Our best measuring tool: our own ears?

What about hi-fi?

So hearing is an incredibly sensitive sense. Much more sensitive and particular than your author might have expected. We can perceive unprecedentedly small changes in pressure as well as extremely precise timing. 10 microsecond resolution when it comes to placement accuracy is impressive. (That is 1/100,000th of a second).

If we translate that to hi-fi, that would be a sampling rate of about 96 kHz. Although that comparison may not be entirely valid, since we are only talking about recognizing a “left/right difference” and thus placement. Perhaps ears are much more sensitive in other areas.

Now your author guesses that in terms of detail and dynamic range, 16 bit and 48 kHz is sufficient on its own. Especially with dithering. However, in terms of timing, that resolution is not accurate enough. 96 kHz is basically needed to ensure the “flow” and richness in the music. And frankly, that is indeed audible in good recordings.

With labels such as TRPTK, 2L and other ‘audiophile labels’ such as Naim, for example, that difference between CD and high-res quality is clearly audible. The CD version is very good, but the high-res versions flow more and show more richness in the timbres of the instruments. If an engineer pays attention to that, it is simply perceptible on a good system.

Our beautiful electronics

Let’s take a look at our beautiful equipment. Is it good enough to fool our ears? That conclusion can only be drawn by yourself. After all: are you convinced that what is playing in front of your nose is real ?

Our guess is that we have come quite a long way, but we are not there yet. The problem is not so much in the noise floor, power or detail. It is – opinion of your author – in timing. Because of the complexity of digital audio, some of the natural timing is lost. Both on the recording side and the playback side.

And before fans of analog jump in the air: analog has other problems that are also very complex to solve. Both media have advantages and disadvantages. Besides, pure analog recordings are very scarce; most vinyl nowadays is simply recorded digitally.

But back to timing. Solving this problem – and granted: Bob Stuart wanted to solve it with MQA, among other things – probably requires a renewed look at digital filters as well as a critical look at clocking digital systems. After all: jitter also contributes to timing and transient errors in the analog domain.

What do you think and experience?

Now this is, in fact, a ‘simple’ opinion piece. It is the opinion of your author after he became somewhat inspired while reading some literature. We are quite curious about your opinion as well. What do you think after reading this piece? What are your experiences when listening to your system? And do you see a connection between timing and our own ears?