Bret L
November 26th 09, 07:01 AM
http://ozvalveamps.elands.com/hyperfi.htm
Hyper-Fi
>> "Because I'm a technician I've been on occasions drawn into
Hyper-Fi circles as an advisor.
My experience is of people who don't actually listen or know
anything much about sound, and in fact who don't seem to like music
much.
Their world of audio electronics is alien to me as a tech and
soundie. Their equipment is full of strange unpredictable and
undetectable effects and phenomina that are clearly audible to Golden
Ears but no-one else, and don't obey conventional theory. Instruments
and measurements are replaced and even overruled by total
subjectivism.
I'll be honest and say I find this scary. My world of electronics
design is based on the idea that we know enough to make calculation
with confidence, that it's a predictable science. In the world of
Hyper-Fi I am stripped of these certainties, replaced by the shifting
sands of subjectivist black magic.
I simply don't understand paying thousands of dollars for the
technical extremeism of a transformer lovingly hand wound with Litz
wire, then driving it with a pre-war triode. This is romance replacing
rationality.
They seem to spend all their record playing time neurotically
searching for inaudible sonic blemishes. The most important
specification of the system being its price, and comparisons are
really ding-a-ling measuring contests, “mine cost more than yours”.
In contrast, my experience of musicians is that they seldom have a
home sound system good enough to reasonably audition their own
recordings. They seem to spend all their money on making music, and
are able to listen to recordings through the sometimes serious
shortcomings of their system. Many use a guitar amp or two, loud but
not very Fi.
If you are a musician who can listen through the mono tape player
you got at the op-shop to the performance, smile and pity the Golden
Ears who still hear the audio pea under ten matresses after spending a
King's Ransom on pre-war triodes.
This isn't about technology, but rather the psychology of self-
deception. They hear what they want to hear, and disregard the rest.
Many listening tests have been conducted since the 50's that have
exposed the self-deception of Hyper-Finatics, generally along the
lines of a technician making a show of changing speaker cables and the
assembled reviewers and Hi-Fi Guru's agreeing on all sorts of
differences, when the entire test was actually conducted using zip
flex. No one jumped up and said “Hey, that's zip-flex, I can hear its
sonic signature!”, rather they agreed on changes where there were
none, noting improvements or deficiencies depending on what they
thought they were listening to.
And who, I wonder, can be an impartial judge of a sound system
they have spent $150-grand on? Who will then admit that one only one-
hundreth of the price sounds as good, perhaps even better?
But my personal favorite was conducted in London with various
systems set up behind an acoustically transparent screen. One of the
“systems” was a real string quartet which the invited Golden Ears
scored low on fidelity, and even accused of having crossover
distortion."<<
Hyper-Fi
>> "Because I'm a technician I've been on occasions drawn into
Hyper-Fi circles as an advisor.
My experience is of people who don't actually listen or know
anything much about sound, and in fact who don't seem to like music
much.
Their world of audio electronics is alien to me as a tech and
soundie. Their equipment is full of strange unpredictable and
undetectable effects and phenomina that are clearly audible to Golden
Ears but no-one else, and don't obey conventional theory. Instruments
and measurements are replaced and even overruled by total
subjectivism.
I'll be honest and say I find this scary. My world of electronics
design is based on the idea that we know enough to make calculation
with confidence, that it's a predictable science. In the world of
Hyper-Fi I am stripped of these certainties, replaced by the shifting
sands of subjectivist black magic.
I simply don't understand paying thousands of dollars for the
technical extremeism of a transformer lovingly hand wound with Litz
wire, then driving it with a pre-war triode. This is romance replacing
rationality.
They seem to spend all their record playing time neurotically
searching for inaudible sonic blemishes. The most important
specification of the system being its price, and comparisons are
really ding-a-ling measuring contests, “mine cost more than yours”.
In contrast, my experience of musicians is that they seldom have a
home sound system good enough to reasonably audition their own
recordings. They seem to spend all their money on making music, and
are able to listen to recordings through the sometimes serious
shortcomings of their system. Many use a guitar amp or two, loud but
not very Fi.
If you are a musician who can listen through the mono tape player
you got at the op-shop to the performance, smile and pity the Golden
Ears who still hear the audio pea under ten matresses after spending a
King's Ransom on pre-war triodes.
This isn't about technology, but rather the psychology of self-
deception. They hear what they want to hear, and disregard the rest.
Many listening tests have been conducted since the 50's that have
exposed the self-deception of Hyper-Finatics, generally along the
lines of a technician making a show of changing speaker cables and the
assembled reviewers and Hi-Fi Guru's agreeing on all sorts of
differences, when the entire test was actually conducted using zip
flex. No one jumped up and said “Hey, that's zip-flex, I can hear its
sonic signature!”, rather they agreed on changes where there were
none, noting improvements or deficiencies depending on what they
thought they were listening to.
And who, I wonder, can be an impartial judge of a sound system
they have spent $150-grand on? Who will then admit that one only one-
hundreth of the price sounds as good, perhaps even better?
But my personal favorite was conducted in London with various
systems set up behind an acoustically transparent screen. One of the
“systems” was a real string quartet which the invited Golden Ears
scored low on fidelity, and even accused of having crossover
distortion."<<