andynormancx;611129 Wrote: > That depends entirely on what you mean by "definitely hear a > difference". As has been discussed many times here before the human > brain is a curious thing. > > Logically, if one is hearing a difference but there isn't actually one, > which can very easily happen, then there is no difference that can be > measured. > > If however one is hearing a difference that really is there, then > clearly it can be measured (the human ear is just a measuring device > after all). Of course whatever non-human measuring device you are using > needs to be sensitive enough, accurate enough and precise enough to > detect the difference. > > The difficulty of course comes in knowing whether you are really > hearing a difference or just think you are. No amount of us discussing > that here is going to come up with a conclusion that everyone is going > to remotely agree on as the "I have golden ears, my brain is > unfoolable, double blind tests confuse my ears" and the "I can measure > everything" camps are so diametrically opposed in their "beliefs". And > yes, I exaggerated those descriptions for comic effect. I wonder whether it might be helpful to consider what sort of personal experiences can usefully be discussed and for what purpose they may usefully be discussed. The radically idealist position (ie that anything you may experience must be real)is beside the point. Most people here are interested in experiences which can be shared and repeated and which can be tied to particular hardware, software changes or tweaks. Someone who experiences audio nirvana believing that a new cable has been inserted into his system when it hasn't may very well deserve our congratulations for having achieved a real state of happiness, but his experience is unlikely to be repeatable and is therefore not helpful. The problem is that we all feel a bit differently every time we hear the same track; it is actually quite difficult to separate out the Heraclitus effect from the impact if any of changes made in the system. This has nothing to do with the reality or otherwise of one's experiences. It does however have everything to do with the question of whether anyone else should be interested in listening to our account of our experiences.
[Then of course we can move on to the interesting question of why some folks value some people's reports of their experiences more highly than others'.] Anyway, when you put the question in terms of experiences which are meaningful, the answer is IMHO obvious: any experience which based on a repeatable difference in the properties of the sound waves reaching you should in principle be measurable. -- adamdea ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamdea's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=37603 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=85681 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
