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
oldhvymec,

"...AND yes I worked Aviation also.."

Is there any job or any place on Earth, and apparently above it, that you have not done or been to?

djones51
3,796 posts04-19-2021 8:12pmWe put man on the moon and have now flown a helicopter on Mars and here I sit conversing with idiots that think they can tell if a wire is backwards listening to Pink Floyd.



That is because they are listening to the wire and not to Pink Floyd and equate turning a screw to assemble an actuator to going through a full space qual design and implementation and having something up in space .... and no one ever mentioned cable direction.     But that is nothing. I just read someone claimed the location of an instrument shifted 1/3 of the soundstage due to, wait for it .... wait for it .... copper wire. We have entered the twilight zone.
I have to say all this is a great discussion. My head is vibrating :). @millercarbon you are often snarky and I’ve come to in a perverse way enjoy it much of the time. I have to say your threads are particularly excellent in this discussion. They are really resonating with me, no sarcasm, totally serious. Thanks all for your contributions as well - for the most part. Certainly the usual turds in the punch bowl, but less than normal :). The Audiogon forum, in general, has greatly improved since the biggest turd of them all, whose name will never be repeated again, - he who thought a concrete wall would make the ultimate speakers and that we are all a bunch of idiots for loving this hobby - was finally banished off the island!
"Like Archimedes who waited more than one millenia..."

That is one very patient man.
dletch2,

"We have entered the twilight zone."

You are new one in these woods? Stay a while, it gets even better. I mean, not really better, but entertaining in its own bizarre way.