Re: [Jack-Devel] Network Audio Transmission - Quality

On Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 06:26:10AM +0100, John Emmas wrote:
> ...  it's entirely possible to hear things for  
> which there is (literally) no mechanical or scientific explanation.  For  
> example, a famous TV company where I used to be a sound mixer, kitted  
> out all its studios with some new loudspeakers. For me, the image had no  
> "depth".  It was as if the sound was mono and coming from a single point  
> source.  Of course, technically, there's nothing in a stereo signal that  
> can convey depth - and yet I always perceive depth when listening to  
> stereo material.  Out of all the sound mixers, only me and one other  
> person could hear the lack of depth.  Nobody else could detect it.

I've had similar listening experiences. I believe the causes of these
things are measurable, if only we knew what to measure!

> In truth, the perception of depth was probably inside our brains - but  
> something about those speakers wasn't stimulating whatever it was that  
> produced that effect in us.  What this proves is that psychoacoustics  
> are very real.  Hearing isn't (simply) a mechanical transmission  
> process.

Yes, and given the variation between humans, everybody's psychoacoustic
processing will be slightly different. In the case of a lossy codec, it's
unrealistic to expect that everybody will conform equally to the
psychacoustic profile on which it is based.

John

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