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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: Re: A different speculation posted by Bob Neill on February 22, 2007 at 13:55:03:
I haven't really heard SACDs on a decent SACD player yet, but on the DVD/SACD player in my HT system they do sound better than CDs, but I still prefer to listen to the few hybrids I have by listening to the CD layer on the CD player in my audio system. The audio system is higher quality than the HT system and that counts.My point, however, was that what you initially attend to is the effects of the improvement, so you hear things like the space and ambience effects which weren't as audible before. As you listen to more SACDs and those effects become familiar, you won't be drawn to them and you will get back to paying more attention to the music.
Here's a totally unrelated example to illustrate the sort of thing I'm talking about. I used to work in health and safety and I had to do workstation adjustments and posture training for computer operators. I'd adjust the screen, desk and chair for a person who had them set up badly, had bad posture, and was complaining of back pain. They would almost universally complain that the new setup "wasn't as comfortable" as the old one. What I had to keep pointing out was that they were equating familiarity with comfort. They were used to the old posture and setup and they 'tuned out' the mild discomfort associated with it until it built up sufficiently over a period of hours to break through and trigger the complaints they had made. The new posture felt 'uncomfortable' because it was unfamiliar and they were constantly aware of it because of that. I told them that if they perservered with it for 1 to 2 weeks, it would become familiar and they would 'tune out' the ongoing awareness of the new posture. At that point in time, they could then see whether the new setup was better than the old because they would be able to see whether or not they noticed pain or discomfort after several hours, like they did with the old setup and posture. Pretty well everyone who perservered found that they thought the new setup and posture was both more comfortable and induced less pain than the old setup. The only hurdle was getting over the unfamiliarity and the fact that they were constantly aware of being in a different posture until the new one became familiar. Let me assure you that improving posture is difficult and a large part of that difficulty is simply that we don't like being consciously aware of our posture. We tune out awareness of habitual posture, it feels 'normal'. New postures are unfamiliar and our tendency is to go back to the old in order to eliminate that feeling of unfamiliarity. It takes quite genuine perseverence to work through that stage in order to be able to appreciate the benefits of the new posture.
I think you'll find that you'll be a lot more positive about SACDs once you stop being aware of how they do some things differently to CDs and become familiar with the nature of their sound so that you don't keep having your attention caught by the things that show up the differences.
David Aiken
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Follow Ups
- You miss my point… - David Aiken 15:11:46 02/22/07 (0)
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