ark@rabbit.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) (12/22/83)
Unfortunately, one can't always trust one's ears. Four examples: 1. If you are comparing two (musical) signals and one is SLIGHTLY louder than the other, they will both appear to be the same loudness, but the one that is actually louder will SOUND BETTER! 2. If you change something and you are expecting the change to have a particular effect, you will perceive the change to have that effect, whether it does or not. 3. If you are comparing two signals and someone else in the room claims one is better than the other, you will tend to find reasons to agree. 4. I have heard that deliberately introducing 0.5% or so second-harmonic distortion makes music sound "better." The purpose of any audio system is to reproduce music, of course. But it does not follow from that that ones judgment criteria should be totally subjective. There is, after all, such a thing as acquired taste. Some comparisons are best made more objectively: by machine or by double-blind test.
pmr@drufl.UUCP (Rastocny) (12/29/83)
v vvvv vvvvv vvvv >4. I have heard that deliberately introducing 0.5% or > so second-harmonic distortion makes music sound "better." For an article intended to put down subjectivity in evaluations, this statement seems to be very subjective.