Evolv-ing Thread

[ShamrockPat]

Like everything with audio, it all subjective and in the end the product must have value to the user.

So very true. Back when I was younger I'd sit for hours with the owner of High end audio store and he'd tell me what to listen for (blind sampling with speakers, cables, etc.) and he'd always impress on me that if I can't hear it don't spend the extra money.
My lowly IEM's were about $300 USD Etymotic Research ER4 (can't remember the suffix)
And I ended up with a pair of JM Lab Micron Carat speakers and a small subwoofer, all at full retail

 

[TrollDragon]

So very true. Back when I was younger I'd sit for hours with the owner of High end audio store and he'd tell me what to listen for (blind sampling with speakers, cables, etc.) and he'd always impress on me that if I can't hear it don't spend the extra money.
My lowly IEM's were about $300 USD Etymotic Research ER4 (can't remember the suffix)
And I ended up with a pair of JM Lab Micron Carat speakers and a small subwoofer, all at full retail

Ety's are awesome, it's just that deep ear penetration that I can't do. Don't need my ears to feel like they've been to prison.

 

[Punk In Drublic]

Never tried Etymotic Research – I have quite large ear canals and always feared their slender profile would accidently slide into that endless void I call my head and rattle around like a bearing in a tin can.

 

[BillW50]

and he'd always impress on me that if I can't hear it don't spend the extra money.

Problem is... as you get older, so does your hearing. I am sure I can't hear half of the frequencies I once did.

 

[TrollDragon]

Problem is... as you get older, so does your hearing. I am sure I can't hear half of the frequencies I once did.

That's why they make EQ.

 

[BillW50]

That's why they make EQ.

EQ won't help if you can't hear that frequency anymore.

 

[TrollDragon]

EQ won't help if you can't hear that frequency anymore.

True. Thankfully its the upper end that goes first I was never a big treble fan.

 

[Punk In Drublic]

Hearing degradation can pose a problem with high fidelity, but degradation is not the same with all. Generally, as we age we lose the ability to hear higher frequencies. However, there is little musical information in the upper frequency spectrum. Our ears are most sensitive between 800 and 5khz, or mid to high midrange.

EQ’s are not just for cutting, or boosting a specific frequency. They also handle the harmonics and sub harmonics of that fundamental frequency. So despite one may not be able to hear a 8khz or above sign wave, by boosting that band on a EQ you are also boosting the sub harmonics, 4khz, etc. Think of it as a bell curve.

But music is extremely complex with many factors involved to improve fidelity – it is not just about the ability to hear upper frequencies. An amplifier may present a poor ability to stop the motion of a woofer, as referred to as Dampening – this can be felt, along with being heard as slow, single note boomy bass. Improve the dampening, bass can become more lively, musical and have that thumb in the chest feel.

 

[awsum140]

Throw in tinnitus and you may as well use tomato soup cans for earphones.

 

[TrollDragon]

Tinnitus is nasty, people usually end up selling off all there headphone gear because the enjoyment is gone.

 

[ShamrockPat]

Never tried Etymotic Research – I have quite large ear canals

And I'm just the opposite with small ears. Most buds will just fall out. The ER4-P's seem quite flat to me, but don't have a bass thump. They are American and have been back twice for service. Both times no charge. I bought them in 2005, went in for service in '08 and 2013. The repairs included exactly what was done to each side.They claim to use some special NASA developed covering on the wires. As it moves across your clothing you can hear it in your ears

Problem is... as you get older, so does your hearing. I am sure I can't hear half of the frequencies I once did.

I have digital pre-amp and can change it all digitally before the output stage, but have left everything flat all these years.

When I went for my interview at clearNET in '97 now TELUS, they took me on a tour of the NOC (NASA like room, massive screens and a kickass stereo). The little side room had all NAD equipment and the speakers behind/beside the screens were PSB ........ that employees got to buy at cost or cost plus 10%. That was my primary reason for joining.

PSB was one of the critically acclaimed Canadian speaker companies, and their flagship the Stratus Gold i was built 20 minutes away at Lenbrook.

Out of college George Cope now head guy at Bell Canada went to work at Lenbrook (highly religious Baptists) buying up wireless spectrum. He bought a lot in the 600mHz range which was then used for an iDEN network (walkie talkie feature like Nextel used) thus the birth of clearNET (drug dealers liked this because it was un-traceable) and the NAD PSB relationship.

 

[ShamrockPat]

.......... extremely complex with many factors involved to improve fidelity .................Improve the dampening, bass can become more lively, musical and have that thumb in the chest feel.

I can easily tell a 'clean' recording from a low effort welfare job, and swear some are mastered for FM where they do that to pump up the bass. Just my thoughts and I could be talking out my buttinsky.

My wife says the Stereo can alter/affect her heart murmur and from what I remember it's about 30 feet for a full 20Hz sine wave. I have another sub set to take over at ~80Hz from my main speakers. But that kind of bass is omnidirectional

 

[Punk In Drublic]

I can easily tell a 'clean' recording from a low effort welfare job, and swear some are mastered for FM where they do that to pump up the bass. Just my thoughts and I could be talking out my buttinsky.

My wife says the Stereo can alter/affect her heart murmur and from what I remember it's about 30 feet for a full 20Hz sine wave. I have another sub set to take over at ~80Hz from my main speakers. But that kind of bass is omnidirectional

Dynamic compression and or grossly exaggerated frequencies was a process adopted decades ago to compensate for low fidelity. We’ve long moved from the AM radios of the 50’s! Engineers need to understand they do more harm than good. Personally, any studio that still uses these methods should get their heads checked. There is some great written material out there that has just been ba$tardized due to dynamic compression or poor recording. Or, in the case of Oasis’s (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, the engineers pushed all the slider levels up and out of the way so they could do lines of coke off the mixing board.

Full 20hz sine wave (I did say sign above….had a Homer Simpson moment…Doh!) is 56.5 feet.

 

[ShamrockPat]

Punk In Drublic IMHO, wish I coulda given you a -> like, agree, funny and winner on that post.

 

[Punk In Drublic]

Punk In Drublic IMHO, wish I coulda given you a -> like, agree, funny and winner on that post.

 

[awsum140]

Hey, don't knock AM too much, it is good for talk radio and it sure propagates better than FM, especially at night.

 

[BillW50]

Hey, don't knock AM too much, it is good for talk radio and it sure propagates better than FM, especially at night.

Ah... DXing... Gotta love it!

Streaming before the Internet.

 

[dwcraig1]

Is AM stereo still a thing?

 

[awsum140]

Beats me. I never bought into it, who wants to hear lightning crashes in stereo?

 

[SlickWilly]

Well I confess, I do put this on sometimes to sleep by.

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