Comment on Audio cable measurements are driving me crazy — why don’t they null?!?

marcos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• Uebercomplicated@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Thank you! I don’t know the YouTuber’s gear’s noise floor, so I don’t know how much of an influence that should be having, but I would presume quite low. But I’m not entirely sure if I understand what you mean. The null-test I did (I’ll attach a screenshot to this comment) mostly showed a delta in higher frequencies, specifically when the singer makes sibilant sounds. Does the graph look like what you would expect from system noise?

  Null test while the singer is making a sibilant sound (via Voxengo SPAN and Reaper): Image

  Null test while the singer is not making any sibilant sounds and the cymbals aren’t playing: Image

  Thank you for taking me as good faith. I realize now that my post-title sounds a little click-baity, like I’m suggesting that there’s an authentic delta in the null test. I very much don’t think that’s the case; I’m just trying to figure out what a plausible reason might be, for why I’m measuring that delta.

  I guess ei incumbit probatio… the burden of proof lies upon the YouTuber here, so I shouldn’t get too worked up about this :)

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  • marcos@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Your graph has a signal of -40dB. Are you working in high-energy physics? If it’s only nano-tech or something of this magnitude, you don’t have equipment that is this precise.

    And all the “high-intensity” findings on your posting (at audible 0dB) are probably because the expensive cable didn’t connect well to the socket. And are still nothing, and have no impact on your sound quality.

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    • Uebercomplicated@lemmy.ml ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’m not sure if you’re reading the graph correctly, this is the delta between two of the digital files from the video’s description. So a signal of -40 dBFS is quite audible, since it’s all relative to 0 dBFS (full scale).

      And it isn’t the recording itself, it’s just the difference between two of the recordings provided in the video’s description. This is commonly known as a digital null-test, and let’s you find the amount (and significance) of difference between two digitally encoded recordings, and in particular at which frequencies those differences lie.

      You can try doing it yourself by downloading the audio from the YouTube video’s description and then playing two of them at the same time in audacity, but with the phase inverterted for one of them. Just make sure the phase and volume are aligned. Then you can hear the difference between the recordings yourself!

      The question is, where does this difference come from.

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      • marcos@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        So a signal of -40 dBFS is quite audible, since it’s all relative to 0 dBFS (full scale).

        At -40, it doesn’t make any difference what kind of dB you are talking about.

        (Well, if you are looking for superstrings evidence or even quantum gravity, it does, but I guess it’s not your case.)

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