• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

What is going on in my head?

AustinAudio

AustinAudio

New Member
Every time I slip on a pair of headphones I try to engage in a hallucination. My inner mind seeks rhythm, melodic lines, poetry, all delivered as if I were witnessing the creation of it all. .

The fact is that I am eavesdropping on a moment from the past while trying to reproduce the illusion of that creative event.

I am fooling myself - but I want to be fooled by being transported sensually in space and time, I like that kind of hallucination

So I should make every effort to fool myself the best I can. Who wants a mediocre illusion? Who wants a half-assed hallucination?

Thus my only recourse is what you and I call the Audiophile world.

That is why I am here, and that is why I design audio hardware.

We will get into this further in later writings.
 
Register to hide this ad
Headphones don't move you like a huge set of speakers and a massive power amplifier LOL
 
Yes, you should absolutely make every effort to fool yourself the best you can.

I recall in an article about (very) high end audio, one person being interviewed said something like "sure, it's a very expensive stereo, but it's a cheap time machine"

That's what we are really doing, isn't it: listening in on a moment in time when musicians, forever frozen at one age, gathered in some venue to record what was the best music they knew how to make at that time.
 
Perhaps

index.php
 

Attachments

  • Purple_Kush.jpg
    Purple_Kush.jpg
    99.4 KB · Views: 244
kirk57 said:
That's what we are really doing, isn't it: listening in on a moment in time when musicians, forever frozen at one age, gathered in some venue to record what was the best music they knew how to make at that time.
Click to expand...
That used to be case and often still is for classical, jazz, folk etc. but it's becoming less and less true for rock and pop music. These days there's a very good chance that the "musical performance" you're listening to never actually took place - it's been created track by track in studio over many weeks or months, possibly with the musicians never even seeing each other.
Still, that doesn't mean that the music isn't isn't enjoyable. It doesn't even mean you shouldn't imagine and enjoy the "performance".
But I thought I'd mention it anyway.

BTW, I do think headphones help to isolate you from your surroundings and allow your mind to transport you to wherever you want to be.
 
Last edited:
Perhaps the headphones were broken, and were trying to 'transport your mind' in the only way they could, almost succeeded by the sound of it. :)
 
Last edited:
Mmmm, I've found only some big fat speakers can do this for me. I prefer vintage to modern . . . . . Big room filling sound even on low watts
 
Northwinds said:
Headphones don't move you like a huge set of speakers and a massive power amplifier LOL
Click to expand...
It is all about the illusion. First, one must consider that speakers are a multimedia event, really multi-sensual event. An important aspect of the listening experience is chest cavity vibration, little as it might be, there is none on headphones, there is in speaker listening.

Second, more important is the auditory receptor issue. Headphones are what we call 'super stereo', which your hearing system never experience in real life, and you auditory system is all about real life. Cross talk to opposing ears is VERY important. The left most signal arrives at the right ear at a different time and with a different frequency spectra as it does at the left ear due to crossing the face at an angle and hitting the pinna (outer ear) and the cane of the ear differently.

In a headphone the effect of the pinna is disregarded, and the effect of the ear canal is mitigated by the angle of entry (straight in rather rather than orthogonality).

As your ear is a reality device the headphone is an artificial input source which may, or may not, advance the illusion. With some electroinci wizardry the headphone can be more satisfying than speakers.
 
DaveVoorhis said:
Nope. It's synesthesia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
Click to expand...
Well, no, you are not weird. You are normal.

For over 3,000 years philosophers and an scientists have struggled with the question of consciousness and what is the nature of cognition. Bottom line is that your mind is about half a second behind reality so we all live in an illusion and we are totally used to it. As such introducing temporal distortion in the form of truly righteous smoke is a pleasant novelty for you and me. Enjoy it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom