merlin said:
Oh and DAT, would you kindly post something categorically disproving what Bub and others claim?
I have posted a summary of the evidence (provided by Bub and the Mana site), and I've questioned whether that evidence is strong enough to assert that Mana works.
We can (of course) prove what Bub can and can't hear by testing him.
Alternatively please discuss your experience with Mana.
Would you prefer the experience of a Charlatan or a reasoned examination of the facts?
Your posts really do make you come across as rather naive,
Maybe it's my lack of "experience"
How about discussing the following
What technical measurement comes the closest to predicting the sound of a piece of electronics or speakers, and why?
Frequency response, noise, distortion, loudness - those are the 4 major things anyone can hear. Phase is audible under what might be reasonably called extreme circumstances.
At what point in the design of a component do you switch from using measurements to listening?
Electrical Engineers are not blessed at birth with superior hearing, and again there is plenty of evidence that "golden ears" do not exist. Chances are your designer's hearing is good but not perfect and his own sense aren't particularly trustworthy. Moreover, if "it's your baby" you likely to be quite deluded about how good it sounds (every mother thinks their child is beautiful afterall).
The other danger is that if the designed has any hearing loss (eg age related) they'll end up building a prosthesis - which may work out OK, if you the customer have the same hearing loss.
If you want to "listen" to your design, then use proper double blind evaluation with several (or many) subjects.
Finally, do you think we will ever see the day when we have a set of measurements that will accurately predict the sound of a component?
Yep, it's here. Floyd Toole has written several AES papers about how they can measure loudspeakers and predict how they will work in any given room.
Moreover, he has a model for correlating
subjective listener preference with loudspeaker measurements.
Billy Woodman (ATC's designer) was interviewed in a Widescreen Review article and asked if "he listened to his designs" his (paraphrased) response was "we used to, but now we just measure them". [Sorry, I threw the mag in the bin, so I can't accurately quote him..]