HiFi Specs Lie: Why You Should Trust Your Ears!

[@PassionforSound]

Error corrections: 1) There's a typo around 14:27. When it says "Appox." on screen, it should be "Approx." It's not just some fancy scientific term ;) 2) At 17:10 the 6dB quieter sound is the one perceived further away than the 6dB louder sound

[@stephenmeckley]

I have been waiting for this video for about a decade! Cannot thank you enough for this. Our brains are so fascinating, and the studies discovering how we precieve sound are mind blowing! Would love to learn more of these studies.

[@phantomplastics6582]

You should watch Thomas Tan's video on how many months he spent testing capacitors as they changed the sound so much. Reinforces your capacitance comments. Alpha Audio proved that cables can smear sound, they measured it.

[@giorgosapo4508]

Incredible video 👏🏻 very educational and a pleasure to watch. Thank you very much for all the content that you have been producing and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ❤️

[@ccdccd8615]

I appreciate this video, but all this detail masks some underlying truths. 1st, you could get the idea that the human ear wants the most accurate sound reproduction. Our ears might, but we certainly don’t. A couple of quick examples. Tubes are not more accurate, but the sound is very appealing to many audiophiles. One reason is that they produce a fair amount of 2nd order harmonic distortion which is pleasing to our ears. Another example: speakers. If our ears are such highly tuned and accurate instruments, why don’t we all agree on what are the best kinds of transducers and speakers??? You simply cannot take the subjectivity out of the hobby. I agree with your point about specifications. There is a tenuous connection between specs and the sound we appreciate. Take damping factor. A high damping factor indicates that the amp has full control over the woofer. But that doesn’t mean that is the bass presentation that we want to hear. I can think of several amps, even all amps produced by a certain company that have low damping factors that are so low as to be in the audible range and these products are well reviewed and liked. One of the things I love about Galion is that Thomas Tan isn’t even pretending to make the best measuring equipment, he is trying to make the best sounding equipment based on his ears and his experience. Lots of other companies are quietly doing the exact same thing because most audiophiles, including myself, are not interested in the most accurate sound. We want the sound most pleasing to our ears. And we all have music we love with crappy recordings and don’t want the crappy recording spoiling our love of that music. All of this raises some troubling questions for lots of equipment. Let’s take SS amps. If most audiophiles want the amp most pleasing to our ears, specs be damned, what are reviewers or audiophiles listening for??? Are there sound signatures to strive for? Do they change with the type of speakers or other equipment you have??? I’m building a system right now. The tweeter is a compression driver in a horn. Because of the synergy between horns and tubes, I chose the most “tubes” SS amp I could find, based on the comments of reviewers and people who previously purchased the amp. If I upgrade at some point in the future, tube amps need only apply. But what if my equipment had been different? What sound signature would indicate a good match with my equipment. And doesn’t this indicate that, in many instances, one piece of equipment is not better than the other, just suited best for different uses. Finally, you completely ignore the impact of psycho-acoustics. We expect impressive looking equipment to sound better and often “hear” differences that are not there. You rarely see any reviewer blind test equipment. The truly blind tests I have seen suggest that our ears are not the finely honed instruments this video would suggest. To make matters worse, reviewers listen to equipment and then pack it off to the next reviewer and to the manufacturer. When a new piece comes in, you can compare it to the equipment you have on hand, but not necessarily against other equipment in its price range or outside its price range. So the reviewer is forced often forced to compare the equipment under review to memories of other equipment and human memory is hardly reliable. This is not say that reviewers such as yourself should be completely discounted. The reality is that, for most of us, you are all we have. This is also not to say that you are not trying hard to be as informative and accurate as you can. But this is a tough area. What all audiophiles want to know is how this piece of equipment will perform for my ears with my other equipment in my room to produce the sound signature most pleasing to me. That is the bar. This video on the complexity of our ears doesn’t change the fact that we are FAR from coming any where close to clearing this bar.

[@popzeus3000]

This really nails the core argument that I make in head-fi and other areas when I feel like engaging. The current battery of tests used by manufacturers to determine if audio equipment is functioning correctly doesn’t cover the full spectrum of human hearing. And to make overly wide or universal claims as to how something sounds based purely on a handful of tests is just plain unwise. Of course, he gets into more interesting detail with capacitors and negative feedback, so that’s really helpful when engaging with the ASR types who listen with their eyes.

[@danielwalsh8168]

Unusual offering from an audiophile channel, purely educational, and very much appreciated by those who are interested in how the science of music reproduction may guide our buying choices for optimal sound...loads of great info, many thanks!

[@Really_Unfortunate]

This is an excellent video. You're directly addressing a lot of the issues that I personally have with how we talk about the "science of Hi-Fi," if that's what you want to call it.

[@mTLpHfumfaomd]

Amazing topic and discussion building up and leading to what is a complex understanding about what we hear

[@phantomplastics6582]

Worth noting that Nelson Pass did experiments to find what sound customers liked best and it was not 100% accurate. "This effect is described as having negative phase 2nd harmonic at approximately 1% of the amplitude of the original signal..." from Stereophile. You can even make a second harmonic generator using his design to test it yourself.

[@middleearthltd]

Yes you can It is called a SE Tube Amplifier

[@carminedesanto6746]

Best of Christmas and the new year to you and yours . Like good food …you either like it or you don’t …always trust your ears 👂.

[@tubefreeeasy]

Now that you’ve informed us about the importance of cables, I’m in the process of increasing the speed of my modem’s power cord. I can see that correcting the initial weakness of sound from the true real source. I’m purchasing a linear power source.

[@onekana5120]

Seriously well done... talking about grasping a nettle! And shaking it... regarding timing especially. I can't wait to see this video being linked to in certain forums... I think that the 'measurement' vs 'subjective' push, especially with Audio Science Review has been very important, but we need a proper scientific counter balance to 'push' the measurements further into this timing domain. Bravo, fantastique, fantastico ...

[@FisherMan-bh9dn]

It's almost like our ears were designed but we all know it came about by random chance.

[@tothemax324]

Brilliant, like how do you explain a Beethoven symphony? You cant, you experience it.

[@Chuckster0]

I love this video so much!

[@stephenmeckley]

Thanks!

[@larsv6144]

Excellent video..... for sure this made some more enemies again on the ASR cult website 🤣🤣

[@harrisarp3841]

Thank you for this video!!I have the same exact opinion about this!!Many of the reviewers especially audioscience........ they don't even hear at all they only see measurements.Maybe many of the best speakers manufacturer in the world are "stupid" when they say that they trust first their ears and far less the measurments!!!

[@milnez]

My Division set are on the way...

[@StephenMcGregor1986]

Cocktail deafness is another interesting one

[@Nuevo_El_Nagual]

When is a review of Adam D3V?

[@ericshutter5305]

all well, but only possible for analog signal cables ... not possible with digital signals ... those are either bitperfect or they give a broken signal ... better then bitperfect isn't possible 😂

[@markhouseholder]

How about THC effects?

[@samuelchan3920]

"Cable deniers don't want you to know this ONE trick!"

[@vaneast411]

very interesting thanks! Great video Lachlan touching on the complexity of our hearing along with aspects of the complexity of electronic sound reproduction. I'll definitely come back to this video again. Two additional intrinsic layers of complexity relating to music -- related to our minds... the projected intent expressed within the musical information by the artist/s, and the unique interpretation processed within the mind of the listener...