Do you believe in Magic?

01-24-12: Geoffkait
You have a keen insight into what others know and appear to have a command of all scientific knowledge and for that you are to be commended. And I suppose this is an appropriate place to thank the original designers of the CD for creating perfect sound forever.

;-)
Geoffkait (Answers | This Thread)

"Perfect sound forever" Another good example of marketing hype. No science needed here. :-)

Glad to see you're coming around to seeing it my way.

**** Knowledge is not an absolute and continues to evolve.**** - Geoffkait

Exactly! Very interesting exchanges here. Thanks Bryon, and I commend
your open-mindedness. As you stated, discussions such as these often
point to a basic dividing line among the participants' mindset: our comfort
level with the idea that we don't yet know everything that there is to know.
I have a strong suspicion that many of these "magical" effects
will have a solid scientific explanation as the understanding of engineers
becomes more sophisticated. When it comes to this hobby, I have always
found more value in giving the observer of a particular unexplainable
effect the benefit of the doubt, than in assuming that because there is no
"scientific" explanation it must be a figment of his imagination.
We continually underestimate the complexity and fragility of the sound of
music, and the processes needed to record and play it back faithfully.

"The hills are alive with the sound....." :-)

One has to keep an open mind and Byron and Al do so in such a refreshingly open manner. Thanks to the both of you for your keen insights and wordsmith.

To the naysayers out there that theorize that engineers 'know' what they build and what we hear is what they intended doesn't cover all the bases. Isn't there a predictive theory that can be proven over and over without having all the facts and yet it can be demonstrated over and over again? Associated responses can be accurately predicted leading to that accompanying something else that yet has to be proven but is there, nonetheless. We just don't know how to measure it with what we now have. Not only can we predict it, but we can eliminate it by changing the associated responses and we don't have the answer or the ability to identify it. But it is there, lying in wait. mocking us until we know its name.

****and we don't have the answer or the ability to identify it. But it is there, lying in wait. mocking us until we know its name.****

Excellent!