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Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

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Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#71

Post by pas »

mrob wrote: post #60
kazinator wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Audiophile grade equipment doesn't clip transients at normal listening volume. I agree that compression can help with poor quality equipment, but at the cost of permanently harming the sound on good equipment. Nobody complains about acoustic live music having too much dynamic range. The proper place for dynamic range compression is in the playback equipment, not baked into the audio data (DVDs/Blurays get this right…

What's the dynamic range of vinyl? Usually 70 dB, whereas 16bit PCM is around 90 dB. That's what OP was probably referring to. Since the master was done for the CD then compressed for the vinyl it sounds softer/cleaner.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#72

Post by kazinator »

robertAngst wrote: post #47
andrewvc wrote: post #16

Even if you buy into this theory, how is this cheaper or better than using batteries to power your gear?

Exactly my thought. A cocktail of capacitors could do the trick.

We'd like to say "battery of capacitors", but we more or less cannot.

Ironically, the word "battery" was originally used by Benjamin Franklin to refer to a bank capacitors, not to chemical cells.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#73

Post by walrus01 »

gpderetta wrote: post #23
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet you some of those dollars went towards the acquisition of some Brilliant Pebbles [0]! [0] http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm

This must be satire, right?

sadly, no, there is a $10,000 1000BaseT ethernet cable that is a real product. Never underestimate the gullibility of a certain segment of the population.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#74

Post by mrob »

pas wrote: post #71
mrob wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Audiophile grade equipment doesn't clip transients at normal listening volume. I agree that compression can help with poor quality equipment, but at the cost of permanently harming the sound on good equipment. Nobody complains about acoustic live music having too much dynamic range. The proper place for dynamic range compression is in the playback equipment, not baked into the audio data (DVDs/Blurays get this right…

What's the dynamic range of vinyl? Usually 70 dB, whereas 16bit PCM is around 90 dB. That's what OP was probably referring to. Since the master was done for the CD then compressed for the vinyl it sounds softer/cleaner.

CDs do have superior dynamic range, but when modern mastering squashes everything within a few dB of full scale it hardly matters. But I disagree that vinyl releases[0] typically have lower dynamic range than CD releases (most often it's the same, sometimes it's higher, and only very rarely it's lower), and I disagree that lower dynamic range sounds better on good equipment.

[0] Talking about popular music only. I don't know enough about classical to say how it's done there.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#75

Post by sigstoat »

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…

> I convinced her to contact ComEd about it...

the power companies accurately assume that most people calling them don't know anything about electricity.

have a trustworthy electrician inspect the situation, and then they can figure out what the problem is, where the problem is, and convey said problem to the power company if it is actually their fault.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#76

Post by kazinator »

mrob wrote: post #60
kazinator wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Audiophile grade equipment doesn't clip transients at normal listening volume. I agree that compression can help with poor quality equipment, but at the cost of permanently harming the sound on good equipment. Nobody complains about acoustic live music having too much dynamic range. The proper place for dynamic range compression is in the playback equipment, not baked into the audio data (DVDs/Blurays get this right…

The proper place for dynamic range compression is basically upstream of anything that requires it or benefits from it.

In the case of a phonograph player (which unconditionally qualifies as "poor equipment"), we have to prevent the needle from jumping out of the groove. This is downstream from the record itself, and so the signal that is on the record is manipulated.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#77

Post by snovv_crash »

walrus01 wrote: post #70
bayindirh wrote: post #59

I don't understand this type of audiophiles. I also have a fairly high end, vintage audio system at home, but I'd never do anything like that in the name of audio quality. There's a quote I love about these people: A normal person uses the audio system to listen music, while an audiophile uses music to listen to his audio system.

One of the things I truly will never understand about "Audiophiles" is their willingness to spend money on products that are, from a technical basis, indisputably categorized as snake oil. For instance: https://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Diamond-feet-Braided-Cable... It's an HDMI cable! The video signal has CRC in it and is packetized, it's either going to make it or it isn't. The quality of video delivered at, for in…

One theory I read (for good quality USB cables to a DAC) is that reduced packet loss reduces jitter, which means that the clock rate of the DAC doesn't have to adjust in order to keep the buffer populated, but not overflowing. Sounds plausible, but I'm not sure that packet loss is high enough to actually cause this.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#79

Post by ansible »

walrus01 wrote: post #70
bayindirh wrote: post #59

I don't understand this type of audiophiles. I also have a fairly high end, vintage audio system at home, but I'd never do anything like that in the name of audio quality. There's a quote I love about these people: A normal person uses the audio system to listen music, while an audiophile uses music to listen to his audio system.

One of the things I truly will never understand about "Audiophiles" is their willingness to spend money on products that are, from a technical basis, indisputably categorized as snake oil. For instance: https://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Diamond-feet-Braided-Cable... It's an HDMI cable! The video signal has CRC in it and is packetized, it's either going to make it or it isn't. The quality of video delivered at, for in…

The examples you linked are crazy. It is possible, especially with the Ethernet, to just check the packet error rate, and see if there is a problem.

There's something to be said for a bit of extra effort in filtering, but most of what audiophiles pursue has no basis in electrical engineering reality.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#80

Post by social_quotient »

robertAngst wrote: post #47
andrewvc wrote: post #16

Even if you buy into this theory, how is this cheaper or better than using batteries to power your gear?

Exactly my thought. A cocktail of capacitors could do the trick.

Drink the cocktail and then the sound will be more perfect.
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