4 ms·

All depends. No doubt the fringe is fixating on the 0.1% that doesn't make a difference. When it comes to hardware: if you have a great and clean signal chain,

All depends. No doubt the fringe is fixating on the 0.1% that doesn't make a difference. When it comes to hardware: if you have a great and clean signal chain, good ears, decent monitors +/ good room, good headphones, you can record and hear the difference of good gear (diminishing returns though, you are paying for throughput (channels), latency, or even just build-quality/brand (Apple esque) etc at some point). Of course marketing adds hyperbole and takes certain aspects into woo territory. At the software level: sampling rate can (depending on programming of individual plugins) make a difference in your mixing session (you get nasty artifacts, like EQ cramping, in plugins that don't have internal over-sampling). This is all the professional gear with a track record rather than the "prosumer" gear (maybe that's the definition of audiophile you were connotating).

stametseater 4y ago
> good ears Most audiophiles seem to be men in their 50s+, which makes their claims of exceptional hearing extremely dubious. Degradation of hearing with age is a virtual certainty. If audiophiles tended to be teenagers I'd be more inclined to believe them. But old guys? Old guys with a long habit of listening to loud music? Their ears are not golden.
- bennelsonweiss 4y ago
  Somebody who says "good ear" can be talking about how well trained a listener is rather than the physical characteristics of their ear, similarly to how when somebody says "good eye" when you spot a bug in their code they're probably not actually implying your vision is extra sharp.
- lukas099 4y ago
  I’ve lost a noticeable bit of hearing, but my ability to discern different instruments is much greater than it used to be. I think practice more than offsets hearing loss up to a limit.
- Tor3 4y ago
  Yes. You still see the claim that humans can hear 20Hz-20000Hz. Well, no. We had lab equipment at school and we regularly listened to signals from test equipment - IIRC I could hear up to about 17kHz when I was 16 or 17 (when I could still hear the (European) 15625 whine from TVs). A couple of guys could hear almost up to 20kHz. All of that was gone when we arrived in our twenties. I couldn't hear the TV anymore (younger people: That applied to analog CRT TVs back in the neolithic). I was tested in the military when I was 22. They didn't even bother testing anyone up to more than maybe 14kHz - intense volume would anyway be needed to hear that. I can't imagine even very careful people will be able to hear a particularly wide audio range when they're 50+, not even people who walk around with ear plugs all the time for protection (some audio engineers do).

stametseater 4y ago

> good ears Most audiophiles seem to be men in their 50s+, which makes their claims of exceptional hearing extremely dubious. Degradation of hearing with age is a virtual certainty. If audiophiles tended to be teenagers I'd be more inclined to believe them. But old guys? Old guys with a long habit of listening to loud music? Their ears are not golden.

bennelsonweiss 4y ago
Somebody who says "good ear" can be talking about how well trained a listener is rather than the physical characteristics of their ear, similarly to how when somebody says "good eye" when you spot a bug in their code they're probably not actually implying your vision is extra sharp.
lukas099 4y ago
I’ve lost a noticeable bit of hearing, but my ability to discern different instruments is much greater than it used to be. I think practice more than offsets hearing loss up to a limit.
Tor3 4y ago
Yes. You still see the claim that humans can hear 20Hz-20000Hz. Well, no. We had lab equipment at school and we regularly listened to signals from test equipment - IIRC I could hear up to about 17kHz when I was 16 or 17 (when I could still hear the (European) 15625 whine from TVs). A couple of guys could hear almost up to 20kHz. All of that was gone when we arrived in our twenties. I couldn't hear the TV anymore (younger people: That applied to analog CRT TVs back in the neolithic). I was tested in the military when I was 22. They didn't even bother testing anyone up to more than maybe 14kHz - intense volume would anyway be needed to hear that. I can't imagine even very careful people will be able to hear a particularly wide audio range when they're 50+, not even people who walk around with ear plugs all the time for protection (some audio engineers do).