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What do we hear when we change the direction of a wire?

Douglas Self wrote a devastating article about audio anomalies back in 1988. With all the necessary knowledge and measuring tools, he did not detect any supposedly audible changes in the electrical signal. Self and his colleagues were sure that they had proved the absence of anomalies in audio, but over the past 30 years, audio anomalies have not disappeared anywhere, at the same time the authority of science in the field of audio has increasingly become questioned. It's hard to believe, but science still cannot clearly answer the question of what electricity is and what sound is! (see article by A.J.Essien).

For your information: to make sure that no potentially audible changes in the electrical signal occur when we apply any "audio magic" to our gear, no super equipment is needed. The smallest step-change in amplitude that can be detected by ear is about 0.3dB for a pure tone. In more realistic situations it is 0.5 to 1.0dB'". This is about a 10% change. (Harris J.D.). At medium volume, the voltage amplitude at the output of the amplifier is approximately 10 volts, which means that the smallest audible difference in sound will be noticeable when the output voltage changes to 1 volt. Such an error is impossible not to notice even using a conventional voltmeter, but Self and his colleagues performed much more accurate measurements, including ones made directly on the music signal using Baxandall subtraction technique - they found no error even at this highest level.

As a result, we are faced with an apparently unsolvable problem: those of us who do not hear the sound of wires, relying on the authority of scientists, claim that audio anomalies are BS. However, people who confidently perceive this component of sound are forced to make another, the only possible conclusion in this situation: the electrical and acoustic signals contain some additional signal(s) that are still unknown to science, and which we perceive with a certain sixth sense.

If there are no electrical changes in the signal, then there are no acoustic changes, respectively, hearing does not participate in the perception of anomalies. What other options can there be?

Regards.
anton_stepichev
anton_stepichev OP
150 posts
 
thyname
Because everyone measures stuff at the analog output of stuff. It’s like measuring the sperm count trying to diagnose ALL diseases

You are mistaken. We do not have to diagnose all possible diseases of an audio system. On the contrary, to avoid significant complication of the matter we should regard an amp and all its wiring as a black box with just input and output.

The measurement devices allow us to analyze the difference between electric signals of the input and the output with precision that exceed our hearing possibilities quite a lot.

With proper measurement we can be sure that on the output (on the speaker terminals) there are no RF signals or audible signal distortion and all the more that nothing is changed when we reverse a single wire (see article by Douglas Self). After that, we can say with confidence that the acoustic signal will also not have any interference associated with wires and cables coloration and directivity.

As a result we face the paradoxical situation when we hear what is not presented in the signal. IMO there are two possible ways of thinking about it:

1 - Psychoacoustics and medics are wrong about hearing sensibility. But here we contradict thoroughly checked scientific data derived from the best organised subjective tests ever. And we contradict logic, because wires/cables audibility is perseived against the background of relatively loud noises. Why white noise at -50db level does not mask the microsounds that presumably occur at -100db level? There is no logical answer to this.

2 - Simultaneously with an acoustic signal we perceive some still unknown type of information using sixth sense. No matter how crazy it sounds, this is the only logical explanation for the phenomenon so far. And by the way, the many references about inconsistencies in scientific theories of hearing that Mahgister provided us make this assumption not as crazy as it seems at first.

It would be nice if you suggest another logical explanation of the matter for a change.
     
thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 
I am good. I am unable to suggest another logical explanation of the matter. Good stuff
cmariner1
14 posts
 
You hear it dragging on the floor.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
duddley
78 posts
 
I hear a little voice in the back of my head saying, "Put them back the way they were!".
pauly
1,012 posts
 
If these new models don’t agree with your preconceptions and biases you’ll dismiss them as well.

Anytime scientific model conflicts with observation, the science/scientific model is wrong.

A 100 years ago we believed we fall towards earth because of gravity. Today, we know there is no such thing as gravity. What we thought was gravity, is the distortion of space-time caused by the mass of the earth.

The theory of gravity can explain why we fall off building, but cannot explain why we age slower if we are on the ground floor than if we’re up in the penthouse. (Yes, time moves slower the closer we are to mass.) The theory of space-time explains this phenomenon. Trying to use the theory of gravity to disprove that time moves slower as mass increases is anti science.

The models we have today explain some things we perceive, but clearly not everything. They cannot be used disprove observation that they can’t explain. Science cannot be applied to prove a negative.
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