Can amplifier speed and resolution be measured?

For me it’s so far away from any and all of my experiences that I just wouldn’t waste my time. It’s like going into space and seeing the curve of the earth for yourself and then reading a load of bollocks written by folk who insist the earth is flat. They still exist btw.

The herd of elephants in the room for objectivists relates to things which measure near identically and yet sound different. Only two conclusions seem to flow from that. One is that we imagine ALL such differences. The other is that there are elements of sound reproduction, human perception or both that aren’t fully understood,

Now I can readily accept that some small differences may be imagination/expectation bias etc, but I think it’s easier to believe in a flat earth than it is to believe that applies to ALL audible differences between measurably similar kit.

You can certainly measure most parameters and they can definitely tell you if an amplifier is going to sound bad for an observable reason.

If an amp measures well, it's no certainty that it will sound great though. But I do tend to like the sound from Class A solid state units, I've yet to hear an unpleasant one.

+1

It struck me that Jet said even he didn’t know what made amps sound good, He’s well capable of making and measuring stuff that is objectively good.

Heard of them, but know nothing about them.

We can all tell the difference between a sound we like and a sound we don't like. No-one questions that.

What you can't do is trust your ears to tell you why you like it. In fact you can trust your ears it's the brain you can't trust because that is actually what you listen with and it has a habit of making stuff up from the other information it has to hand and adding that to what you hear. So if you know that you have changed something in the system then you will hear a different sound even if in reality it has made no difference.

This is a fact and has been demonstrated many times.


So if you hear a difference when the science says there is no difference there are 2 possibilities:

1) There are unknown unknowns in audio - effects that science cannot yet explain within the known laws of physics

2) There is no difference but we imagine that there is one.


2) is by far the more likely explanation.


However from a subjective point of view even if we are only imagining the difference then there is still a difference to us. Real or imagined it doesn't matter. is it worth paying out money just to get a psychological rather than a real effect? That's a decision for the individual.

Speed: slew rate and bandwidth
Resolution: snr and voltage sensitivity.

The trouble is that neither of those terms have a real engineering meaning, they are just sound descriptions used by people to explain how something sounds. The parameters above correspond most closely to the terms, but just as equally one might mean a tipped up top end when one says resolution.

Hell guys it is like looking at the girls, you have no idea why you find one more fascinating than another, it is a hormone and emotional thing. Not an intellectual thing unless it is for the money, then you are going to earn it without a doubt. I bet you out of three guys all will have a different preference. Imagine if we all fought over the same girl.

Hell the sound of a girls voice alone can get me to ignore all hers physical faults.

Same with audio we keep analysing pulling it apart listening for differences, trying to make it an intellectual exercise. Trick is do you like the differences or not, do they emotionally stir you.

Musical is an emotional art form, it plays you or at least it should on an emotional level. That being said we are all different, take JS Bach for instance very mechanical music, still enjoy it nevertheless, as apposed to Mozart which grabs me on another level completely. Some sounds are bad and can certainly can stir up anger, like Rap for instance. Not at all what music should do, it should make us feel good.

Have heard some audio equipment that actually makes me feel a bit ill, yet other blokes love it.

Have come to the conclusion there is no such thing as better in so called High End equipment, just different. All depends on the individual on which they prefer.
Like religions all the same in reality, yet wars are started over the differences in interpretation, go figure.

There doesn't seem to be much blind test listening done on DACs anywhere. Do people really just accept that they can sound as radically different? From the measurements, and from a common-sense perspective, it seems unlikely to be the case.

Great post....and btw I’m also attracted by a lovely voice.

Great post on that thread which I completely agree with:

'I've found it's a lot easier to forget about music when talking about audio reproduction. There is no music; it's just electrical signals until it reaches the loudspeaker and then those signals get converted to pressure waves which may or may not represent music. It is hard to imagine that electronic equipment 'notices' that it is playing music rather than test tones or a recording of a jackhammer.

The subjectivist argument about equipment mucking up the music falls apart as soon as one realizes that the music doesn't actually exist'

Are you FUKIN serious Dave.......

Your reserching wot.

WTF.

Now IMHO of course.....



But cmon.

I know macca....but once again cmon.