High End Audio News: At Helsinki’s 2023 AES Convention a workshop is scheduled to examine research in auditory perception and its relationship to high fidelity sound reproduction. HIFICRITIC contributing author Milind Kunchur, Joshua Reiss President of the AES and Hans van Maanen will present for examination the premise “Toward an Objective Understanding of High-End Audio”.
While acknowledging progress in sound reproduction, ‘High-End Audio’ (HEA) aims to reproduce sound with an accuracy that mimics the original live performance.
While this goal is not exactly achieved, some HEA systems can come dramatically closer to the “real thing” than mainstream consumer audio. In progressing toward its goal, HEA goes beyond the standard specifications (such as a 20Hz–20kHz frequency response, low familiar distortions, etc.) and utilizes controversial (and seemingly extreme and superfluous) technologies and measures (atomic clocks, exotic cables, meticulous attention to time alignment, etc.). These techniques and technologies tend to get dismissed by the mainstream audio establishment because they appear to defy commonly accepted science, for example on aural detection thresholds, aren’t supported by verified published blind listening tests, or are simply not explicable in terms of standard measurements.
The goal of this workshop is to unearth the various unexplained and surprising observations found in High End Audio; seek a better understanding and verification of such sound quality reports; and ultimately develop a more predictive set of measurements.
In addition the presenters aim to better educate the audio community more widely about the realities and complexities of the human auditory system, whose misunderstanding is often the basis of the prevailing misinterpretation and scepticism regarding High End Audio.
While this goal is not exactly achieved, some HEA systems can come dramatically closer to the “real thing” than mainstream consumer audio. In progressing toward its goal, HEA goes beyond the standard specifications (such as a 20Hz–20kHz frequency response, low familiar distortions, etc.) and utilizes controversial (and seemingly extreme and superfluous) technologies and measures (atomic clocks, exotic cables, meticulous attention to time alignment, etc.). These techniques and technologies tend to get dismissed by the mainstream audio establishment because they appear to defy commonly accepted science, for example on aural detection thresholds, aren’t supported by verified published blind listening tests, or are simply not explicable in terms of standard measurements.
The goal of this workshop is to unearth the various unexplained and surprising observations found in High End Audio; seek a better understanding and verification of such sound quality reports; and ultimately develop a more predictive set of measurements.
In addition the presenters aim to better educate the audio community more widely about the realities and complexities of the human auditory system, whose misunderstanding is often the basis of the prevailing misinterpretation and scepticism regarding High End Audio.
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