound exceed most... I was hearing a concerto for Heifetz not so much Schubert quintet ... 😊 it was thirty years ago and i cannot forget it so astounding and surprizing it was for me ... Sometimes a musician touch something near perfection ...But it can be detrimental in a way when playing with the others who are more casual ordinary mortals...😁 He represent perhaps more than everyone absolute mastery of violin ...it is not even debatable or about taste... Ask any violinist... My favorite violin works is Szeryng Bach sonata first version ....But the Sibelius with Haifetz match it for sure ... No one beat Heifetz...But here in Bach Szering is beside him or not far... Nobody ever beat this Bach interpretation anyway in power of expression for me ... None...Even the Heifetz god...Music is than more than SNR or perfection , it is also some controlled "imperfection" called "expression" ...
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You forgot to observe the way our ears-brain-room will modify a recorded timbre and will transform it in an experienced timbre in a specific way for each different room and ears/brain. Timbre is not reducible to a SNR analysis...
Instead of these too simplistic definition read the article i suggested on psychoacoustics http://acousticslab.org/psychoacoustics/PMFiles/Module06.htm Timbre is not only determined by the harmonic content of the waveforms but by his time envelope and timing dimensions of the room also by the dynamic of the sound...
Your sentence here resume all your misunderstanding:
For sure you are right ...But the physical waveform in the room is an acoustic translation of the recorded waveform not a mere deformation or a perturbation or a mere loss from a so called pure signal but an acoustic positive-negative trade-off transformation which cannot be explained by only a SNR metaphor... For example crosstalk effect result in a loss of spatial information in all stereo system and had no direct relation to only measured SNR of the gear but resulted from physical stereo disposition and physiological conditions. Then you are not wrong you forgot half of the story... Timbre is experienced in a room and with some ears... Then it is not only about electronic reproduction it is about acoustic translation ...Then it is more than just SNR meassures... Psychoacoustics begins before the waveform has hit your eardrums. 😁It begins in the design of the gear itself , for example in the Dr. Choueiri design of his filters to erase the effect of crosstalk . This is way more than SNR physical measures, it is psychoacoustics design . Psychoacoustics is the root and the canopy of the audio tree...Gear design resulted from this science at the end. It is way more than just SNR measures...Your are not even wrong and this is my point... I added only the part of the acoustic story you inconsciously put under the SNR rug metaphor... Audiophile experience is more than buying gear design with good measured SNR, it is also acoustics and psychoacoustics varying parameters in the TRANSLATION of acoustic recorded waveform for your room/ears/brain in another perceived experience which will differ from the recorded waveform by acoustic definition.. No audio system is perfect high fidelity reproduction ... They all translate in a relative way some experience, timbre and spatial acoustic qualities, which are not reducible at all to signal noise ratio on a line
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A timbre experience is a subjective perception which come from a multidimensional set of interacting parameters and cannot be reduced to SNR concept and to a physical waveform... Audio is not so much about the gear but about psychoacoustics... Occam razor is a philosophical concept not an acoustical concept...It is a general methodological concept that cannot be used to justify the reduction of a complex concept and experience as "timbre" to be just a SNR simply measured factor..
In fact the definition of timbre in acoustics EXCLUDE a simple SNR definition based only on the physical waveform spectral distributions ...
«Helmholtz was the first scholar to link timbre (a perceptual aspect of sound waves) to spectral distribution (a physical aspect of sound waves). He specifically focused on the spectral distribution of the steady state portion of sound signals (defined below). This approach overlooked several acoustical aspects of sound signals, such as attack (onset transients) and signal/spectral time variance, both of which have been proven important to timbre perception.»
Then the problem with your description is if the recorded acoustics parameters picked by the sound engineer in this album you listen to can be reduced to SNR total sum of the gear system by contrast the experience you will have from it in your room with your ears/brain specific characteristics cannot be reduced to a SNR . Timbre is a subjective very complex experiencve which cannot be understood and controlled with the SNR concept. Our ears/brain /room condition create the sound experience, they do not convey it in a passive way as a cable or even an amplifier will do adding only some noise level to the signal. Then you description is not even wrong , it is a simplistic reductive reduction of a complex acoustic phenomenon to a set of linear signals on a channel. But the ears/brain dont work linearly in the linear Fourier time domain. Then the SNR concept capture only a part of the audio problem, not the acoustic more important part . All these metaphors Using the SNR concept are not enough to understand timbre experience in a room ... the simplest metaphor are not always the good one , Occam razor or not.... Then you are not even wrong in your description reducing all audio aspects to SNR ...
The reason for such metaphors with SNR is the audiophile focus on gear design more than on acoustics itself...
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I must say that you can apply Occam razor in scientific experiments...Because scientific experiments are created to isolate a factor or a cause to confirm or infirm a theory ... Then the simple explanation which emerge is the factor and cause which is isolated in an experiment designed by a set of measured controls to do it specifically... You cannot apply it in the same directed way in audio experience which is not a singular experiment , but a perceived experience resulting from hundred of factors combined...These factors cannot often be eliminated to improve our experience, they generally must be optimally adressed and put under control one by one and together ... And in audio many factors are not directly related to the SNR as a measured factor of the gear itself but are indirectly contributing to the perceived experience in a huge way... As the electrical grid noise floor of the house, the inner ears measures, the HRTF ( head measures transfer related function ) the acoustic content of the room , his geometry and topology , the vibration-Resonance of the gear, the disturbing effect of crosstalk in any stereo system etc... |
The SNR is a perceived signal value over a noise background, being measured or directly perceived by the ears... It is defined in decibels the signal being posed as higher in decibel over the noisy background..... Then the SNR is inherent to any piece of gear extend to and integrate the house electrical grid which had a noise floor of his own and not only apply to the system pieces ... For sure the room acoustic and the electrical grid of the house and even the vibrations of the gear and the uncontrolled resonance of the speakers will greatly impact the signal perception... Way more than even the choice between two good amplifier with a similar SNR or slightly different SNR as 2 high-end amplifiers for example, or two low cost one with similar measured SNR ..
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