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
Thank you @rodman99999 I have been reading a bit of those (and it turns out some of those I have encountered in other lectures on youtube and this reinforces that).

@Millercarbon "manueljenkin, click on the users name, and select Message User from the drop down menu." What happened? Any specific requirement from me?
I'm actually in the process of building a new home. How will I tell which direction to have the Romex run inside the walls to my listening room?

I do not want to spend all this money and end up hearing Led Zeppelin backwards!
Parris, what is the Romex?
in any rate you woun’t listen LZ backwards). If we are about rock music, the directivity of acoustic environment parts will first affect the drive: the more accurately you orient the parts of the room walls, floor and sailing the less loudness you will have to make at the end to achieve nirvana. It is very rough assumption but a good mark to understand the difference.
Nada. Audio signals are AC.

This conclusion is based on a gross misunderstanding about how electricity and electronics works. It assumes the current flows first in one direction and then the other since it is called "alternating current" . Nothing could be further from the truth. Current is the movement of charge, not electrons as it is usually explained. Unfortunately, if you do a search you will almost always find an explanation that includes an analogy of electrons in a wire to water in a pipe. That is fundamentally wrong which leads to many incorrect conclusions and explanations.



Now I am in the process of upgrading my crossovers. I know from experience there are huge gains to be made from using higher quality caps, inductors, and resistors. This is strange only in the sense that these are all specifically designed to measure the same. The whole point of manufacture is to have them all be electrically identical and interchangeable.

A worthwhile exercise that can reap real benefits.

Unfortunately there is such a thing as component tolerance, which can  range from 1-10%.

The lower the percentage the better. Even better, measure the values of a bunch and select those closest to the desired value.