Active or Passive Monitors

[TheDewd]

Dewd,

> The problem with feedback happens when you use too much of global feedback. <

If that were true then the effects would be readily measurable, and would show up in standard distortion and slew rate tests.

> I'm more of the "objectivist" kind <

That's really the only way to be if you believe in science. As I do.

> the question is whether one CAN actually hear the feedback punching in and out during transients. I say yes <

You'll have to show some evidence of this. It's not enough to merely "say" anything. In the case of "abused" negative feedback shown in your first link, this would clearly be seen in a standard frequency response or impulse test.

--Ethan

Well, this debate is really close to what I was involved in facing SouthSideGlen about preamps and power amplifiers. Glen (nearly) convinced me that specs don't tell ALL there is to how an electronic circuit will sound.

Many people have reported difference in sound quality regarding the amount of negative feedback used. Indeed, I have seen a company that included a KNOB on their power amp labeled "Negative Feedback" with which you could adjust it and hear the difference.

I was the one who said that measured specs say it all, but obviously, Glen provided some really good arguments that lead me to think that there actually ARE some effects that can't be measured.

 

[Ethan Winer]

Dewd,

> Many people have reported difference in sound quality regarding the amount of negative feedback used. <

Yeah, well many people will report a change in the sound even with an "A/A" test where nothing at all was changed. Think about that!

> I was the one who said that measured specs say it all <

Then you and I are in full agreement. There is nothing that can be heard but not measured. Every time someone has claimed to be able to hear this stuff, once they are challenged to do it in a proper blind test all of a sudden they can no longer hear it.

--Ethan

 

[Farview]

I was the one who said that measured specs say it all, but obviously, Glen provided some really good arguments that lead me to think that there actually ARE some effects that can't be measured.

It's not that the effect can't be measured, it's that it isn't measured or somehow misrepresented on the spec sheet. There is a lot of equipment out there with the same specs that sound completly different.

It isn't that the difference can't be measured, it's just that it wasn't.