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Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

wsj.com

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Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#41

Post by mrob »

kazinator wrote: post #21
pasta wrote: post #15

Once a producer told me that they mastered at 16bit 44.1kHz and then pressed records and CDs from those masters. Ofcourse the records sold better because they sound much better...

Of course the records will sound better; they will have their dynamic range squashed to fit the medium. Compression sounds nice: all the quiet parts are so clear, yet the transients are cleanly articulated. Compressed audio, like from a record player, also works better with a cheap back end. Protecting the record player's needle from skipping out also helps the amplifier and speakers.

Don't confuse the sound of compression with the sound of music being louder. Compression can help with poor quality equipment or noisy listening environments (e.g. cars), but it also adds audible distortion and is tiring to listen to for long. Most dynamic range compression in music is there to trick people into playing it louder (see "loudness war"), and louder music sounds better. Of course, you can get the same benefit without the distortion by turning the volume up yourself.

But despite vinyl being poorly suited to high dynamic range, the vinyl release sometimes has higher dynamic range than the CD/download release. This is probably because vinyl purchasers are thought to be more discerning customers. This isn't always the case; the most popular dynamic range measurement algorithm (see http://dr.loudness-war.info/ ) is fooled by all-pass filtering, and vinyl record players do this, so the measurements will be falsely high for vinyl. Often the supposedly higher dynamic range vinyl release is actually from an identical master.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#42

Post by robocat »

Izmaki wrote: post #3

When I'm playing music on my stereo from my PC through USB, turning off the lights on my bathroom on the other side of the wall will momentarily kill my USB driver and as a result Spotify stops working. Electromagnetic interference is no joke.

Most likely a crappy PSU with failing output caps.

Mains noise/spike/brownout coming through onto 12V/5V/3.3V lines.

Relevant to the article too!

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#43

Post by gerdesj »

Izmaki wrote: post #3

When I'm playing music on my stereo from my PC through USB, turning off the lights on my bathroom on the other side of the wall will momentarily kill my USB driver and as a result Spotify stops working. Electromagnetic interference is no joke.

Hire an electrician. While you are at it, get them to do a quick inspection of the rest of the 'leccy stuff at your home. Throw away any power bricks/wall warts/devices whose name you cannot pronounce easily or can't even read. Clear the fluff out from behind your fridge.

Fire is no joke and given the EMI in your place I suggest you take it seriously. I'm not suggesting that fire hazards are exacerbated by EMI but that the sort of environment that has one may be more prone to the other.

For the sake of what ... USD100(?) in time plus some materials you could fix and head off some potentially seriously life shortening problems. If nothing else, you'd keep Spotify working. If it dies say five times a day and costs you a few mins, then that is say 20 mins per day. Cost your personal time at say $20 per hour. Now tell me you can't afford to get it fixed.

... or you could whine about it on HN 8)

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#44

Post by codewritinfool »

nayuki wrote: post #40

Gonna toss a related idea out there: Converting single-phase AC power to DC requires treating a lot of ripples. Maybe an audiophile should convert three-phase AC power to DC to ensure higher power quality?

A motor-generator is a better solution. Preferably with a big flywheel.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#45

Post by codewritinfool »

analog31 wrote: post #30
LeoPanthera wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, with less insanity, DC powered equipment running from batteries. Which is still pretty insane. A good quality PSU should be able to tolerate quite a lot of noise. And power conditioners are already a thing.

Indeed, and if you think about it, an amplifier is a power conditioner.

Explain to me how an amplifier is a power conditioner, please.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#46

Post by kazinator »

mrob wrote: post #41
kazinator wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the records will sound better; they will have their dynamic range squashed to fit the medium. Compression sounds nice: all the quiet parts are so clear, yet the transients are cleanly articulated. Compressed audio, like from a record player, also works better with a cheap back end. Protecting the record player's needle from skipping out also helps the amplifier and speakers.

Don't confuse the sound of compression with the sound of music being louder. Compression can help with poor quality equipment or noisy listening environments (e.g. cars), but it also adds audible distortion and is tiring to listen to for long. Most dynamic range compression in music is there to trick people into playing it louder (see "loudness war"), and louder music sounds better. Of course, you can get the same be…

> Most dynamic range compression in music is there to trick people into playing it louder

That's a relatively new phenomenon, together with the distortion.

Compression doesn't add audible distortion, except if it is used in an extreme way to boost the signal so that it sits at close to maximum volume.

Compression is a tool that can combat distortion. Reduce the transients; reduce the clipping.

Compression can be used to obtain more consistent distortion on purpose over longer envelopes of the signal, like in a common configuration in guitar audio: compressor followed by distortion effect.

Obtaining more consistent distortion can mean consistently less of it, not only consistently more.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#48

Post by adjagu »

newnewpdro wrote: post #22

> he realized that electromagnetic interference from his neighbors’ appliances was propagating through their shared power lines, reducing the quality of the sound he was getting. This actually seems a lot more reasonable to me than the monster cable level of absurdity audiophiles are famous for. When I last visited family my sister's home's electricity exhibited all sorts of overload artifacts. Her lights would dim w…

Did they check your sisters electricity meter? We had similar issues here. Random light flickers/dimming, electrical devices shorting out and such. All tests in house returned with nothing wrong yet we were having issues.

Electric company sent someone out and they got the same results inside as we did. Not deterred they next checked the line into the residence and it was good too. Eventually they tracked the issue to our electricity meter and replaced it. Haven't had an issue since.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#50

Post by eigenvector »

Izmaki wrote: post #3

When I'm playing music on my stereo from my PC through USB, turning off the lights on my bathroom on the other side of the wall will momentarily kill my USB driver and as a result Spotify stops working. Electromagnetic interference is no joke.

I had an old Dell laptop where I could "hear" an external USB hard drive spinning up in my headphones, but only if it was connected to a USB port on the same side of the laptop as the audio jack.
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