SOUND QUALITY: A NEW APPROACH TO HARDWARE TESTING

We all know well that the choice of audio equipment is not easy, because even within the same price category, different models differ markedly in sound. Now nobody is surprised by the fact that before buying an audio component, a consumer wants to know, in addition to passport data, the opinion of a competent expert on it and even timidly tries to “taste” its sound himself.

Why is there a need for “tasting” equipment, whereas most industrial products, such as irons, light bulbs, refrigerators, do not need to be “tasted”? It would not occur to anyone to ask the seller to provide an expert opinion on the quality of ironing with a new model of iron. It is enough for you to know how much energy it consumes, how much it weighs and what comforts it offers. However, let us remember that the manufacturers of hi-fi equipment in the early 1970s, deliberately trying to draw an analogy between audio equipment and plates, were actively introducing a set of technical requirements for gentlemen into the minds of consumers [ 1] that supposedly guarantee a high quality of sound of the equipment. But manufacturers of audio equipment, which relied only on objective parameters, were already called objectivists – in the late 1970s, disappointment awaited. The sales volume of the equipment they produced began to fall steadily, and this despite the fact that the objective parameters were constantly improving. This trend can be called target parameter inflation. Inflation was expressed in the fact that the number of zeros after the decimal point in the values ​​of harmonic distortion, coefficient of intermodulation distortion, unevenness of frequency response, amplifier output impedance, etc. grew, while the sound quality of audio equipment not only did not improve, but it worsened significantly. This deterioration gave impetus to the mass movement of subjectivists. Their motto was: “If there are contradictions between objective parameters and subjective evaluations, then the results of objective measurements should not be taken into account” [2]. It was the subjectivists who then challenged the audio design engineers: “The physical effects that degrade the sound quality of amplifiers are not detected in objective measurements because they are not known to orthodox engineering science.” * 1 Such statements surprised many “old school” audio engineers. A fierce controversy arose on the pages of the newspapers. This controversy was started by Paul Messenger in September 1976 * Hi-Fi News. He made a fairly weighted statement by today’s standards that in the future the evaluation of the quality of audio equipment will become almost completely subjective and that although auditory perception may fail us, it is nevertheless the most sensitive instrument for evaluating sound. . Such statements surprised many “old school” audio engineers. A fierce controversy arose on the pages of the newspapers. This controversy was started by Paul Messenger in September 1976 * Hi-Fi News. He made a fairly weighted statement by today’s standards that in the future the evaluation of the quality of audio equipment will become almost completely subjective and that although auditory perception may fail us, it is nevertheless the most sensitive instrument for evaluating sound. . Such statements surprised many “old school” audio engineers. A fierce controversy arose on the pages of the newspapers. This controversy was started by Paul Messenger in September 1976 * Hi-Fi News. He made a fairly weighted statement by today’s standards that in the future the evaluation of the quality of audio equipment will become almost completely subjective and that although auditory perception may fail us, it is nevertheless the most sensitive instrument for evaluating sound. .
The victory of the subjectivists over the objectivists became evident. To commemorate this victory, the highest quality and most expensive equipment was called “high end”.
High-end shopping has become a ritual reminiscent of the cult. The appearance of the stores was now markedly different from the stores that sold hi-fi equipment “in bulk”, and the customer service was completely different. The buyer of the audio equipment was left alone with the seller-audio expert and, at the same time, with a hypnotist in a room specially equipped to conduct a suggestion session, the so-called listening room. Tapestries, overstuffed armchairs, ghostly light *: it all led to auditory hypnosis.