In article , Stewart
Pinkerton
wrote:


Could it be possible that non-linearity and the built-in distortion
factor is what causes the difference in sound?

Quite possible in some cases, I'd say. But hard to be sure.

That a perfect "wire with gain" amplification is actually *wrong* for
our ears simply because it does *not* introduce the distortion that
our hearing associates with "real" sound?

The difficulty here is that with live acoustic music we won't have such an
external nonlinear process interposed between the instruments and our
hearing physiology when listening to the music 'live'. However this depends
upon your definition of "wrong".

speculation mode = "on"
For example, it may be that some forms of 'distortion' alter the perception
by manipulating our physiology in a (not understood) manner. Thus altering
or 'enhancing' some aspects of listening to music. However for the reason
outlined above, is that live music with voices or acoustic instruments
won't be doing this, so we would not be getting this 'enhancement' with
such live music. Something like a valve amp for a guitar might do it, but
then if that is already being included at the recording stage, should more
of something similar be added later in the chain?...
/speculation mode



Hmm, interesting. (Very.)

No, it's not interesting at all. It's a very old and *very* misguided
argument. Certainly, our ears distort - but they distort in exactly the
same way when listening to the live performance as to a reproduction at
the same SPL.

I am wary here of the use of the term 'distort' as it implies using the
same word (and hence may imply to some people an equivalence in the
processes) for the nonlinear processes of human hearing physiology and the
nonlinearities of something like a valve amp. Hence this may be another
example of people risking getting into discussions based upon ambiguities
of language without noticing this is occuring. Using the same word may be
entirely understandable as a practice, but might be misleading.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html