6 ms·

Things like this make me glad I'm not an audiophile. What you describe seems very annoying, but thankfully I've never noticed anything like it.

Judgmentality 6y ago
I don't think there's much benefit to being an audiophile, unless you're so rich you can actually enjoy your insanely expensive setup in your sound-proofed room with your specially-purchased lossless audio sources. Luckily, very few people who claim to be audiophiles can actually hear the difference in a blind test. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/...
- Natales 6y ago
  Don't judge all of us audiophiles with a blanket statement. Yes, measured hearing capacity is definitely a key metric to know (why invest in super tweeters when you can't hear past 18KHz for example), but room acoustics is probably the very next thing I'd look at. I've seen so much "expensive" gear in rooms that are absolutely horrid in terms of sound reflections. Just a carpet, curtains or a couple of cheap sound panels can make wonders in improving sound if you know just a bit of the physics of sound. You don't have to invest in super expensive equipment to do that. Furthermore, there is a healthy DIY community these days, where you can build your own speakers, cables, amplifiers, etc, with very little effort, and get a lot of enjoyment in the process and with the product. I built a set of LX521.4 and LX Mini speakers from Siegfried Linkwitz [0] and it changed completely the way I listen to audio now for an order of magnitude less money that what I'd had to pay otherwise... [0] http://linkwitzlab.com/ http://linkwitzlab.com/
  - pbronez 6y ago
    Can you provide some more detail about your experiences with these speakers? I’ve seen the designs before, but they’re so exotic they seem like a gimmick. I want to make two sets of speakers. First, a two channel set up for my home office, to play high-quality music while I work and handle conference call audio. Second, a monitor for my synthesizers. They produce a crazy range of detailed sound, and I want something that reproduces all that detail across a full range, even at lower volumes, and ideally without strict placement/listening position constraints. I dream of building a battery powered custom speaker bank for synth busking / disturbing the peace.
    - Natales 6y ago
      I wrote about my experience with the minis first [0] and then with the LX521.4 [1]. The posts are old and I moved since then, but my experience has not changed. The minis are unreal. The quality of the sound you get in such a small (and cheap to build) package is to my knowledge, unmatched. Actually, I had them in my home office until recently [2]. As long as you have 1 to 1.5 ft of distance from the walls, they'll work like a champ. The LX521.4 will go down to 20Hz, but the dipole open baffle bass is not "punchy" in the sense of pressurizing a room, but rather, you feel it all around. So it depends on the kind of music you listen to. I prefer classic rock and jazz, and some electronica, and so far I find them very rewarding. The community in Oplug Support is very friendly and will help you in anything you want to know. [0] https://ramirosalas.com/2016/02/on-my-lxmini-speakers/ https://ramirosalas.com/2016/02/on-my-lxmini-speakers/ [1] https://ramirosalas.com/2017/11/complete-linkwitz-setup/ https://ramirosalas.com/2017/11/complete-linkwitz-setup/ [2] https://oplug-support.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4941&p=44858&hilit=home+office#p44858 https://oplug-support.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4941&p=44858&...
  - ohazi 6y ago
    Thanks for the reminder -- I have an unassembled LX Mini kit in my closet that I should really build. I was fortunate enough to meet Siegfried at one of his listening sessions about a year before he passed away, and we had a fun conversation about physics and electronics. Very nice man, with the right mix of formal (with his super nice diagrams) and informal (with his scrappy, clever, practical designs).
    - Natales 6y ago
      I cannot agree more. I also had the pleasure of meeting him at his home in Corte Madera. After an hour of conversation and listening, of course I was really impressed with his creations, but during just a moment, I saw a glimpse of why he was really sharing his living room with a total stranger: it wasn't about the speakers or the tech. It was about music. He ultimately wanted to share his love of music.
- auxym 6y ago
  Heh, back in the day we purchased those "CD" things and they were lossless. Actually, they didn't employ any compression at all!
  - rollcat 6y ago
    Well, you might want to read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
  - jsjohnst 6y ago
    > we purchased those "CD" things and they were lossless Depends on how you define lossless, but for a sufficient informal definition, CD audio definitely is lossy.
    - auxym 6y ago
      I assume you're referring to bit depth and sampling. In that case, any digitization is lossy, because where do you draw the line?
      - jsjohnst 6y ago
        > In that case, any digitization is lossy Yep, that’s part of my point, but CD audio in particular isn’t that great of bit depth or sampling rate, even by standards of the time for uncompressed digital audio. There’s also the point that the “audio wars” era covered the era of CD audio and that’s certainly another major audio quality factor.
        microcolonel 6y ago
        Only one of these points is a thing. Even if you could find some situation where the dynamic range of a CD was inadequate, shaped dither or even complete garbage uniform dither would render that moot. No producer or technician has any basis to complain about CD audio quality for listening by humans; the deficiencies of their CDs are entirely their fault.
- m463 6y ago
  Being an audiophile literally means you like audio. It doesn't require you to purchase overengineered or overhyped technology any more than being a cycling enthusiast requires you to weigh your accessories in grams. :)
  - slacka 6y ago
    This may be true, but /u/Judgmentality just described to a T the one self-described audiophile that I am friends with.
    - m463 6y ago
      You know, one thing I learned from getting interested in stereo equipment was the concept of overengineering. I always thought... how can there be such a thing? maybe you let the non-recurring costs get a little high, but don't you end up with a better product in the end? Turns out overengineering is a thing. I had a friend who was a real sound engineer. You just need a good (not overpriced) set of earbuds.
      - uxcolumbo 6y ago
        In-ear headphones or over-head ones? Any recommendation?
jope12 6y ago
I noticed it in my first Sony walkmen 30 years ago and it really pissed me off.

Judgmentality 6y ago

I don't think there's much benefit to being an audiophile, unless you're so rich you can actually enjoy your insanely expensive setup in your sound-proofed room with your specially-purchased lossless audio sources. Luckily, very few people who claim to be audiophiles can actually hear the difference in a blind test. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/...

Natales 6y ago
Don't judge all of us audiophiles with a blanket statement. Yes, measured hearing capacity is definitely a key metric to know (why invest in super tweeters when you can't hear past 18KHz for example), but room acoustics is probably the very next thing I'd look at. I've seen so much "expensive" gear in rooms that are absolutely horrid in terms of sound reflections. Just a carpet, curtains or a couple of cheap sound panels can make wonders in improving sound if you know just a bit of the physics of sound. You don't have to invest in super expensive equipment to do that. Furthermore, there is a healthy DIY community these days, where you can build your own speakers, cables, amplifiers, etc, with very little effort, and get a lot of enjoyment in the process and with the product. I built a set of LX521.4 and LX Mini speakers from Siegfried Linkwitz [0] and it changed completely the way I listen to audio now for an order of magnitude less money that what I'd had to pay otherwise... [0] http://linkwitzlab.com/ http://linkwitzlab.com/
- pbronez 6y ago
  Can you provide some more detail about your experiences with these speakers? I’ve seen the designs before, but they’re so exotic they seem like a gimmick. I want to make two sets of speakers. First, a two channel set up for my home office, to play high-quality music while I work and handle conference call audio. Second, a monitor for my synthesizers. They produce a crazy range of detailed sound, and I want something that reproduces all that detail across a full range, even at lower volumes, and ideally without strict placement/listening position constraints. I dream of building a battery powered custom speaker bank for synth busking / disturbing the peace.
  - Natales 6y ago
    I wrote about my experience with the minis first [0] and then with the LX521.4 [1]. The posts are old and I moved since then, but my experience has not changed. The minis are unreal. The quality of the sound you get in such a small (and cheap to build) package is to my knowledge, unmatched. Actually, I had them in my home office until recently [2]. As long as you have 1 to 1.5 ft of distance from the walls, they'll work like a champ. The LX521.4 will go down to 20Hz, but the dipole open baffle bass is not "punchy" in the sense of pressurizing a room, but rather, you feel it all around. So it depends on the kind of music you listen to. I prefer classic rock and jazz, and some electronica, and so far I find them very rewarding. The community in Oplug Support is very friendly and will help you in anything you want to know. [0] https://ramirosalas.com/2016/02/on-my-lxmini-speakers/ https://ramirosalas.com/2016/02/on-my-lxmini-speakers/ [1] https://ramirosalas.com/2017/11/complete-linkwitz-setup/ https://ramirosalas.com/2017/11/complete-linkwitz-setup/ [2] https://oplug-support.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4941&p=44858&hilit=home+office#p44858 https://oplug-support.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4941&p=44858&...
- ohazi 6y ago
  Thanks for the reminder -- I have an unassembled LX Mini kit in my closet that I should really build. I was fortunate enough to meet Siegfried at one of his listening sessions about a year before he passed away, and we had a fun conversation about physics and electronics. Very nice man, with the right mix of formal (with his super nice diagrams) and informal (with his scrappy, clever, practical designs).
  - Natales 6y ago
    I cannot agree more. I also had the pleasure of meeting him at his home in Corte Madera. After an hour of conversation and listening, of course I was really impressed with his creations, but during just a moment, I saw a glimpse of why he was really sharing his living room with a total stranger: it wasn't about the speakers or the tech. It was about music. He ultimately wanted to share his love of music.
auxym 6y ago
Heh, back in the day we purchased those "CD" things and they were lossless. Actually, they didn't employ any compression at all!
- rollcat 6y ago
  Well, you might want to read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
- jsjohnst 6y ago
  > we purchased those "CD" things and they were lossless Depends on how you define lossless, but for a sufficient informal definition, CD audio definitely is lossy.
  - auxym 6y ago
    I assume you're referring to bit depth and sampling. In that case, any digitization is lossy, because where do you draw the line?
    - jsjohnst 6y ago
      > In that case, any digitization is lossy Yep, that’s part of my point, but CD audio in particular isn’t that great of bit depth or sampling rate, even by standards of the time for uncompressed digital audio. There’s also the point that the “audio wars” era covered the era of CD audio and that’s certainly another major audio quality factor.
      - microcolonel 6y ago
        Only one of these points is a thing. Even if you could find some situation where the dynamic range of a CD was inadequate, shaped dither or even complete garbage uniform dither would render that moot. No producer or technician has any basis to complain about CD audio quality for listening by humans; the deficiencies of their CDs are entirely their fault.
m463 6y ago
Being an audiophile literally means you like audio. It doesn't require you to purchase overengineered or overhyped technology any more than being a cycling enthusiast requires you to weigh your accessories in grams. :)
- slacka 6y ago
  This may be true, but /u/Judgmentality just described to a T the one self-described audiophile that I am friends with.
  - m463 6y ago
    You know, one thing I learned from getting interested in stereo equipment was the concept of overengineering. I always thought... how can there be such a thing? maybe you let the non-recurring costs get a little high, but don't you end up with a better product in the end? Turns out overengineering is a thing. I had a friend who was a real sound engineer. You just need a good (not overpriced) set of earbuds.
    - uxcolumbo 6y ago
      In-ear headphones or over-head ones? Any recommendation?

jope12 6y ago

I noticed it in my first Sony walkmen 30 years ago and it really pissed me off.