On 2/3/2012 1:10 PM, dpb wrote:

I looked at it in the lab w/ a signal analyzer in years gone by when a
coworker who was an audiophile was making the same claims and there
simply wasn't any measurable difference in the signal.

Laughable folly to any acoustic engineer.

It is fruitless, if not impossible, to compare the non-linear,
physiological properties of human hearing to a instrument signal
analyzer ... period, zero, zip, nada ... any comparison simply does not
_scientifically_ equate.

You can't (and no
one else can) hear what isn't there

Wanna bet?

A very common (due to psychoacoustic properties of the human ear)
phenomenon in the studio is a "ghost sound" on a recording; a sound not
actually physically recorded, but heard very clearly when two or more
tracks are combined to excite partials and overtones ...

.... IOW, you are indeed "hearing what isn't there".



isn't material attenuation
or reflection at those frequencies which are audible to be significant
(unless, of course, somebody doctors the connectors to add attenuators
or other such shenanigans.

Totally besides the point in our discussion.


At that time (mid-70s) I recall there was at least one uncovering of one
how the patch cords at an audio outlet had been so modified and it was
how they were convincing folks they could hear the difference. In that
case, of course, they could. When a straight plug was used, all of a
sudden the difference went away for some reason...

Again, nothing to do with the discussion at hand.

As another poster said succinctly stated, if you can't hear the
difference, it is pointless to even discuss it.

That pretty well sums it up.

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