If you can't hear differences in YouTube comparisons, is it because:
- Thread starter Rexp
- Start date
Republicoftexas69
Well-Known Member
Everyone can hear differences. The argument is about whether or not the differences translate to correctly diagnosed performance issues in the actual systems.
If you don’t understand this, is it because of
1. Reading comprehension issues
A. A love for argument
iii. Disbelief in the idea that videos are not perfect
OK TOM, you can clip this out as a violation if you like, but it had to be said.
If you don’t understand this, is it because of
1. Reading comprehension issues
A. A love for argument
iii. Disbelief in the idea that videos are not perfect
OK TOM, you can clip this out as a violation if you like, but it had to be said.
Let’s try to approach this with some logic.
Assuming the playback chain is not limited in any way, i.e., the perfect pair of headphones, driven by a perfectly neutral and properly matched amplifier, with a signal from a perfectly neutral DAC, the limiting factor then becomes:
a) the quality of microphone used to capture the in-room audio system playback
b) the quality of the microphone preamp and ADC used during the recording process
c) the huge amount of dynamic compression applied when uploading any content to a platform such as YouTube.
Many sonic differences, never mind whether they represent an objective or subject advancement, are barely discernible under sighted conditions in-room and almost certainly not under controlled blind testing conditions. Yet here we are, trying to illustrate such differences using a methodology that is terribly flawed.
I love well produced video content of audio equipment for its entertainment value. But I ascribe no real value to the sound beyond potentially discovering new music or worthy recordings of familiar music.
I have a feeling this will be digital versus analogue thread again after 5 - 10 pages
F. There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into videos. They make themselves manifest. They are what is musical.”
Apologies to Ludwig Wittgenstein
Apologies to Ludwig Wittgenstein
I’ll toss a few more logs onto the fire…
A. Your hearing is faulty.
B. Your YouTube playback is faulty.
C. There are no worthwhile differences.
* * * New * * *
D. You fail to listen at reasonable volume levels approaching the live performance.
E. You fail to choose a reasonable listening device i.e. headphones.
F. Your audio memory isn’t what you think it is.
G. You've allowed personal preferences, presumptions, and/or preconceived narratives to consume you.
H. Your music choices are not challenging to your system or ears.
I. You're listening for all the wrong things.
J. Your listening skills have yet to match your love for playback music.
K. You pay too much attention to the consensus.
L. You think options A thru C are valid.
M. You fail to apply your critical thinking skills.
N. You've already convinced yourself a Youtube music video is of no sonic value. (See options D thru M above)
There's probably more.
Last edited:
Most of these discussions are about videos of different systems and choosing preferences. But that’s not the only way videos can be used.
I made a bunch of videos of my own system, making changes to room acoustics and speaker position, and things like cables and power cords using the same music and system, just changes in set up. I shared these with a couple friends so that they could share their opinions with me, and discuss what they heard versus what I heard on the videos plus from my listening seat.
Once things got dialed in and started to improve we did eventually reach a point where differences became very subtle and difficult to hear. We concluded that we had reached the limit of what we could hear from my videos recorded by iPhone on our computers and headphones or sound bars. They were also becoming increasingly difficult to hear live in the room, but I could still hear differences in the room that I could no longer hear on the videos.
We were astonished, for instance , when we did hear the difference between two power cords on my turntable power supply over the videos. It turned out, we preferred the stock power cord to the other power cords I had in the rest of the system to the electronics.
We were listening to very specific things but not with the illusion that we were listening to the actual system. I would supplement the videos with my impressions in the room. There was a pretty good correlation. In this case, the videos were simply a tool, used together to get different opinions from those who could not be in the room, and I found them very helpful.
I made a bunch of videos of my own system, making changes to room acoustics and speaker position, and things like cables and power cords using the same music and system, just changes in set up. I shared these with a couple friends so that they could share their opinions with me, and discuss what they heard versus what I heard on the videos plus from my listening seat.
Once things got dialed in and started to improve we did eventually reach a point where differences became very subtle and difficult to hear. We concluded that we had reached the limit of what we could hear from my videos recorded by iPhone on our computers and headphones or sound bars. They were also becoming increasingly difficult to hear live in the room, but I could still hear differences in the room that I could no longer hear on the videos.
We were astonished, for instance , when we did hear the difference between two power cords on my turntable power supply over the videos. It turned out, we preferred the stock power cord to the other power cords I had in the rest of the system to the electronics.
We were listening to very specific things but not with the illusion that we were listening to the actual system. I would supplement the videos with my impressions in the room. There was a pretty good correlation. In this case, the videos were simply a tool, used together to get different opinions from those who could not be in the room, and I found them very helpful.
Republicoftexas69
Well-Known Member
D. Folks listen at their preferred level for all videos they're comparing, why would this matter?
E. Similar to B.
F. I would guess this is rare?
G. Possibly in Rons case.
H. Similar to C.
I. Similar to A.
J. Similar to A.
K. Possibly in Rons case.
L. Doesn't make sense.
M. Doesn't make sense.
N. Similar to G/K
So my updated reasons are:
A. Your hearing is faulty
B. Your YouTube playback isn't good enough.
C. There are no worthwhile differences.
D. You've convinced yourself that system videos cannot offer anything worthwhile.
nearly (according to the internet): Douglas Adams's popular 1979 science-fiction novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first in a series of five. Toward the end of the book, the supercomputer Deep Thought reveals that the answer to the “Great Question” of “Life, the Universe and Everything” is “forty-two.”
Forty-two is the ASCII code for the symbol * also known as the asterisk. This symbol is often thought to translate to anything or everything. In this instance, 42 = everything, the meaning of life.
I hope this means we can move on...
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