I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'.
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@fesshole
When I worked in engineering at the Beeb the research department wanted to discover if the “golden ears” (mix engineers, sound supervisors etc - people who are trained to hear audio problems in recordings) could tell the difference between expensive OFC speaker cable and 10A mains cable. Turns out when tested blind they can’t.
It’s the same for most audio-fool products; when they don’t *know* what they’re listening to they can’t tell.@IsItBroke @fesshole yeah Pete Thomas of PMC speakers fame used to demo his speakers using bell wire and Quad 405 amps at trade shows just to wind up the audiophile brigade!!
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I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'. Turns out I've had my left/right speakers the wrong way round. For 7 years.
@fesshole fond memories of spending a weekend setting up 5.1 surround speakers for my PC
several months later, discovered where in the Windows settings you configure if you have stereo speakers or 5.1 or some other thing
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@IsItBroke @fesshole yeah Pete Thomas of PMC speakers fame used to demo his speakers using bell wire and Quad 405 amps at trade shows just to wind up the audiophile brigade!!
@pheedbackPhil @fesshole
I built an edit facility in the late 90s and the head of audio chose TB1s for all the edit suites and it was the first time I’d heard speakers that sounded as neutral as Roger’s LS3/5s (I trained and worked at the Beeb late eighties/early-nineties) - heaven save us from Yamaha NS10s! -
And so would I.
I've spoken before about the pimply-faced youth who tried to sell me audio-grade Sata cables and felt superior when I told him it wouldn't make any difference, because, between a hard drive and a motherboard, either the data gets through perfectly or it doesn't get through at all. "Well, Sir," he said, smugly, "maybe you can't hear the difference…"
The placebo effect is real.
@CppGuy @IsItBroke @fesshole I'll grant that maybe it's possible to make a SATA cable so poor that reads need to be retried so often that the transfer rate drops enough to make audio playback choppy.
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@CppGuy @IsItBroke @fesshole I'll grant that maybe it's possible to make a SATA cable so poor that reads need to be retried so often that the transfer rate drops enough to make audio playback choppy.
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@mansr @fesshole you can isolate left and right for testing. Some tracks play some instrumentation on the left and some on the right. It's but always balanced and you can also play spacial (awareness) tests.
For specific songs in stereo unless you listen to certain tracks through headphones you might not be able to tell.
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@mansr @fesshole you can isolate left and right for testing. Some tracks play some instrumentation on the left and some on the right. It's but always balanced and you can also play spacial (awareness) tests.
For specific songs in stereo unless you listen to certain tracks through headphones you might not be able to tell.
@LevelUp @fesshole Obviously with test tracks that clearly indicate the channels you'll easily notice. With actual music, even when there is a clear difference between the channels, you typically have no way of knowing which way it was meant to be. It won't sound wrong with the channels flipped unless you know what to expect.
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@fesshole fond memories of spending a weekend setting up 5.1 surround speakers for my PC
several months later, discovered where in the Windows settings you configure if you have stereo speakers or 5.1 or some other thing
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@fesshole Can't be much of an "audiophile", can ya?
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@LevelUp @fesshole Obviously with test tracks that clearly indicate the channels you'll easily notice. With actual music, even when there is a clear difference between the channels, you typically have no way of knowing which way it was meant to be. It won't sound wrong with the channels flipped unless you know what to expect.
@mansr @fesshole usually an "audiophile" use test tracks whether it's tracks specifically made for testing or tracks they have listened to inside out. It's not uncommon for them to have a handful of tracks for testing tbh.
7 years is a long time so I guess it doesn't truly matter to listening enjoyment if he doesn't know any better. I just found it amusing because I have an audiophile on my family who info dumps audiophile stuff several times a day and the opening post reminds me of them. Is that okay that I found it amusing?
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@mansr @fesshole usually an "audiophile" use test tracks whether it's tracks specifically made for testing or tracks they have listened to inside out. It's not uncommon for them to have a handful of tracks for testing tbh.
7 years is a long time so I guess it doesn't truly matter to listening enjoyment if he doesn't know any better. I just found it amusing because I have an audiophile on my family who info dumps audiophile stuff several times a day and the opening post reminds me of them. Is that okay that I found it amusing?
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@fesshole
When I worked in engineering at the Beeb the research department wanted to discover if the “golden ears” (mix engineers, sound supervisors etc - people who are trained to hear audio problems in recordings) could tell the difference between expensive OFC speaker cable and 10A mains cable. Turns out when tested blind they can’t.
It’s the same for most audio-fool products; when they don’t *know* what they’re listening to they can’t tell.One audio engineer I know made a small fortune selling cable bought for £5 per reel, cut to custom lengths of "Studio-grade" cable, that he sold at £20 per foot.
Those hifi-heads paid off his mortgage.
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One audio engineer I know made a small fortune selling cable bought for £5 per reel, cut to custom lengths of "Studio-grade" cable, that he sold at £20 per foot.
Those hifi-heads paid off his mortgage.
@BillySmith @fesshole
I’ve often been tempted to knock-up some cat8 cables with nylon sock and ferrite beads at each end and sell them on eBay as “audiophile data cables” - I could even include the Fluke DSX test sheet with them - I’m sure none of them would know what “return loss” means… -
I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'. Turns out I've had my left/right speakers the wrong way round. For 7 years.
@fesshole I know what that feels like… periodically I have had my phono cables switched around R/L instead of L/R for a couple of months. Never years, though!
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@BillySmith @fesshole
I’ve often been tempted to knock-up some cat8 cables with nylon sock and ferrite beads at each end and sell them on eBay as “audiophile data cables” - I could even include the Fluke DSX test sheet with them - I’m sure none of them would know what “return loss” means…They were just offcuts from the same reels that he was installing in recording studio's...
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I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'. Turns out I've had my left/right speakers the wrong way round. For 7 years.
@fesshole just turn around mate
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@pheedbackPhil @fesshole
I built an edit facility in the late 90s and the head of audio chose TB1s for all the edit suites and it was the first time I’d heard speakers that sounded as neutral as Roger’s LS3/5s (I trained and worked at the Beeb late eighties/early-nineties) - heaven save us from Yamaha NS10s!@IsItBroke Had a set of NS10s as my home speakers for years, reasoning that a lot of the music I liked was probably mixed on them, so it would somehow be "closer" to what the mixer heard. God I was a twit.
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I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'. Turns out I've had my left/right speakers the wrong way round. For 7 years.
@fesshole Are there any audiophiles, literally any at all, who actually like music?
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@fesshole Are there any audiophiles, literally any at all, who actually like music?
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@KormaChameleon Hah! Yes.
