Eyeglasses, learning to listen and circuit design

[@larryhoffman7471]

So there's a bit of art to engineering! Knowing which part to change to get the result you're looking for. Fabulous!

[@user-od9iz9cv1w]

What a pleasant way to start my day. With Paul chatting about cooking pasta and audio buffers.

[@paulrs2975]

Yes, this was one of your best videos! Informative w/ the JFET switch, and a personel touch

[@zulumax1]

Paul without a smidge, or dash of ramble, just wouldn't be Paul. Just gives it a little flavor, or patina if you will. Just do what you do and we enjoy the ride. Thanks for sharing your life experiences and wisdom.

[@royli3260]

Hi Paul, bless you sir! I've been watching your videos for a number of years now & have enjoyed them all. I was watching the news about a late actor and a musician both of whom passed away. Whose work I had grown up with/admired & enjoyed - thankfully both have their work as a legacy available to their fans. I realised the magnitude of your book project - teaching how to listen/make it sound good is an absract art for most folk. Without future-minded individuals such as yourself such knowledge would easily be lost. I wish you the very best in your endeavour!

[@unclewilbur8976]

That may be rambling to some, but to me it was just right. Very interesting. And hearing the solution for etched sound was extremely interesting!!!! Tell more stories about designing! 😊

[@larserikpettersen6658]

This is the reason I’m always listening without eyeglasses. I’m also listening to music in the dark or with closed eyes because then I’m not looking at the speakers to see where the music is coming from

[@tubefreeeasy]

On this past Friday, I placed two 10” concrete forming tubes beside my nearfield desktop system. It helped create an enclosed soundstage that made the sound even wider than before. I found my bliss.

[@LanceGreidet-bi9zk]

Paul your entraining I'll say that I try not to miss your videos Thanks

[@ericyum6729]

I don’t play but I love to listen to Jazz. I really enjoyed your vid. It helps me to appreciate the music more

[@spandel100]

What type of Jazz?My preference is smooth jazz.The syrupy flowing stuff with jazz guitars at the forefront.Joyce Cooling,Norman Brown etc.

[@PanAmStyle]

Paul, your description of the new component missing something - roundness, solidity, or however it’s described is something I describe as not having “beauty as well as truth.” I have a very good solid state amp sitting in its box because it didn’t have the beauty of an amp costing half as much. And yes, the less expensive amp DOES have truth. But it also has beauty. And beauty is truth, too.

[@tomday7309]

Thanks for the lesson regarding listening and your journey as a tech nerd. A similar process was involved in my journey with wine. What's good and what's bad and what went wrong in the process if it's off and how to fix it. More importantly, how to repeat the "great" ones. Taste is just another sensory experience that can be trained somewhat. Listening is harder these days, I think, because of the noisy world we live in and its effect on our ability to hear nuanced sounds.

[@bayard1332]

I've been on a bit of a thing this year about trying to explain to all the folks who scream snake oil all the time that listening is a learned skill that takes a long time to learn and if you haven't actually done the work to learn it... It's a much more involved and comprehensive skill than people realize. It is a process that involves the whole body, not just the ears. Chefs are not born with the tasting skills needed to be a chef, Sailors are not born with the skills needed to tune or drive a sailboat, same with motorcycle racers and car racers and the list of things is endless. The body is an amazingly sensitive and accurate sensory device that can use considerably more than the 5 primary senses, but you have to learn to listen to it and understand what it is telling you.

[@shipsahoy1793]

You and Paul could sell elephant tusks to caveman😂

[@bayard1332]

@@shipsahoy1793 Your comments are not the flex you think they are.

[@onnonugteren2935]

Ha!! :-) I thought I was the only one who noticed this! :-) you made my day telling me I am a real observer! Never heard of someone doing this but I really did hear the difference and OF COURSE!! You do put a barriere before your ears and face and thus make your listening surface complete different. Like a cat directing his ears. Of course it makes a difference! 🙂 also hands or your arms behind your ears .. or a wall etc etc. Great I thought I was the only one who discovered this! 🙂

[@robertmoi8400]

Mosfets are awesome. I upgraded my car stereo ten years ago. Back then I didn't know much about hifi equipment's but I went with reputable brand, Sony. I used to wonder why my car stereo sounded great. Cheap low performance speakers still sound great in the car. I had to spend a lot of money and time in my home audio just to surpass it. later this year found out that the my car amp is actually a class AB Mosfet amp from Sony. I like the FET's sound.

[@pimvanvliet2812]

I came here for audio advice. Now I want to know how to make that celeriac recipe! Always fun Paul.

[@DalstonVinyl]

I like the glasses anecdote, and along those lines I recently had six molars extracted, and it has improved my listening greatly! My already pretty good system here in London sounds slightly (but clearly noticeably) more detailed, which is particularly true of sung vocals...it's just more resolved now. Let me make clear, im NOT recommending drastic dental surgery as an upgrade path, but its definitely improved my listening experience. 😂 PS (sorry for the pun!), I can think of at least two plausible explanations for this effect.

[@kenp9073]

Does the brand of lazyboy matter? Should I put both feet on the floor, or can I sit cross legged? Can I hold a cup of coffee, or should both hands be on the arm rests? What about a glass of Scotch? Can anyone else be in the room? Does all this channge?

[@ryanschipp8513]

Exactly! How old is the lights are turned on or off? Does the sound hit the light beams when the lights are on and when the lights are off it sounds better because it's not hitting light beams

[@stevet7487]

​​​@@ryanschipp8513If you want to be successful at being sarcastically critical, I would suggest you clean up your composition skills." How old is the lights turned on or off?" I recognized your other comment later on for the same reason.

[@ryanschipp8513]

@@stevet7487 it's called text to speech screwed up my sentence. I often talk into the phone and that's the phone

[@PanAmStyle]

@@ryanschipp8513So then don’t use a flawed product.

[@pimianimavdo1523]

Yes, eyewear can affect sound perception... You know what else can affect what you hear? Atmospheric pressure, humidity levels & temperature. You know what else can also affect what you hear? What you wear... & your hair (also lack of it ;) ) and even just moving a tad (or a lot) in your multiple axis vs the transducers (or whatever single or multiple point sources you are listening to...). And you know what else can act on your listening? Your mood, your stress levels, what you eat & even your own blood pressure... Funny how humans adapt (often by looking around to reassure oneself about what is sounding/playing). & don't even get me started on time of day vs power grid's effects on our gear... or the relative quality of recording releases (even of the same performance). Not to mention Compression & Autotune! (Beurk!) Audio: what a wonderful world ;) PS Having said all this, true HiFi is a real thing and once you have tasted/experienced it, it is hard to listen to bad stuff ;)

[@willsullivan3]

We LOVE the rambling, Paul. Keep it up! Your daily vids have been getting shorter and shorter...and considerably less interesting. 10+ minutes is great! There's my nickel (an inflated two cents).

[@JohnJackson66]

What if you are used to the way the world sounds when you are wearing glasses, isn't that your baseline?

[@edwardmichaelkenway771]

Accurate measurement is not always perfect, it is completely correct. I think this is because the analog signal always has an incalculable part in calculations, and digital was invented for this incalculable part of analog and failed to satisfy many because of the defect in the removed part (This is the reason for my interest in vinyl)

[@WeBe-p9i]

It’s very interesting to hear THAT it’s important to learn how to listen. How about next time diving into it, telling us some of the steps or mental procedures you undertake to do so??

[@soulshinobi]

Enjoyed the tangents on this one

[@SubotAudio]

Paul just made me hungry.

[@ryanschipp8513]

Paul, what if I'm drinking my beer in a glass versus a cup that's plastic? What what if I have clothes on or if I'm naked? What if it's 68° in my room or 69.25? What if I'm right-handed or I'm left-handed? I'm concerned some of these situations will affect the bass response in my room;);)

[@Thoughtflux]

Hey Paul, you could use music from your studio and maybe do a masterclass on the art of listening. One can hear a lot of nuisance even on KZbin. You can use special recordings gear, use your speakers and gear to demonstrate sound stage, depth, layering etc.

[@myronhelton4441]

Many of us would like to be bright as Paul on electronics. I have heard Paul talk about vegetarians 3 times. I am a vegetarian for a long long time. But I heard Paul 3 years ago say that he cut out dairy products, so Paul made me cut out dairy products, too. I eat a lot of whole wheat pasta, I hope Paul & I dont get diabetes.

[@stimpy1226]

I don’t think Paul is rambling at all when he talks about the differences between bipolar junction and field effect transistors. Audio design engineers all over the world would probably agree and many new pre and amplifier components are designed this way.

[@leaveempty5320]

After spending a lot of time fixing audio gear it took me a while to get back into listening to music. I had trained myself to listen for clipping, distortion and "through" the music for hum, hiss can crackle pretty much ignoring the actual music.

[@deanhallberg3340]

Stop! Love your channel. But, does the shape of our head and face change the sound? If so how do we make valid comparisons?

[@mattbonaccio3522]

Does the shape of your head change whenever you swap speakers or electronics??

[@ParbhdeepSingh]

WHAT DO YOU DO TO FIX THE IMAGING PROBLEM FOR GLASSES-WEARERS?

[@whome8192]

I’m rambling, so here is some more rambles. How do I get some of that pistachio, miso, cellars root bjt, fet, and perhaps some GaN SiC fet salad. I see you. Does SiC Fets have a place in audio?

[@johnfoster2592]

I agree. Wearing" spectacles " affects my perception of sound stage and frequency response. I remember that Be Yamamura would actually remove people's glasses during listening sessions. Hard to believe, but true. Thanks for bringing this up through the letter. Thanks for all you do for audio.

[@ryanschipp8513]

Yeah and if you take your glasses off the bass response is so much smoother LOL

[@chrischillino412]

When's the analog audio book coming out?

[@stimpy1226]

I remove my glasses when I listen to music on my system because I feel them on my head, more and I don’t want to feel anything except for the sound of the music. Makes sense to me. Might not make sense to you.

[@jedi-mic]

What you're describing is the overshoot on the opamp? put a different value capacitor and you'll get a more romantic sound

[@traildoggy]

I would like a masterclass on listening to the music instead of the equipment.

[@InsideOfMyOwnMind]

A)Parmesan is not vegan. B) When the pinky comes out near perfection is at hand.

[@Evil_Peter]

Paul isn't vegan either, he's a vegetarian.

[@TheEvolvingAudioNut]

Makes me wonder about the affect your nose has. Not a lot that can be done about that. I'm guessing Frank Zappa had a different listening experience than most? 🤪

[@heinebohmann1566]

Not to mention Pete Townshend

[@rob4912]

Paul! What fet did you use? I am looking for an alternative for the 2sk170

[@Bassotronics]

A paulsfet

[@mattbonaccio3522]

The Linear Systems LSK170 is a drop-in replacement for the original Toshiba part (and is rumored to be made using the same tooling...). That said, if you just need a decent N-channel JFET, the 2SK209 is quite good for audio use, especially if you can parallel a couple of them up. The catch: it only comes in a SOT23 surface mount package. There also is no P-channel complement.

[@jeffstockton534]

I'm fairly certain I don't hear better with blurred vision.

[@Geerladenlad]

So using the same scientific principle if a guy or woman had a large nose they could get a rhinoplasty surgery reducing the size of their nose thereby improving the imaging.😂

[@mikeeygauthier2959]

What about HAIR over the EARS?

[@jondu-sud274]

Ramble on.......

[@lnielse1]

Anything that affects your current state of mind will influence how you perceive sounds at that moment. Not to mention the placebo effect... The sound reflecting off of your glasses? Audiophile baloney. Placebo all the way..... if you're listening with your glasses off be careful not to trip over your cable risers😮

[@Sonus1002]

I'm the opposite. I usually listen with glasses on even in the dark. It puts me completely off locking at the wall or ground and not having clear vision. Also, if things like that are important in audio, you should consider your hair length, beard and rhinoplasty! And don't listen in the morning when your pillow pushes your ears towards your head! Maybe that's why most women aren't audiophiles? Their hair obstruct sounds.

[@jondu-sud274]

Yep ! the glasses do make a difference, maybe with the "glasses on" then parts of my brain become more alert for visual inputs and is distracted from listening - just my fourpeneth worth

[@CurlyHoward928]

Wow! How do you do something longer than you have been alive? Now put that in a bottle and sell it.

[@johnkeenan9495]

Wow, I wouldn't have imagined such a small thing would been a big contributing factor

[@bayard1332]

HiFi's have an endless supply of small things that make a huge impact.

[@heinebohmann1566]

Did someone tell you that last night? 😊

[@spacemissing]

If it measures good but sounds bad, it's bad. If it sounds good but measures bad, it's bad.

[@NoEgg4u]

@8:29 "In this case, it just balanced it out." And I bet that the measurements, @4:57, were no longer measuring as good. And I also bet that the "everything can be measured" minions would still purchase the better measuring "bipolar junction transistor" equipped version over the better sounding "field effect transistor" version. And I also bet that the "everything can be measured" minions will insist that there is no need to do listening tests between the two versions, because they have their measurements. If everything can be measured, then the "everything can be measured" minions should explain how to measure their own brain's reality synapse impasses and miswirings. Perhaps the fake, pretending to be a scientist "Amir" can give us measurements that explains all of the above "everything can be measured" brain wiring anomalies?

[@mikepxg6406]

"eyeglasses" where else would you put your glasses on your leg. They are just glasses.........