2. misc-audio
  3. 178244-20253

What covid research can teach us about audio measurements.

Recent studies in Canada for patients with so-called long covid show us on how science and measurements and research actually works.

Patients with long covid suffering from limited ability to exercise passed most "normal" tests but it took a new type of test to positively identify a mechanism that explained why the patients suffered.

 

Honestly there is a lot of snake oil and charlatanism in our hobby, and I don't claim to discount that fact.  What I do want to say is that science doesn't rest with 50 year old measurements.  It evolves to measure and explain constantly. 

The reason I am personally dissatisfied with audio measurements in the common literature is exactly because of this stagnation, and when these fail us we trust our ears and gut for lack of better tools. 

Anyone who runs the same 20 measurements on an amplifier or DAC and claims it is science and that these measurements are all that can be known is fooling themselves into believing that they are scientists or that we have reached the limits of understanding.

And above all, caveat emptor!

erik_squires
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juanmanuelfangioii
958 posts
 

@johnk People do look at measurements to qualify, regardless of what is written on these pages. Then the subjectivism comes in when making final decisions in the process.

 

erik_squires OP
15,657 posts
 

You may not think that measurements matter but they sure as hell do when anything is constructed.

 

I certainly have never said measurements don't matter, only that in a scientifically driven world we'd be using new and different sets of measurements as our knowledge and research progressed.  That we are still using 50 year old measurements in the common press should be a good sign that more can be discovered.

invalid
1,073 posts
 

The problem is the measurements most manufacturers list aren't always that important, if they listed all the measurements it might be a different story.

mahler123
3,031 posts
 

The article cited by the OP discusses using MRI to visually observe Xenon labeled gases diffuse across the alveolar membrane.  It's cool but not a breakthrough.  We have been able to measure the same paramater for decades; Diffusion Capacity is a routine part of Pulmonary Function Testing that can be done in any hospital lab.   

    In audio terms this would be like measuring distortion.  Imagine if a new technology came along that could tell you the same thing that old technology already tells you.

   Not sure how this relates to any particular topic here.  It doesn't begin to tell us if doing measurements are worthwhile, only that there is another way to do them

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