Low Noise Floor? Why?

[bonzo75]

To some having noise is anathema but I have not reached that stage. Trying the ground boxes merely made me feel like I had a cold, albeit in a quieter environment.

What you are saying is that you were not happy with the solution you tried to reduce the noise floor.

 

[bonzo75]

Someone on this site who is much smarter than I said that he finds, at least with SET amps, that maybe a little noise is better. I've found this to be true with my amp. When I'm able to dial out the slight ambient hum with tube choice and other methods the amp sounds a bit constricted. No idea why. Just my experience.

There are not many smart people on this site. Some of the threads recently have dumbed down everyone.

If you take an amp or preamp using 45 valve, try rolling EML mesh 45 and the solid plate. The mesh is much noisier, the solid plate has lower noise floor. The mesh sounds airier on vocals, the solid plate just shows more music that helps inflections of instruments, which the mesh glosses over.

Moving from psvane to KR 211 reduced noise floor, plus improved other dimensions..

 

[howiebrou]

What you are saying is that you were not happy with the solution you tried to reduce the noise floor.

To be honest I wasn't trying to reduce the noise floor, I was just testing out a ground box for interest to see what everyone was getting so excited about.

 

[bonzo75]

To be honest I wasn't trying to reduce the noise floor, I was just testing out a ground box for interest to see what everyone was getting so excited about.

Yes I got that. And you didn't like that grounding. Noise floor reduced through various means, maybe your Kodas had lower noise floor than your Engstroms, maybe one of your TTS has lower noise floor than a stock Garrard, maybe Artisan Fidelity has reduced the noise floor on your Garrard, and there is room noise.

 

[morricab]

When I go to Walt Disney Concert Hall to hear a classical concert the ambient noise level is not low. I hear really old people wheezing and Boomers snoring and couples yakking and Millennials playing on their smart phones and kids crinkling potato chips packages.

So why the audiophile obsession with a low noise floor? Doesn't that take us away from the sensation of re-creating the experience of a live venue?

It is possible to hear signal well below the true noise floor. Take for example, tape hiss. You can still hear easily low level signals that fall below the level of tape hiss because there is no correlation of the noise and the signal.

When so-called "noise" in a hifi system is not truly random noise there becomes a problem "hearing into" the recording. The correlated "noise like" signal will mask low level signals due to the correlation.

A true low noise floor should allow one to hear very low level information clearly, like ambient information captured on the recording and subtle tonal and dynamics shifts.

 

[Argonaut]

A true low noise floor should allow one to hear very low level information clearly, like ambient information captured on the recording

Yes, a handful of tracks referencing these low signal ambient background cues are a valuable tool in assessing a systems low noise floor capability.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

For me, Noise Floor in the context of a system is how one describes the level of distortion. The lower the noise floor, the less distortion there is in the system.

That's a particular definition but not a universal one. To me, noise is something in addition to the signals and which may obscure them depending on the relative spectrum and levels of the signals and the noise.

 

[morricab]

That's a particular definition but not a universal one. To me, noise is something in addition to the signals and which may obscure them depending on the relative spectrum and levels of the signals and the noise.

Noise, is by definition uncorrelated with the signal. It can obscure when excessive but it is possible to hear below the noise. Anything that is signal correlated is distortion. You can only get a true S/N if what you call noise is truly random and not signal correlated.

 

[ICUToo]

If audible noise like hum or buzz is correlated to volume levels or the music, it's a much larger issue and a big problem.

I think this is the main issue- if the noise is in any way correlated to the music, it takes away from realism.
Simple 50Hz hum is much less damaging- you subconsciously tune it out