Measuring Hi-Fi, Transcendental Meditation and the Harvard Medical School.

I remember reading about some research that was done some years ago. They asked people whether they would rather learn a meditation system devised by an Indian Mystic, or a relaxation method that came out of the Harvard Medical School.

The great majority went for the Mystic's method. Further questioning revealed that what they really wanted was the Indian Mystic's meditation system but for it to be approved by the Harvard Medical School.

I'm just wondering something similar might hold true in hi-fi. Does something actually sound better to us when backed up with some good measurements? Is that why people were fooled for so long by those really crappy Japanese, solid-state amplifiers with practically zero measurable distortion?

 

Problem is, Steve, they really weren't crappy. So who is fooling who...

 

Agreed. My very first amp was a Sansui 101 and I ran it for years, only getting rid of it when I felt the need for more oomph over its 15W/ch. I sold it to a friend and it's still running his study system, over 30 years after purchase. And I don't remember it sounding crappy in any way.

 

I have the greatest respect for jap engineering, sure its complex, they make some great amps, they did that big silver massive thing better than anyone, and whilst being technogically superb, they still manage to make it more reliable than anyone.
They certainly are clever.

 

Arh Intellectualism raising it's concited head again eh?
These masterful intellentcey breathing the 'physdo were better than yooow' clap trap.
Arh "Turners art was totally uninspiring due to his twee period, it's to coy for the public now"
And what right does it give them to spout this?, did they talk to the man, humm not unless the smart arses invented time travel, blow back merchants the lot of em'
Problem is, it creeps into all areas of life. Even music

 

Steve,

I think what most people want is good sounding kit with the approval of the so called expert media.

That's why there are so many disillusioned music lovers out there, listening to the Arcraps and SNordusts of this world

Still, if people are that insecure (indeed some even seek approval via internet forums in the hope of feeling better), they get what they deserve.

 

merlin,

Don't know why you are always so hard on Arcam. For the price, they make some bloody excellent gear. Ignoring their AV8 and P7 top line AV products none of their gear costs more than about £1200 and most of it comes in under £1K and for the money I reckon it would give anything in a similar price range a serious run for its money.

Whilst there are people who want the "security" of something that has had good reviews in the mags etc there's also a great deal of snobbery in hifi and a lot of people who want to have kit that no-one else has heard of to somehow mark them out from the crowd.

If you put together a £1K system of Arcam CDP and amp plus some B&W speakers (another basition of mediocrity according to you) or similar I reckon you'd be hard pressed to beat it at the NEW price.

Michael.

 

Re: Re: Measuring Hi-Fi, Transcendental Meditation and the Harvard Medical School.

The Sansui 101 was a good amp and one that I recommended to friends at the time. There were other good Japanese amps on the market as well. The amps that I described as 'crappy' had power outputs many times more than 15w/channel and harmonic and IM distortion figures of the order of 0.001%. This was achieved using large amounts of negative feedback and it is doubtful that any listening tests were performed at all by the designers.

For the record, many of the better Japanese amps of this period were designed by UK designers - Tim de Paravicini designed a number of these, for example.

If the criteria for a good amplifier is negligible measured distortion with high output, we'd all be using these amps in our systems now. How many of us are?

Anyway, that's not really the point that I was trying to make in my post.

 

Agreed, trouble is the majority of it is utter shite but so many muppets just think sub 1K hifi + Arcam.

FWIW, I'd put a Rotel/Tannoy combo up against any sub £1K Arcrap offering anyday.