At the Newport show, I listened to Ted Denney's (Synergistic Research) exhibit of his Acoustic Art room tuning system.
I consider myself a reasonably trained listener, with more than 30 years playing string instruments; upon hearing this set-up, I realized that we were getting a very good example of the human brain's inability to remember exact sounds for any length of time. In the show, Ted would demo the very nice Magico based system with and without the various Acoustic Art pieces. The problem was that it took a few minutes to place/remove these gadgets--- resulting in the audience having to remember the sound prior.
Almost everyone seemed to believe that they heard a difference.....usually upon Ted's suggestion that the sound receded without his tweeks
I am probably going to get some heat here for saying this, but I felt that the only difference that could be heard was solely due to the aural memory of the audience being faulty.
I wander how many reviewer's who compare a piece of gear that they may have heard months or years back can truly remember the exact sound that they are now reporting compares to the piece that they are currently reviewing.
I am also wandering if many tweeks, and in fact gear changes, are percieved as superior only due to the 'Psycho-acoustic memory effect' and how many manufacturers are banking on this effect to sell product
Are we as a'philes perhaps too gulible for our own good
How accurate do you think the typical a'philes psycho-acoustic memory is?
I consider myself a reasonably trained listener, with more than 30 years playing string instruments; upon hearing this set-up, I realized that we were getting a very good example of the human brain's inability to remember exact sounds for any length of time. In the show, Ted would demo the very nice Magico based system with and without the various Acoustic Art pieces. The problem was that it took a few minutes to place/remove these gadgets--- resulting in the audience having to remember the sound prior.
Almost everyone seemed to believe that they heard a difference.....usually upon Ted's suggestion that the sound receded without his tweeks
I am probably going to get some heat here for saying this, but I felt that the only difference that could be heard was solely due to the aural memory of the audience being faulty.
I wander how many reviewer's who compare a piece of gear that they may have heard months or years back can truly remember the exact sound that they are now reporting compares to the piece that they are currently reviewing.
I am also wandering if many tweeks, and in fact gear changes, are percieved as superior only due to the 'Psycho-acoustic memory effect' and how many manufacturers are banking on this effect to sell product
Are we as a'philes perhaps too gulible for our own good
How accurate do you think the typical a'philes psycho-acoustic memory is?
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