Sometime back in the past I ever wondered why some (only a few) people/customers didn't get the point when tuning an audio system or swaping components on a system. And I think it's the most discussed case in all forums dealing with distinction on audio components.
I'd like to provide an explanation by using analogies, because I strongly feel that everybody has a different perception on the details of listening.
Fact is, there are some variables refering to our listening abilities. To mention just a few, there are: innate imperfections, injuries, decline of hearing due to loud working conditions, decline by age etc. These are the physical ones.
And there's one other I found while I went with some customers over the years. Some of them having highend audio system for years but never cultivated their listening skills. Most of them came into tuning of their system quiet late. But me having worked with them while tuning their systems, for say 1or2 years, on each meeting I saw them developing this high differentiation with each tuning step and their capability to distinguish more and more details of the music presented via tuninig. They weren't able to do that before. It needs some kind of training/trainer to improve your listening skills. Some people have to be nudged to the improvements the tuning recently made, because their attention is on a complete different subject. Though it may not apply to everybody.
But here is an analogy to better understand my point.
Have a look at the picture in the link below or search for 3D pictures (Stereopics) like that. To see the 3D-effect you have to alter your viewing. Don't focus on the screen. Try to focus a virtual point, looking just through the picture, may be 20meters or more far away in the distance. It's like bringing your eyes view from an angled focus to parallel view. You have to relax, you have to practice it. And then all of a sudden you see the 3D-element in the picture. It's like zooming in. It gets a bit brighter and it's kind of strange. I call it virtual focus. If you try even harder to hold this VF...poofff...it's gone and your focus is on the screen, you don't see the picture anymore.
New 3D-Pic
Sorry for bad link before.
For me it's a good analogy for some people not hearing the differences in cables, component feet (vibration control) etc. Their focus is on another subject/dimension so they don't get the point. But if nudged to the point, all of a sudden they see (hear) the whole picture. And from then on it gets easier and easier up to the point that it is natural for them to hear that way.
There is a little story I can tell. Back in the past we had a customer coming to the store who wanted to buy new speakers. It turned out he made his living being a conductor. My first thought was, "Hey must be an easy job. The man is very skilled in music, perfect hearing I assumed". We had him listening to some speakers like the ML Summit X, Audioplan Konzert and the like. At first I was impressed because he had a very good analogy describing the ML electrostacic speaker performing like an airbrush system making fringe like edging around the acoustical events.
The other speakers were more focused to him. So we compared some of them.
As we changed the speakers, and sure some are more precise than others, we (the dealers) could hear a piano more transparent, more differentiated in every aspect etc. but he could not hear it even when nudged to it. He heard the timing of the violins, heard the musicians playing (nearly) perfectly together, heard the technics of the musicians. He heard all the things important to him as conductor to guide an orchestra. So at this point I was the bonehead and knew nothing of the things he was focusing on. I didn't even know what to listen for. So at last he bought a speaker suitable to his skills. What's better than that?
What's the tweak here? If you don't hear differences when you tune your system, get a friend, a dealer or else who is more skilled, who exactly knows what the enhencement with this kind of tuning is, pointing you to the improvements. Sometimes it's like the 3D-pictures. When you suddenly hear the improvements, it's like zooming into the music hearing even more details. It's fun.
JM2C
gui
It's funny so many people simply trusting their eyes, not knowing that their ears are a just so much more sensitive sense, they don't trust
I'd like to provide an explanation by using analogies, because I strongly feel that everybody has a different perception on the details of listening.
Fact is, there are some variables refering to our listening abilities. To mention just a few, there are: innate imperfections, injuries, decline of hearing due to loud working conditions, decline by age etc. These are the physical ones.
And there's one other I found while I went with some customers over the years. Some of them having highend audio system for years but never cultivated their listening skills. Most of them came into tuning of their system quiet late. But me having worked with them while tuning their systems, for say 1or2 years, on each meeting I saw them developing this high differentiation with each tuning step and their capability to distinguish more and more details of the music presented via tuninig. They weren't able to do that before. It needs some kind of training/trainer to improve your listening skills. Some people have to be nudged to the improvements the tuning recently made, because their attention is on a complete different subject. Though it may not apply to everybody.
But here is an analogy to better understand my point.
Have a look at the picture in the link below or search for 3D pictures (Stereopics) like that. To see the 3D-effect you have to alter your viewing. Don't focus on the screen. Try to focus a virtual point, looking just through the picture, may be 20meters or more far away in the distance. It's like bringing your eyes view from an angled focus to parallel view. You have to relax, you have to practice it. And then all of a sudden you see the 3D-element in the picture. It's like zooming in. It gets a bit brighter and it's kind of strange. I call it virtual focus. If you try even harder to hold this VF...poofff...it's gone and your focus is on the screen, you don't see the picture anymore.
New 3D-Pic
Sorry for bad link before.
For me it's a good analogy for some people not hearing the differences in cables, component feet (vibration control) etc. Their focus is on another subject/dimension so they don't get the point. But if nudged to the point, all of a sudden they see (hear) the whole picture. And from then on it gets easier and easier up to the point that it is natural for them to hear that way.
There is a little story I can tell. Back in the past we had a customer coming to the store who wanted to buy new speakers. It turned out he made his living being a conductor. My first thought was, "Hey must be an easy job. The man is very skilled in music, perfect hearing I assumed". We had him listening to some speakers like the ML Summit X, Audioplan Konzert and the like. At first I was impressed because he had a very good analogy describing the ML electrostacic speaker performing like an airbrush system making fringe like edging around the acoustical events.
The other speakers were more focused to him. So we compared some of them.
As we changed the speakers, and sure some are more precise than others, we (the dealers) could hear a piano more transparent, more differentiated in every aspect etc. but he could not hear it even when nudged to it. He heard the timing of the violins, heard the musicians playing (nearly) perfectly together, heard the technics of the musicians. He heard all the things important to him as conductor to guide an orchestra. So at this point I was the bonehead and knew nothing of the things he was focusing on. I didn't even know what to listen for. So at last he bought a speaker suitable to his skills. What's better than that?
What's the tweak here? If you don't hear differences when you tune your system, get a friend, a dealer or else who is more skilled, who exactly knows what the enhencement with this kind of tuning is, pointing you to the improvements. Sometimes it's like the 3D-pictures. When you suddenly hear the improvements, it's like zooming into the music hearing even more details. It's fun.
JM2C
gui
It's funny so many people simply trusting their eyes, not knowing that their ears are a just so much more sensitive sense, they don't trust
"Oh, you can buy the other. But then it is a cost intensive learning process"
berlin
