well obviously, all this proves is that copper wires are just as bad as wet mud. Every audiophile knows you need gold oxygen nitrogen purified wires blessed by a voodoo witch doctor.
In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud
Submitted 2 weeks ago by muelltonne@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
D_C@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I’ve got these cables. Yes, they are expensive but they are absolutely fantasti… wait, did you say voodoo witch doctor? Mine were blessed by just a witch doctor. Have I been ripped off?
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Hoodoo is 3dB better than voodoo according to my tests.
hardcoreufo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Silver is the better conductor.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Sheeeit not recently, shot up to $120/oz recently, and it’s back down to ~$80/oz right now, but that’s still more than ~$35/oz last year.
DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Fun fact: this is where the “banana connector” came from. Before copper was discovered, early humans used bananas for all their audio connections. The name stuck, even though wires are made of metal today.
neidu3@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Additional reivia: The term “banana republic” originates from countries best known for exporting high-end audio equipment back in the day.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
“banana split” stems from a failed experiment where scientists tried to split audio frequencies by sticking the connectors into ice cream and running the audio through it
Tangent5280@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Bosenana AudioBananica DolBananAtmos Bananaheiser
Presently42@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Bravo
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
This will now be a standard AI response. Well done.
HowAbt2day@futurology.today 2 weeks ago
TIL! It’s fucking bananas that I never knew this.
JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They are often also used as a unit of measurement of relative scale, especially amongst practitioners of internet science.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Just ask an audiophile what they think about blind tests. If they argue against them you’ve found a snake oil salesman.
edgemaster72@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“You can’t trust blind tests for audio, that’s the wrong sense bro. You need double deaf studies, obvs.”
Zorque@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Now if they’re deaf tests on the other hand…
MurrayL@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Most people can’t tell the difference between a 320kbps mp3 and an uncompressed file, but hey if folks really want to waste their money on snake oil like gold-plated cables then I say let ‘em.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I did a blind test, and found it depends on the genre.
Slow, chill music is completely transparent. No matter how hard I “audio peep
But something like System of a Down has distortion. It loosely (not always) coincided with the bitrate of the flac files, which kind of makes sense.
addie@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Audio codecs like MP3 usually do a Fourier transform to move the sound into the frequency domain, discard any frequencies that you’re unlikely to notice, and encode ‘rate of change’ for the remaining ones. So the encoding problem is usually sound with fast changes in intensity or frequency, which is basically what percussion is.
System is quite percussion heavy, so will sound bad.
Recently moved from Spotify to Qobuz, because fuck Dan Ek, and the fact that they’ve got better bitrates across the board really makes the difference for jazz and jazzy stuff. Neglected, sounds crap on Spotify. Sounds great on Qobuz. But that’s the change from ‘bad’ to ‘quite good’ bitrates; additional bits are very much a case of diminishing returns.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Heavy classic music is a beast too, vivaldis energetic parts in the 4 seasons for example. Or Rimski Korsakoffs the flight of the bumble bee I’d wager. Or painkiller/turbo lover/… by judas priest 😁
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Most people can’t tell the difference between a 320kbps mp3 and lossless
I’d be surprised if anyone could.
However, 128kbps vs. 192kpbs+ is like night and day, and it’s especially obvious with better equipment.
state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
The funny thing is that the people who can afford all that overpriced garbage are usually so old, they can’t hear all that well anymore.
lowspeedchase@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I found I can detect VBR but yeah at that bitrate I really can’t tell the difference between 320 and flac, always thought it was just my ears!
klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 2 weeks ago
Hell, I can’t even tell the difference between 128kbps and flac. Realizing that saved me a whole lot of hard drive space :D
kabe@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s still a good idea to have your main music library in flac for future proofing, but yeah 128kbps opus or ogg is what I use on mobile devices.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
My hearing isn’t extraordinarily acute, bit I can hear the difference, especially in transient-rich sounds like cymbals.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
With quality headphones, back to back, I’m confident that you could
fluxx@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And even if you can - is it worth it? I mean - do I care and should I care? Is the point of music detecting every detail of the recording or can I appreciate it without paying that much attention to production? For instance, I find it much more convenient to use Bluetooth headphones as it allows me to move around the house. Flac immediately stops being relevant, as Bluetooth codec is really bad compared to almost any codec. I recently tried ldac codec on my headphones - couldn’t really tell the difference. Mp3 128kbps is just fine for me. Almost any situation. I care about musical content much more than production details. Other people might care more. I don’t.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Most people don’t have proper home stereo setups any more either, and they prefer shitty overcompressed music through earbuds. They don’t know any better, sadly.
And Ive probably spent less than 400 dollars on my home setup. But it blows away anyone who hears it. Just takes some smarts in setting stuff up and getting good used equipment.
Just another part of the cheapening of everything in society , and why music isn’t appreciated as much anymore. No wonder everyone has depression.
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Depends on the song really, if it’s just a standard pop song it’s mixing well usually come through just fine on a shitty MP3. The more layers a song may have the muddier it gets at lower bit rates. Like I’ve found the noisier spectrum of punk always benefits from higher bit rates.
Elgenzay@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Reminds me of the lengths people go with their peripheral purchases to save 1-2ms of input latency for playing games with like a 20 TPS tick rate on a wifi connection
Carrot@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
I recently switched from 320kbps to lossless, and there are very few moments where I can tell a difference. The biggest one is in the cover of “Tom’s Diner” by AnnenMayKantereit. There’s a section of the song at 320kbps where it goes almost silent, other than faint whispers of the band counting out the silence, but in lossless you can hear them actually singing the song quietly
BillyClark@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I noticed something similar with video. Like, if I am paying attention, the difference between the highest quality encoding and the next level is usually visible.
However, I have a harder time telling the difference if I don’t do a side by side comparison.
And even when I can easily tell the difference, once I’m watching the thing, I get into the story and I don’t care anyways.
Obviously a slightly different criteria compared to music, but people do make a big deal out of stuff that even they don’t actually care about.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Behold:
researchgate.net/…/Electrical-conductivity-of-ban…
5.4 Electrical Conductivity Measurement This method includes electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and dielectric analysis (DEA). The physical state of a material is measured as a function of frequency in EIS and the frequency ranges from 100 Hz - 10 MHz. It is simple and easier technique used to estimate the physiological status of various biological tissues49-52. Experimental frequency response of impedance is characterised by electrical equivalent circuits of materials. The physical properties of materials can be quantified by monitoring the changes in parameters at the equivalent circuit, among various equivalent models proposed53-54. DEA measurement is used in high frequency areas, generally 100 MHz - 10 GHz. DEA is used in moisture estimation and bulk density determination
So a overripe banana is an interesting high-pass filter, though the big takeaway is the conductance vs ripeness.
So if you want to test if a banana is ready to eat, hook it up. If the music is too loud, it is ready. Too quiet, and it’s not time.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The advantage of good wire is isolating the signal from interference. However, if you aren’t in an electrically noisy environment, anything that can conduct electricity will do just as well.
PointyFluff@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
To be fair, “audiophiles” are morons.
DynoNoob@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
To be fair, the signal is only going through these suboptimal conductors for a very short distance.
Try wiring up your stereo with 50 feet of bananas, and you might start having problems.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I thought audio quality was more to do with the source and the destination. If you have a shit needle on a record or a speaker made of wood then its gonna sound like ass.
I never once thought it had anything to do with the cables. Unless they were frayed or damaged in some way.
But i am not an audiophile, i record my own music and mix etc, but never worried about cable quality before.
daychilde@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I love seeing this story… it reminds me of 30 years ago when I worked in the telephone industry. Heard about telephone copmanies rolling out service in very very rural areas - running signals over barbed-wire fences because it was too expensive to run dedicated cables. That did degrade the signal, but it worked.
I know it’s a completely different thing entirely, but it just gave me nostalgia remembering hearing about that.
LeFantome@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I used to be an audiophile. I spent a lot of money on speakers, and amplifiers, and DACs. But I always found the audiophile cable crowd a bit nuts. And the people that are buying audiophile versions of stuff in the digital domain are full on delusional.
I say “used to be” for two reasons. One, hearing everything does not always mean better. A lot of the time it just reveals imperfections in the recording. And depending on the space, and ambient noise, more headroom can be worse because it just pushes the quiet stuff below the background. And, you are going to have to listen to music in places that you do not have your gear and it is going to sound bad if you get too used to the good stuff. So your music life may be worse overall.
But the biggest difference is that I am older. I just cannot tell the difference as well as I used to.
But most people spend too much money on the equipment and not enough on the sources. You do not need a $20,000 setup if you are listening to badly encoded MP3 or AAC files for example.
But if you have high quality FLAC or Opus sources (or really high-end analog), you do not have to be an audiophile to tell the difference. Same with linear power supplies. You can hear the difference even if you do not spend so much money.
Like wine, audiophiles often make it more about the money they spend than the quality they are getting or the experience they are having.
That said, I can still hear well enough to know that 80% of the people that play music around me turn it up past what their amp can handle and it clips like crazy. I do not know how people listen to that.
WereCat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
plyth@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
This just shows that bananas and mud are materials for excellent audio equipment. I am looking forward to my gold-plated banana.
Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I worked at an online shop for high end audio equipment. It was always both amusing and painful when customers asked about the sound characteristics of various power cables in the price range between $100 and $10,000 that we carried, or the same with USB and optical digital cables. Some came with the firm belief that they needed better power cables to enhance the bass of their setup. They even bought gold plated “audiophile fuses”.
FireWire400@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I mean yeah, audiophile cables are 100% a rip-off every time. You can spend thousands on a cable without it having any real benefits.
It makes more sense to just buy decent speakers and a decent amp, along with a good audio source (any CD player).
klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 2 weeks ago
Or wet mud
Does dry mud exist? I’m pretty sure we just call that dirt xD
bluesheep@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
This is about a digital signal right? Cause I’m pretty sure if I add a banana midway into my bass’ pedalboard that I’d be getting a significantly different sound. I’m tempted to try and proof myself wrong tho lmao
kevinsbacon@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
This is why I like to get mid level stuff. Once you get past the cheap rubbish it’s all the same imo.
Goretantath@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So wait, did they send analoge or digital signals through? Because digital means you could send it through anything and as long as it gets through its the same. The cable only matters when you ARENT using digital signals.
makyo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The eye opening moments for me were
-
Listening to $35 Porta Pro headphones and realizing you don’t need a lot of money for great sound
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ABX testing and realizing I couldn’t tell the difference AT ALL and certainly couldn’t remember the last sound bite well enough to make a real comparison anyway.
-
pyr0ball@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I mean, electrically all of those things will just attenuate amplitude, not really effect signal oscillations, which is actually what sound is …
All they’re doing is effectively adding a small resistance to the signal which will just lower the volume in effect. Adding any amplifier will fix that
aeration1217@lemmy.org 2 weeks ago
will be converting to bananas tonight, thanks op
arc99@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The way audiophiles tell sound quality is 99.99% subjectivity and 0.01% objectivity.
arcine@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
The article isn’t clear on one thing : was it an analog or digital signal ?
The results are entirely unsurprising if the signal was digital. Also, I’d like to see a similar test in an environment with more electrical interference, I think the unshielded materials would fare less well there.
PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 2 weeks ago
You get oxygen free copper because you install it permanently and don’t want it to rust and fail and have to rip out your ceiling and walls
So get the good stuff it’s not sound quality it’s so it lasts
agent_nycto@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Why tf did they blindfold them when they are listening to music?!
drmoose@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Most high end audio equipment is mostly just rich idiot tax. Though low to mid is a huge jump in audio quality.
yesman@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Audiophiles get a lot of friction, but this kind of person exists in almost any hobby. People fascinated by equipment and ascetics who loose the plot about what their hobby is all about.
MrSulu@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Cost does no equal tperformance. Take a look at audiosciencereview.com (ASR). as well as Erin’s audio other (YouTube channell). They both measure performance. I sold my £3k amp and replaced with one for £1k. My partner hated my speakers (too big and ugly), and so were sold to someone who wanted them and replaced by budget options that measure very well. My music sounds better (almost entirely down to the speakers) and we had a great little holiday and it all takes up much less space.
TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I’m lightly active in the headphone enthusiast space. Even in the more light-hearted circles there is still an elevated amount of placebo bullshit and stubborn belief in things that verifiably make zero difference.
It’s rather fascinating in a way. I’ve been in and out of various hobbies over the course of my life but there is just something about audio that attracts an atmosphere of wilful ignorance and bad actors that prey on it.
commander@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve been in the audio enthusiast community for like 17 years now. When I was fresh, the internet commentators had me thinking there was some audio heaven in the high end compared to the mid range priced gear. Now I know better and the gear community is not so high end price evangelicals like it used to be. I feel like there was a before and after the $30 Monoprice DJ headphones and the wave of headphones since. Then especially IEMs. Once ChiFi really got rolling with IEMs and amplifiers and DACs, $1000+ snake oil salespeople got to deal in a way more competitive market
Same with speakers. Internet changed everything. No more at the whim of specialty audio stores stock and Best Buys. Now you got the whole worlds amount of speaker brands at a click of a finger plus craigslist/offerup. Also again ChiFi amplifiers and DACs. Also improvements in audio codecs whether for wireless or not. Bluetooth audio was awful until it stopped being awful as standards improved
These days I mostly see the placebo audio arguments in streaming service and FLAC/lossless encode fanboys. Headphone and speaker communities these days seem a lot more self aware and steeped in self-deprecating humor over the cost, diminishing returns, placebo, snake oil they live in today compared to 17 years ago. I want my digital audio cables endpoints plated with the highest quality diamonds to preserve the zeros and ones. No lab diamonds. Must natural providing the warmth only blood diamonds can provide that excel in removing negative ions. I treat my room with the finest pink himalayan salt sound absorbent wall panels to deal with the most problematic materials used by homebuilders
kabe@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The clamour for lossless/high-res streaming is the audiophile community in a nutshell. Literally paying more money so your brain can trick into thinking it sounds better.
Like many hobbies, it’s mainly a way to rationalize spending ever increasing amounts on new equipment and source content. I was into the whole scene for a while, but once I had discovered what components in the audio chain actually improve sound quality and which don’t, I called it quits.
SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I couldn’t agree more. I got interest in higher-end audio equipment when I was younger, so I went to a local audio shop to test out some Grado headphones. They had a display of different headphones all hooked up to the “same” audio source.
60x vs 80x sounded identical. 60x to 125x, the latter had a bit more bass. 125x to 325x, the latter had a lot more bass and the clarity was a bit better. Then I plugged the 60x into the same connection they had the 325x in. Suddenly the 60x sounded damn similar. Not quite as good, but the 60x was 1/3 the cost and the 325x sure as hell didn’t sound 3x better. They just had the EQ set better for it.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I like lossless compression. But not because I’d be a audio nut. I prefer it from a data retention and archival viewpoint. I could cut and join lossless data as often as i like, without losses accumulating.
GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I remember in 2017 going into an audio store near where I worked, and the guy was emphasizing how clear the audio sounded on certain (expensive) setups, and how it was streaming in from “Norway” which was better than what you’d find on Spotify or YouTube. It took me a while to piece together what he was on about.
Dude was talking about Tidal. All he meant was they streamed lossless formats via Tidal. As if anyone could tell the difference between, say, stereo 192kbps AAC and flac.
Also, remember the supposed amazing quality of MQA? What a shitshow. It’s rather remarkable that a pair of Airpods Pro 2, when fit into your ears properly, are essentially perfectly tuned headphones for only $250 or less compared to some of what the competition sells. Not to say I don’t love my Sennheiser HD650.
madjo@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Gotta love those people with fiber optic cables with gold plated connectors.
QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
You sound like the right person to ask then—how much should I spend on a soundbar for a tv? Or at least do you know a place to ask these questions that give realistic answers with less fanboyism and faux-intellectuals?
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
There’s a difference though, it’s just that gold plated cables doesn’t change anything.
I’d love testing a Sennheiser hd600 series, to see if I hear some difference, from my 598 headset. But they are so expensive so I’m all okay with my refurbished 40€ ones :-)
A DAC for the PC is a nice step up though IMO (there are crap ones too ofc). Not everything is audiofoolery.
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ll agree that sound quality doesn’t seem to be consistent but I will say that Bose is a very nice quality sounding company. Never been disappointed by them.
unmagical@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I fucking love audio and have an extensive collection of equipment. The last thing in the chain before your ears (so headphones and speakers) will absolutely make a difference and the thing that provides power to that can make a difference. But the cables? The fucking cables?! Absolutely no impact once you’re above like $10. Turns out, electrons are electrons and they behave like electrons. Shockingly that doesn’t change in copper, gold plated copper, pure silver, or mud. Doubly so for the non analog part of the chain. Hell I’ve even seen “audiophile grade” ethernet cables.
The other part of the equation is if the differences made by the things that do make a difference actually matter to the listener. They do to me, but my dad is more than happy to just use the speakers on his Dell monitors.
Joncash2@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Well, that’s not entirely correct. Given a long enough run, attenuation will absolutely cause bad cables to perform poorly. Like your not getting a 10 meter run on bananas. That said, for any modern cable, that run has to be greater than 50 meters for it to even start mattering. So if your wiring up a warehouse, you probably need to care about the type of wire your using.
OwOarchist@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
A lot of it comes down to a mix of snobbishness, sunk cost fallacy, and tribalism.
You can’t admit that your $5,000 pair of headphones sound exactly the same as a $300 pair, because:
You’d no longer be able to pretend that you’re better than the people who have $300 headphones.
You’d have to admit to yourself that you completely wasted $4,700.
You’d have to realize that the tight-knit community you’ve formed with other $10k headphone people isn’t really bettor or even really distinct from communities of people with $300 headphones.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I buy headphone cables based on how nice the cable feels, if it transmits noise when it rubs against stuff, and how well the connectors fit into the devices I am using.
My favorite is when people get picky about cabling for digital transfer. The ones and zeroes either get there or they don’t, nothing in-between. They work or they don’t.
Lorindol@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
My favorite is when people get picky about cabling for digital transfer. The ones and zeroes either get there or they don’t, nothing in-between. They work or they don’t.
Around the time when HDMI was released my friend bought some "super-high-end "cable that cost over 200$, since he wanted the "best possible performance " out of his system. I tried to explain that the cheapest cables would give the exact same results if they’re not faulty from the start. We had a loud argument about this, even though the guy is a goddamn tech PhD. He just could not admit he got scammed and tried to give me a lecture about “how the gold plated connectors make all the difference”.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Regarding digital, quality spdif cables absolutely matter. One tiny mistake and they crackle out and don’t work. I’ve gone through many pairs of cheap ones until I just spend the money to never have issues again.
Now will the 1 dollar one sound the same as the 80 dolalr one? Yes. It won’t last or hohld up to dust or abuse at all though.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
For IEMs, the price difference typically goes towards comfort rather than sound quality. As a professional audio technician, a custom-molded IEM will be infinitely more comfortable than a cheap set. But not everyone can justify spending $2000 for custom molds, because they don’t use them for work every day.
pet1t@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m a musician. I swear by Beyerdynamic DT700. Fucking great headphones for like an insanely reasonable price
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Awesome headphones. If you don’t mind the beyer peak. My favorites are my grado rs2. But I prefer music on speakers not headphones, so much space is lost on headphones. Hear a pair of magnepans in a room and you’ll be blown away. Got some original SMGa’s from 1989!
Real audio enthusiasts know the room is the most important, followed by the speaker itself, followed by the actual source. Then the amp etc.
And when you record and mix music you realize how much of it is bullshit in the end. The source is all that matters, really.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I think a lot of it is a sort of sunk cost fallacy.
They bought the expensive shit, so they have to believe it’s better.
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Apple Syndrome
Rubanski@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
The one time I was absolutely blown away by a pair of headphones that are not in the insano area, are the beyerdynamic dt1990. They aren’t cheap by any means but not insanely expensive. When I listened to music I’ve listened to hundreds of times, somehow they showed me even more detail I haven’t heard before. For example a Nena 99 red balloons LP, the amp was still the same as always but I couldn’t believe the amount of detail there was in the background, the soundstage those headphones were creating.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
It’s a rich playground for the price-equals-value fallacy, and there are plenty of well-heeled rubes that’ll fall for the technobabble.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
It mattered more back in the analog days, I think. Now that it’s all digital, and going through dac’s, its all just about being good enough for 1’s and 0’s to get through. “Noise” doesn’t exist for digital audio. It either works, or it doesn’t.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
It definitely mattered a hell of lot more in analog days. Getting a properly calibrated reel tape machine through a properly calibrated tube amp in a properly dimensioned room with good speakers is a feat, and absolutely sounds amazing.
Nowadays, it’s about how they mastered it. I can tell you for a fact Ozzy’s no more tears CD sounds like shit and the double record mix is FARRRR better, because it doesn’t have the life squished out of it from brickwalling. Is that digital vs analog? No. Its mastering.
Analog will sound better if you spend a SHIT ton and have an insanely good source. Digital will also sound amazing if you spend a lot. I myself very much enjoy listening to my original reels of 50s-70s music because you really can get so close to being in the studio and hearing everything, because they couldn’t edit it to death.
Bridge over troubled water on a reel is a real experience.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s been like this for decades, according to my dad. Well before the internet.
timwa@lemmy.snowgoons.ro 2 weeks ago
I worked for Philips Research 30 odd years ago (weeps)… It was a source of great amusement then that we could sell two pieces of equipment that were identical in every way except one had a Marantz label and cost twice as much as the Philips one, and the Marantz would get 5 stars in the audiophile magazines, and the Philips would get 3 or 4.
brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I have a set of Sony studio monitor headphones. I can hear more nuance and parts of the music I simply can’t hear in any of my ear buds or noise canceling headphones. They aren’t wireless, so I don’t really use them that often though.
It doesn’t matter the cable, the amp, shitty 128kbps mp3 or vinyl. I can’t hear much, much better with the drivers in them.
I’d say 90% of anything that matters is the driver. But past a certain midrange point, there just isn’t really much or any improvement.
bstix@feddit.dk 2 weeks ago
I think it’s the lack of a shared vocabulary.
Everyone likes some music better than other music, and so everyone think they can tell the difference between good and bad music. However, nobody can explain the difference in plain words.
This easily leads to the conclusion that it is fully subjective, and this is where the ignorance comes from. If nobody can explain what good music is, then my own voodoo explanation is as good as any.
However, we can talk about music theory, audio production and sound analysis in scientific terms to the point where we can even reproduce certain sounds based on the description. But we can’t really understand the description without actually experiencing the sound.
It’s similar to somebody saying “I don’t like this cake” or someone saying “my taste receptors react to the umami in this cake”, but I still wouldn’t have a clue about how the cake tastes.
Sound is also different from other sciences in that there is very little proof of one thing being more correct than others. And that goal changes constantly. Whenever somebody does crack the code to what people enjoy, it’ll get boring really quick.
I had a music teacher long ago who said that there is no bad music, only wrong audiences. His point was that the music that makes it through to the recording and publishing will already have passed the filter where someone made a decision if there is an audience for it. If you hear bad music, then you’re just not the right audience.
Anyway, cables. Who cares. The end result is the most important part. However, I’d prefer to hook up the instruments on stage with thick cables instead of bananas. Same thing applies at home. Any wire will do, but cheap wires do break.
FundMECFS@anarchist.nexus 2 weeks ago
Happy cake day
TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
thanks!
mellow@lemmy.wtf 2 weeks ago
Happy cakeday! 🥳
TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Thanks!