Is a Lower Noise Floor, are "Blacker" Blacks, Consonant With the Music?

[Al M.]

Very well said, Kingrex. Tesla has a nice quote about this.

"Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation."

If it was true 100 years ago, I can only imagine how much worse it might be today.

In cosmology it is the worst. The so-called multiverse is a concept that can impossibly ever be proven, since any universe other than ours is *in principle* outside possible observation.

Fundamental physics is second worst. String theory is now 45 years old and has never been proven. At least new particles that could lend support to the hypothesis*) should be *in principle* observable, but probably at energy levels unobtainable with our particle accelerators. Even the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful one, never found any, it only triumphantly confirmed the Standard Model of physics, e.g., Higgs boson. They upgraded the collision energy, but still nothing found. Hope springs eternal. Entire scientific careers are on the line, and few involved with string theory jump off the crazy bandwagon. Famous physicist Lee Smolin to his credit did, and wrote a book about it, "The Trouble with Physics".

As a biochemist I am dependent on experiment and observation every single day. It keeps me grounded in reality and humble, because often things don't work the way envisioned and hypothesized. You can imagine my level of disdain, even contempt, at what some colleagues in cosmology and physics call "science" -- a redefined observation-less free for all.

Yet most scientists, not just biochemists, remain grounded in experiment and observation, the foundational bedrock of science. So do many fundamental physicists, the ones not wedded to string theory. So science overall still nicely marches on, for the progress of human knowledge and the benefit of humankind. The mRNA based Covid vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna) are among the latest triumphs in new science-based technology (even though the more traditional J&J and AstraZeneca are still excellent as well). So are the recent explorations of Mars, for example, or the ones of Saturn and Pluto (just spectacular).

__________

*) very falsely string theory is called a "theory"; look up what a scientific theory actually is, like gravity, atomic theory, quantum mechanics or general relativity

 

[Kingrex]

I'm a trained tradesman. 26 years. I have to rely on those with an engineering degree to point me in a direction. Occasionally its correct. Then I go and try and try. And try and try as I may, using devices to supposedly clean my power ends up with that sort of "Black" background. I generally don't like it. It always seems to rob something. That goes back to my methodology of listening. You have to have a list of songs with very particular traits to listen for. And many times devices inserted in the path of power alter those traits in undesirable ways.

And to me, that black sound is a little hifi. In my book, hifi means filtered. Your hearing the filtration. To me hearing "Black" is sensing the filtrstion. But you don't quite know how to put your finger on it.

Conversely, when you build out a proper electrical infastructure, ground scheme, distribution, branch circuits and connection points, It never end up with a "Black" sound. But you do end up with a "Calm". You walk back in the room and you feel it. A tension is removed from the air. Your shoulders relax and you breath easier. There is a lot of heard and unheard noise removed by proper infastructure wiring. Heard as in buzzing and mechanical noise. Unheard as noise that masks sound and robs power by distorting the sine wave. A notable artifact of proper wiring is music will play out the speakers when the volume knob is set lower. The reasoning I have read is harmonics are lessened. As the harmonics are lessened, the fundamental 60 Hertz wave builds more symmetrical, taller, less pre or post humps. Less ragged and chopped tops and sides. Proper wiring manifests as more working energy in each wave available to the equipment. So the volume will now play out music at lower levels. People just dont want to accept how important it is to ground right. To build out the behind the wall electrical infastructure correct. When it's done right, the use of filters can be applied much more judiciously which has a much better chance of avoiding a perception of "Black". Proper filtration and to Atmaspheres point, circuit design and wiring should sound quiet and calm. Not Black. IMO.

Propper electrical infrastructure is never subjectively viewed as negative. Not in any job I have done. Not unless you do it wrong. For years I went back to test projects time and time again to make adjustments. Sometimes for the better, others for the worse. There are definit right and wrong ways to wire for audio. But in the end, I am never seeking "Black".
I don't find it musical. When the electrical system is wired correct, the playback should be dynamic, exciting, natural, clean. It should never feel congested, closed and hushed, which I would call a Black sound. But I have heard the wrong type of conductor for a ground in the subpanel feeder start pushing rhe playback in that direction. By wrong I mean a fully NEC compliant installation where different types of conductors are compared to one another.
Others with degree are telling me certain types of conductors want to act as antenna and actually pull noise from radio waves into your ground and up into your playback equipment. Other conductor type are much better at rejecting RF interference and draining it to ground.


If you want to say some people have no way to repair electrical infastructure because they are in a NYNY walkup, I would say a box that makes Black repairs little to nothing. It changes things.

I believe an off grid battery supply or regenerator with battery has the possibility of working. Yet most all of them impart their own sonic flavor as the high speed switching diode do their thing turning DC into AC. A very few of them actually work well. Or so I'm told by many friends who have bought and sold them. I went so far as to call a number of inverter manufacturers to inquire about audiophile using their gear to make a battery powered audio supply. And the impact of inverts from solar to audio. I was told there is a fine balance between how much power the inverter can put out, and how much the audio gear needs. I was also told by some that audiophiles were not very satisfied making their own.