Do you believe in Magic?

03-30-12: Mrtennis
after reading 175 posts , i have concluded that since perception is unreliable and it is the means of interacting with our stereo system, all objective considerations, and arguments are academic...

MrT - I don't know why you had to read 175 posts to come to this conclusion. It is the conclusion you ALWAYS come to, no matter what is being discussed. It goes like this...

1. Knowledge must be certain.
2. Perception cannot be certain.
3. Therefore, perception is not knowledge.

This little syllogism, which encapsulates your Ideology of Skepticism, is presented by you so frequently here on A'gon that it is beginning to look like stereotypy. Anyone who spends time around here knows what I'm talking about.

Bryon

Hi Mrtennis,

If that is really true where does that leave science? If we cannot trust our perception how do we observe? So then we are left with magic.

i believe knowledfge comes from the abstract--definitions,and postulates.

i agree with byron. i am a skeptic when it comes to trusting the senses.

i think they are unreliable and are similar to an opinion. there is a probability that they are right (accurate) and a probability they are inaccurate.

one can hear what isn't present and fail to hear what is.

while i may have confidence in my perceptions, i don't consider them knowledge and i accept the possibility that i may be in error regarding what i hear , or not.

the issue of eye witness accounts of an event serves as an example to corroborate my belief.

I had another experience with Magic yesterday. In fact, it was the most Magical audio experience I've ever had. I'm somewhat reluctant to mention it, because I don't want to sabotage my own credibility. But in light of the topic of this thread, I feel obliged to share it. Here it is...

Grounding pigtails. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it's little loops of wire that you attach to the negative binding post of your speakers or your amp (or both).

Audio Prism makes grounding pigtails out of Litz wire, and sells them for an unconscionable amount of money. I made a diy version using 12 strands of 23 gauge solid core wire that I braided together.

About a week ago I attached my diy grounding pigtails to my amp. I thought maybe I heard something, but it was within the "noise level" of placebo, so I didn't think much of it. Yesterday, I made some more pigtails and attached them to my speakers and...

SHAZAM!

Something very unexpected occurred. I cannot explain it. I suspect no one can explain it. It was Magic.

Unlike the ambiguous effect of adding pigtails to the amp, the effect of adding pigtails to the speakers was well above the typical "noise level" of placebo. I say that knowing full well the power of placebo. I have an avid interest in psychology, and I am married to a psychologist, making me aware of the tricks the unconscious mind can play on you. So of course I cannot guarantee that what I experienced wasn't a placebo. But I can say, with total sincerity, that I believe the effect occurred not in my mind, but in my listening room.

I should also say, in my preemptive defense, that I have tried a LARGE number of other tweaks. You can see a list here. At least half the time with tweaks, I hear no difference whatsoever. But in this case, I heard something. Something remarkable.

Sounds like nonsense. But it happened.

Bryon

Hi Bryon,

Given your disciplined approach to things, a lot of the following has probably already occurred to you. But fwiw here is a list of conceivable extraneous variables that comes to mind, which I think need to be eliminated before the difference you perceived can be attributed to the pigtails with a reasonable degree of confidence.

Obviously, a way to eliminate most or all of these possibilities would be to go back and forth several times between having the pigtails in place and not having them in place.

1)Improved contact between the speaker terminals and the speaker cables, resulting from increased pressure and/or scraping away of oxidation that may have occurred during the loosening and re-tightening of the connections.

2)Changes in room temperature. Temperature is a parameter that is fundamental to the physics of transistors and other semiconductor devices.

3)Changes in AC line voltage.

4)Changes in AC line noise.

5)Changes in rfi/emi conditions, such as may be caused by wifi signals, cellphone traffic, nearby radio stations which may broadcast at different power levels during the day vs. at night, etc.

6)Ongoing aging, breakin, loss of breakin, or re-breakin of system components or the speakers.

7)Components being in a different state of warmup during the "before" and "after" parts of the comparison.

Undoubtedly there are other possible extraneous variables that I'm not thinking of.

Best,
-- Al