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What do we hear when we change the direction of a wire?

Douglas Self wrote a devastating article about audio anomalies back in 1988. With all the necessary knowledge and measuring tools, he did not detect any supposedly audible changes in the electrical signal. Self and his colleagues were sure that they had proved the absence of anomalies in audio, but over the past 30 years, audio anomalies have not disappeared anywhere, at the same time the authority of science in the field of audio has increasingly become questioned. It's hard to believe, but science still cannot clearly answer the question of what electricity is and what sound is! (see article by A.J.Essien).

For your information: to make sure that no potentially audible changes in the electrical signal occur when we apply any "audio magic" to our gear, no super equipment is needed. The smallest step-change in amplitude that can be detected by ear is about 0.3dB for a pure tone. In more realistic situations it is 0.5 to 1.0dB'". This is about a 10% change. (Harris J.D.). At medium volume, the voltage amplitude at the output of the amplifier is approximately 10 volts, which means that the smallest audible difference in sound will be noticeable when the output voltage changes to 1 volt. Such an error is impossible not to notice even using a conventional voltmeter, but Self and his colleagues performed much more accurate measurements, including ones made directly on the music signal using Baxandall subtraction technique - they found no error even at this highest level.

As a result, we are faced with an apparently unsolvable problem: those of us who do not hear the sound of wires, relying on the authority of scientists, claim that audio anomalies are BS. However, people who confidently perceive this component of sound are forced to make another, the only possible conclusion in this situation: the electrical and acoustic signals contain some additional signal(s) that are still unknown to science, and which we perceive with a certain sixth sense.

If there are no electrical changes in the signal, then there are no acoustic changes, respectively, hearing does not participate in the perception of anomalies. What other options can there be?

Regards.
anton_stepichev
anton_stepichev OP
150 posts
 

wolf_garcia
I just made another REL cord for a new sub and noticed the Canare wire I used isn't labeled for directionality...should I undo the carefully shrink wrapped and Speakon festooned masterpiece I assembled? Uh...no.

I don't think it makes sense to redo the cable if it's going to be used in a subwoofer. Usually in complex systems with multi-band speakers and subwoofers, the directivity of the individual wires is not as important as in simple tube amplifiers used with two-band speakers.  The sub itself badly affects the playback of acoustical music to a much greater extent than a cable - in exchange for a better bass, you get worse plasticity of acoustic instruments and some other artifacts in middle range.

So my opinion is if the system is configured to listen to classical music, it is better to just get rid of the subwoofer along with its cables, and if you listen to electronical music, then the direction of sub's wire will not matter much.

But no one can say with certainty how important the direction of a single wire is in your system and specifically for you. This should be tried.
joysjane's avatar
joysjane
180 posts
 
Still going with nadda, zip, zippo...
alexberger
958 posts
 
Ohm's laws, Maxwell's equations, Quantum mechanics are just models created by man to describe natural phenomena.
But none of these models can be considered the final true. Maybe someday there will be new models that will help reveal the secret of the sound and direction of the wires.
djones51
4,947 posts
 
Maybe someday there will be new models that will help reveal the secret of the sound and direction of the wires.
 Repo

If these new models don't agree with your preconceptions and biases you'll dismiss them as well.
anton_stepichev OP
150 posts
 
I received an interesting email yesterday:

Hello Anton!
I wanted to ask your opinion on something, because you are one of the few living people I know who understands this phenomenon.

I am talking about the subtle (not so subtle) loss of musical clarity when a digital file is transferred and copied. I was long aware of this phenomenon, but mostly I ignored it, there was nothing to be done, I relied on the internet heavily for music, and did not record anything.

Recently I found a software tool written by a French audiophile, it promises to ’optimize’ the file and restore the sound. There are serious limitations, each optimization takes 2 minutes, only one file can be done at a time. Sadly the tool is only available for Windows, like you I am now using Mac. I wish such a tool existed for Mac, it would be cool to try, but sadly because I don’t know what the tool is even doing - there is no way to search for a replica. http://www.junilabs.com/fr/products/audioplayer.html

And yet, it works! Comparing the normal, copied many times file with the file which has been optimized once, the differences are clear and fundamental - musical losses are restored.

I would like your opinion on the matter, and if you have any advice on how to prevent ’going crazy’ from such esoteric phenomenon. At some point the listener must face reality and ask if they are listening to music or the effect of tweaks.


I don’t have Windows too, but I have a laptop with Linux and Wine that are used to run Windows programs under Linux. I installed the player and optimized some mp3 files. It definitely works!
I would say that optimized files sound more airy and openly. It’s like you’re turning a wire in the right direction. This is very strange, I have never seen a computer program that makes a file sound more natural and it is free and easy to compare.

After all this is the perfect example how two equal digital files can sound different. Specially for biased naysayers.


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