Audio Equipment Testing - Opposing Viewpoints

Opposing Viewpoints

The most significant difference between the two groups is that subjectivists claim there is a limit to what can be tested using objective measurements, while objectivists believe that since blind testing is the gold standard of all science, perceived sound quality should not be exempt from objective measurements.

Objectivists tend to see the subjectivists as irrational and prone to gullibility, while subjectivists often dismiss objectivists as simple "meter men" who lack a nuanced appreciation of sound.

Although the debate can be heated in certain quarters, both groups seek optimal listening experiences, and in some cases, the findings of one group has informed the other.

Objectivists argue that vacuum-tube amplifiers often exhibit lower-fidelity than solid-state designs, and that in addition to their substantially higher total harmonic distortion level, they require rebiasing, tend to be less reliable, less powerful, generate more heat, and are usually more expensive.

Subjectivists are often argue that while tube electronics are less linear than solid-state electronics at high-signal levels, they are much more linear at low-signal levels (less than one watt)and that many musical signals spend much of their time at these low levels.

However, in cases where the subjectivists' claims can be verified by objective measure, it could not be considered a strictly "subjective" position. A more literally subjectivist argument is that listeners may be able to discern pleasurable benefits from tube equipment that would escape any attempt at objective measurement.

Objectivists claim that digital sound can have higher fidelity than analog sound because it lacks clicks, pops, wow, flutter, audio feedback, degradation, generational loss, and rumble, has a higher signal-to-noise ratio, has a wider dynamic range, has less total harmonic distortion, and has a flatter and more extended frequency response.

Subjectivists have argued that the process of converting a bit-stream to an analog waveform requires heavy filtering to remove spurious high-frequency information and that it should be expected that such filtering should involve some signal degradation and a large amount of phase shift in the passband. They point out that commonly-used consumer-grade digital-to-analog converters (DACs) exhibit poor linearity at low levels.

Both of these problems have since been verified by objective measure, and were then addressed by such solutions as digital filtering, oversampling, and the use of DACs operating at 20-bit (or higher) resolution.

Today, many objectivists and subjectivists may agree that a preference for analog formats is often rooted in pleasing and familiar distortions and artifacts. At the same time, members of both camps might also agree that the best historical analog formats have often displayed great levels of audio fidelity as well.

Musician Neil Young is a harsh critic of the sound of the original CD format, but has expressed approval for the sound of higher definition formats such as SACD, which he believes has a greater safety margin between its ideal behavior and the theoretical limits of human hearing.

However, many independent listening tests and mathematical studies have shown that Young's assertions are basically untrue. Regardless, in 2011, Neil Young filed paperwork to trademark his own developing high-resolution audio player.

Objectivists and Subjectivist were once at odds about the importance of total harmonic distortion. Both groups now seem to agree that the distribution of harmonic distortion can be important in perceived sound quality. This is another case where subjective opinion was eventually verified by objective measure, and taken into account by objectivist engineers.

Although this is no longer technically a point of contention, objectivists may be more likely to stress the importance of reducing total harmonic distortion in a system, while subjectivists may more often stress the importance on creating a more pleasing distribution of harmonic distortion.