Comment by IWeldMelons

7 years ago

If it was true, the entirety of hi-fi industry would not exist. I myself built a number of amplifiers and, after a certain threshold, roughly .02% THD (total harmonic distortion) at 20khz, there is a very little correlation between the THD (what is usually measured)numbers and perceived quality of the sound. Which means, while it is true that is everything could be measured, no one measures the right thing (perhaps some weird subtle phase shifts or some almost immeasurable frequency response deficiencies)

8 comments

IWeldMelons

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mrguyorama  7 years ago

Are you suggesting that things like healing crystals work, because the market for them exists?

  • IWeldMelons  7 years ago

    You are putting words in my mouth. I am telling what I actually verified. Amplifiers with lower THD and IMD often sound worse than those with less impressive meausured parameters. Ergo, the measured parameters are not relevant. We need to find the actually important paramters and measure them.

    • ovao  7 years ago

      But “sounds worse” in this case is relevant only to your preferences and to the preferences of some N of listeners, where N is totally unknown. The parameters you believe amp manufacturers should measure are therefore only relevant to your idea about them.

      THD, SNR, frequency response and many other metrics are easy: they define either accuracy or precision. If you want more than that, add external affects hardware or DSP. The purpose of the amplifier is to amplify.

      2 replies →

matwood  7 years ago

> the entirety of hi-fi industry would not exist.

An industry which is known to sell an enormous amount of snake oil...