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HiFi tuning Foo-uses

RON (and DAVE)

Have a feeling you two are stateside, and although your findings are relevant (I'd be surprised if they were otherwise, especially with Naim kit), your conformity with reg's probably isn't.

Not sure what a 60 amp cable is; 6mm2 or 10mm2, maybe? I know nothing which restricts the cable capacity over here, and it sounds peculiar to have a restriction, too.. After all, tails to and from the meter/consumer unit are 25mm2 here in the U.K.

By 'sub-panel' do you mean 'consumer unit'? My Memera c.u. has a substantial copper busbar (though I use two back-to-back) and I thought copper was re rigeur for any c.u.
 
Joe P said:
whatsnext,


Don't you use Tellurium speaker cable instead of lamp cord? Did you hear something that many other people do not hear?

Joe
Click to expand...

Joe
Did I hear something that many other people do not hear? I was using Cable Talk 3. I really dont know whatever difference I may have heard with TQ seems miniscule after I remade the plugs on the old cable. One thing I would say I have never recommended TQ and would not repeat the purchase.

Are you suggesting I should not ask my question? I've tried mains cables and heard ziltch and so do others.
 
JEZ

You are nominated for the ostrich award. Having said that, your stance on the first source (the electrical supply) is not atypical of audio engineers, I find.:)

When one relies too much on measurements, it's difficult to hear the wood for the trees, to bastardise an analogy.

You either disbelieve the difference various mains configurations can make because it runs counter to your education or because you cannot hear it. I suspect the former.:)
 
dave said:
I think you should...I can then wheel in my cup of ocean water which has no whales in it proving they don't exist either;-)
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Careful, with that logic I could go on to disprove everything you've ever posted on the forum ;)
 
Mike Reed said:
JEZ

You are nominated for the ostrich award. Having said that, your stance on the first source (the electrical supply) is not atypical of audio engineers, I find.:)

When one relies too much on measurements, it's difficult to hear the wood for the trees, to bastardise an analogy.

You either disbelieve the difference various mains configurations can make because it runs counter to your education or because you cannot hear it. I suspect the former.:)
Click to expand...

Start here Mike: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0470681780/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Somebody posted a few months back a link to a (IIRC) BBC video about sound perception when combined with visual clues. Same audio track, different lip movements, different words "heard" by the listener. There's really a huge difference between what one receives via auditory nerves and what one interprets it as. Somebody else should find that video.

Blind listening is uncomfortable and confusing (when done right!), but not that hard to do. That is - as long as one's willing to accept that many things one took for granted are just made by up one's imagination. That's the feel of reality.

Mike Reed said:
When one relies too much on measurements, it's difficult to hear the wood for the trees, to bastardise an analogy.
Click to expand...
Let me rephrase that. When one relies too much on one's judgement, it's difficult to keep tabs on what's real and what isn't.

Only by combining both aspects can the science be done. It's not uncommon to discover a new approach / discover a design failure thanks to human ear verification, but the human judgement has to be ruled out for such measurement tool to be usable.

Cheers to the few engineers out there that are working hard to make real improvements to the current audio systems.


edit: Note that I didn't disregard the human ear as "not important", if there are really statistically significant results during blind listening, it should be taken as an indication that something's wrong with the way one measures / designs / thinks about the equipment.
 
There's still an offer of £100 to anyone who can pick out the differences between mains fuses with a blindfold on. Your house, your system, I'll provide the money and blindfold.
 
So in which device does an audio-foo fuse make a difference [if any] when used in the plug-top supplying an amplifier, turntable, CD player or DAC?

If - and I remained to be convinced - the use of audio-foo fuse do make some improvement to sound quality, then is there not something wrong with the PSU design? A well designed PSU should provide the required voltage/current and present the correct impedance to the signal circuits; and filter out mains borne noise.
 
But then the glue sniffers would have nowt to fantasise about.

Did I say glue sniffers??

I surely meant splendid fellows with imaginations that might be better off the glue.
 
sq225917 said:
There's still an offer of £100 to anyone who can pick out the differences between mains fuses with a blindfold on. Your house, your system, I'll provide the money and blindfold.
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Simon, I'm sure people have been incarcerated for offering to blindfold people and give them money :eek:

At least turn the music up to mask the screams...and hope the fuse doesn't blow.
 
Vital said:
This one I guess:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-lN8vWm3m0
Click to expand...

That's quite interesting. Watching the video with headphones on, I was convinced that their was a difference between 'bar' and 'far' (or 'bah' & 'fah'), yet couldn't discern this difference when I closed my eyes. Guess this confirms the author's findings, for me at least.

However, I can't see the relevance to 'imagining' differences in sound from transposing fuses or whatever in an audio set-up, which I think was the purpose of suggesting this video.
 
sq225917 said:
There's still an offer of £100 to anyone who can pick out the differences between mains fuses with a blindfold on. Your house, your system, I'll provide the money and blindfold.
Click to expand...

Why a blindfold, Simon? You can't see fuses when in situ.:) I guess you mean mains plug fuses, not case fuses. If the former, your offer is just brave; if the latter, well now................:D
 
There is no relevance beyond the leap of logic that says:

We can prove that you imagine x therefore you'll imagine y.

There is a reason for imagining x, it's called pattern modelling. Our brain fills in gaps in order to complete the picture. This is not happening when we perceive a sonic change as with y.

There are a lot of optical illusions that make still images appear to move. By using the same leap of logic I would conclude that our eyes cannot be trusted to read correctly, never mind understand, posts in the pfm audio room.

Regarding fuses, the effect is either non-existent or so negligable that any perceived change is well within the placebo threshold. I prefer standard fuses anyway as they are more likely to be fit for purpose, i.e. protect your home and equipment. I don't need the 2+2=5 leap of logic to tell me that.
 
jirij was going somewhere with this. Perhaps he(she?) will take it up.

I guess the point is that what you hear is not necessarily what you are hearing.

I sort of see what Steven is getting at (assuming in reply to the video), but there may be something to this.
 
Mike Reed said:
Why a blindfold, Simon? You can't see fuses when in situ.:) I guess you mean mains plug fuses, not case fuses. If the former, your offer is just brave; if the latter, well now................:D
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Two identical mains leads with an A and B sticker on the prong side of the wall plugs would suffice.
 
Oh, I am quite sure there exists a sub-tribe of audiophiles who insist that labelling anything with an 'A' changes its sound for the better.
 
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