8 ms·

I'm a psychoacoustician and this is not the way, very sorry to report. Others have touched on the acoustic issues already, so let me touch on the psychological

by ttpphd 4y ago

I'm a psychoacoustician and this is not the way, very sorry to report. Others have touched on the acoustic issues already, so let me touch on the psychological ones: your perception of sound from loudspeakers doesn't just depend on the acoustic waves hitting your ears. It also depends on your personality and expectations. If you genuinely believe that doing a seance to drive out the poltergeist from your speaker set up will make the sound better, it will be difficult to convince you otherwise precisely because the acoustics did not actually perceptibly change.

bityard 4y ago
> If you genuinely believe that doing a seance to drive out the poltergeist from your speaker set up will make the sound better, it will be difficult to convince you otherwise I think you just found the next big thing in audiophile fads
- willismichael 4y ago
  I'm more interested in inviting the right kind of poltergeist to dwell in my speaker set up, to give playback the warm paranormal sound that is clearly missing from sterile exorcized speakers.
  - toast0 4y ago
    Making sure to keep things as equal length as possible, run your speaker cables so that they form a pentagram inscribed in a circle. 5 speakers only, although a subwoofer is fine.
IshKebab 4y ago
Nonsense. Not everyone is an "audiophile" (in a bad sense) who believes in silver speaker cables.
ptk 4y ago
I genuinely wasn’t sure whether psychoacoustician was a cheeky synonym for audiophile or not. :). I looked it up and, sure enough, psychoacoustics is a legitimate field of study.
aeturnum 4y ago
A friend loaned me a fancy usb DAC a while back and I used it to listen to music while I worked. After about a day or so I asked her if it was my imagination or if the audio really did sound better. Her answer was that there's no difference between those situations: if I imagine it sounds better, it does sound better.
- willis936 4y ago
  I don't have to use my imagination to hear the signals coupled into my USB DAC when I move my mouse. They're really there and I really don't want them to be.
  - archi42 4y ago
    Depends on the USB DAC, and maybe/probably the PC. I don't have/hear interference with my current setup. I did have the issue with another DAC; IIRC I put an RC filter into the USB cable power lines (or did I just add an R into the ground line? Do some research if you plan on trying this). PCs these days often still have an optical toslink, that can be used to avoid the issue.
    - willis936 4y ago
      I have an ODAC+O2. They're not easy to source for cheap these days. My issue is that the power supply filtering inductor has a cracked iron core (due to me being clumsy). The cheapest solution would be to replace it, but it's not super easy to swap out surface mount components. I'll just deal with it by keeping the O2 volume low and cranking the volume on a second amp. Long term I'll just buy an element or a schiit.
      - archi42 4y ago
        If you use a second amp, why bother with the O2 at all? Or do you have the integrated ODAC? I've built the O2 as well, and loved it, since for the first time I could drive the HD650; it even has enough power to properly use them on a flight (don't do it, you'll go deaf). But the form factor just isn't that great for on-the-go. Plus with the batteries installed there is no space for the ODAC, requiring a DAC solution (or a phone with a good DAC). Give the FiiO btr5 a try instead of spending too much on a schiit, or look for similar devices from other manufacturers. A lot of them can do both USB (96kHz/24bit) and decent (LDAC) bluetooth. I could not tell a difference between a friend's BTR5 (dual ES9219C directly driving the headphones) and my Q5 (dual mono akm4490, ad8620 gain stage with dual op926 buffers when used balanced). Of course my hearing could be too damaged^^'
stdbrouw 4y ago
"Frequency response does not matter because other things also matter and I have a PhD in these other things." This is a complete non-argument.
- ttpphd 4y ago
  If you read again carefully, that is not what I said.
kekebo 4y ago
It's an unwritten rule in the studio scene around me to have a specific fader that is prominently placed but does nothing. To use when certain musicians (usually guitarists) demand to raise the gain of their instrument into unreasonable territory. Seems to work reliably to look at them and very slowly raise that fader until the they say it's good

by ttpphd 4y ago

bityard 4y ago

> If you genuinely believe that doing a seance to drive out the poltergeist from your speaker set up will make the sound better, it will be difficult to convince you otherwise I think you just found the next big thing in audiophile fads

willismichael 4y ago
I'm more interested in inviting the right kind of poltergeist to dwell in my speaker set up, to give playback the warm paranormal sound that is clearly missing from sterile exorcized speakers.
- toast0 4y ago
  Making sure to keep things as equal length as possible, run your speaker cables so that they form a pentagram inscribed in a circle. 5 speakers only, although a subwoofer is fine.

IshKebab 4y ago

Nonsense. Not everyone is an "audiophile" (in a bad sense) who believes in silver speaker cables.

ptk 4y ago

I genuinely wasn’t sure whether psychoacoustician was a cheeky synonym for audiophile or not. :). I looked it up and, sure enough, psychoacoustics is a legitimate field of study.

aeturnum 4y ago

A friend loaned me a fancy usb DAC a while back and I used it to listen to music while I worked. After about a day or so I asked her if it was my imagination or if the audio really did sound better. Her answer was that there's no difference between those situations: if I imagine it sounds better, it does sound better.

willis936 4y ago
I don't have to use my imagination to hear the signals coupled into my USB DAC when I move my mouse. They're really there and I really don't want them to be.
- archi42 4y ago
  Depends on the USB DAC, and maybe/probably the PC. I don't have/hear interference with my current setup. I did have the issue with another DAC; IIRC I put an RC filter into the USB cable power lines (or did I just add an R into the ground line? Do some research if you plan on trying this). PCs these days often still have an optical toslink, that can be used to avoid the issue.
  - willis936 4y ago
    I have an ODAC+O2. They're not easy to source for cheap these days. My issue is that the power supply filtering inductor has a cracked iron core (due to me being clumsy). The cheapest solution would be to replace it, but it's not super easy to swap out surface mount components. I'll just deal with it by keeping the O2 volume low and cranking the volume on a second amp. Long term I'll just buy an element or a schiit.
    - archi42 4y ago
      If you use a second amp, why bother with the O2 at all? Or do you have the integrated ODAC? I've built the O2 as well, and loved it, since for the first time I could drive the HD650; it even has enough power to properly use them on a flight (don't do it, you'll go deaf). But the form factor just isn't that great for on-the-go. Plus with the batteries installed there is no space for the ODAC, requiring a DAC solution (or a phone with a good DAC). Give the FiiO btr5 a try instead of spending too much on a schiit, or look for similar devices from other manufacturers. A lot of them can do both USB (96kHz/24bit) and decent (LDAC) bluetooth. I could not tell a difference between a friend's BTR5 (dual ES9219C directly driving the headphones) and my Q5 (dual mono akm4490, ad8620 gain stage with dual op926 buffers when used balanced). Of course my hearing could be too damaged^^'

stdbrouw 4y ago

"Frequency response does not matter because other things also matter and I have a PhD in these other things." This is a complete non-argument.

ttpphd 4y ago
If you read again carefully, that is not what I said.

kekebo 4y ago

It's an unwritten rule in the studio scene around me to have a specific fader that is prominently placed but does nothing. To use when certain musicians (usually guitarists) demand to raise the gain of their instrument into unreasonable territory. Seems to work reliably to look at them and very slowly raise that fader until the they say it's good