John, you hit the nail on the head when you said, "I DO find the results of your experiment intriguing exactly because they do strike me as counterintuitive. Even more so because so many different components were under test at once - I would've guessed an additive effect, if anything." Precisely; I was expecting somthing, but phhhhht. Nothing but the exact same presentation.
When three different components, including cabling, amp and source do squat for Burn In, I'm done with it as a serious "tool" to improve systems. My attitude now is, if it happens, it happens, but I'm benign to it. IOW, if I want change I make it happen, I don't wait for it. :) |
Fight or flight
Mapman wrote,
"I am a big believer in spirituality and how that affects how one
interacts with the world."
I don't doubt that you are a big believer or that spirituality affects how one
interacts with the world. However, I'm not referring to spirituality any more
than I'm referring to new ageism, Zen, placebo effect, expectation bias,
group hypnosis, Magik, subliminal advertising or long distance healing.
What I'm leading up to is the Idea that what we're hearing when we listen to
music on our stereo rigs is not really the sound that the system is
producing! We cannot hear the real sound of the system, we only hear a
cardboard facsimile of it, a more distorted, compressed and uninvolving
version.
The reason we cannot hear the real thing is because of many things in the
environment that produce stress or anxiety and degrade our sense of
hearing. As Ivan described, the fight or flight syndrome reduces sensory
perceptions as more important biological procesess take over. The
problem is that the fight or flight syndrome is always present because so
many things, even ordinary things, in the modern world produce it. Since
the mind-matter interaction is primarily subconscious or autonomous we
are not aware of it and cannot control it. Obviously, since everyone has
always been subject to this unfortunate circumstance we take it for granted.
We did not see this coming.
Have you ever turned up the volume and found the sound to be way too
distorted? That distortion you hear is not produced by the system, well a
little bit maybe. The distortion you hear is actually produced by the reaction
to the fight or flight syndrome. Because other biological functions have
priority the senses of hearing and vision degrade, so the distortion is a
manifestation of the degraded sense of hearing. The stress or anxiety is
produced by things that we interpret as threats. Obviously not everything in
the environment is a real threat but since the subconscious mind cannot
always be absolutely sure, it sometimes over-reacts. Better safe than
sorry.
An example of something that produces this effect is an ordinary telephone
book (of all things). Taking all telephone books out of the house will usually
be audible when you go back and listen to the system. Even if the
telephone books are in other rooms of the house, they should be removed.
The telephone book is perceived as an intruder by virtue of the fact that it is
linked to a strong Field created by the tens or hundreds of thousands of
identical telephone books. So, the link to that field can be eliminated by
removing the telephone books from the house, making the house Safe from
the telephone book "information field". That's enough
information for now, I suspect. :-)
All of this doesn't change the fact we still have the problem of deciding if or
how the same old things affect the sound, things like fuses, wire
directionality, burn-in, etc. |
Hmm, my stress level just went up learning about the phone book issue. That means my listening ability has also probably been impaired.
LEt me check and see if any undetected phone books are laying around and remove them if so. Then I will feel better, I hope, and things should once again sound better. |
That subconscious fear of a cell phone also goes at least a million times greater than phone books. It has phone numbers,world wide web connections etc.See if putting all cell phones outside your house preferably at least 100ft. does not make your listening experience so much more enjoyable due to the lack of fear.You have to put the fear in to take it out,here buy this.This is in response to break-in bane or boon? |
Huh? I thought phone calls made your system sound better. Now I learn that I should remove phones from my house? Geez, what's next, clocks? |
remember that a lot of the phone lines are running parallel to the power lines out in most neighborhoods...can't escape... |
Sounds like there's more than meets the ear.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Nonoise wrote,
"Sounds like there's more than meets the ear."
I'm afraid things are worse than I have intimated so far. Much, much
worse. The fight or flight response is elicited by a great many things, most
of them what I would call unnatural shapes, materials, and links to global
information fields, that we sense as intruders or threats. Danger, danger,
Will Robinson! Examples? Long, thin shapes like electrical cords,
Venetian blind cords, audio cables. Thin, square shapes like windows and
doors. Materials like treated wood of furniture, speaker cabinets, hardwood
floors, but also metals like steel, aluminum and copper(!). All media -
books, magazines, CDs, LPs, cassettes, DVDs, newspapers, as well as
anything connected to the Internet or wideband transmission networks -
iPhones, iPads, computers, TVs, etc. An easy test to gauge the effect of
CDs or LPs in the room on our hearing, at least to some extent, is to listen
to a favorite track with all CDs and LPs in the room placed horizontally.
Then, listen again to the same track with all CDs and LPs in the room
stacked vertically. You should find that vertical is noticeably superior, along
the lines of putting in a set of expensive interconnects.
It's no wonder that many folks cannot get to the point of proving to
themselves that there's such a thing as break-in, fuse and wire
directionality, or the advantage of high end cables and power cords, or
even the advantage of high resolution formats over Red Book CD. Most
systems, even the most expensive and elaborate ones, are way down in
the noise floor. But the noise isn't coming from the system, but somewhere
else!
I return you back to your regularly scheduled programming. :-)
GK |
" But the noise isn't coming from the system, but somewhere
else! "
Indeed! |
|
it is interesting how the topic of break -in has morphed into other tangential issues. |
|
"09-06-12: Mapman
Ivan, nice post on a useful subject. People may often fail to consider how the most important component of all, themselves, works when assessing cause and effect of things.
The snake oil industry understands this well. Knowing one's self first is paramount to most everything."
My fault perhaps for triggering the morph of the thread.
Snake Oil can be some powerful stuff! Best to avoid.... |
That would have to be my fault sooner than yours, Mapman. :) |
