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Thread: "Perception trumps reality nearly all the time"

  1. #21
    Join Date: May 2010

    Location: Vancouver, Canada

    Posts: 2,166
    I'm Alex.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Effem View Post
    Too little is known either about the way the senses INTERACT with each other and a good example of that is film music soundtracks. Watch a good film and really enjoy the soundtrack during the performance, then listen to the soundtrack on it's own and it sounds pants.
    You broach a very interesting subject, something that almost deserves its own thread. However, since the topic of this thread is perception vs assumed, hypothesized 'objective' state of affairs, this subject fits nicely in.

    This has been happening to me all the time. I would watch a movie, and suddenly notice how the background music in the movie sounds fantastic. I would then immediately (for some reason), make a quick mental comparison with the quality of the music presentation in the movie vs. the quality I'm getting when listening to music only. I would often get to a conclusion that, for some reason, the music in the movie has better presentation than my regular audiophile setup.

    Why is that surprising to me? Well, what's puzzling is that when I'm watching a DVD on my Playstation 3, I think I'm getting really good sound quality. However, when I'm listening to a CD on the same player, I find the presentation seriously lacking when compared to the same CD played through my Logitech Squeezebox Touch.

    So, according to the above math, there is no way that a soundtrack on a DVD played on PS3 can beat the sound from the Touch.

    What is the above telling me? There seems to be an additional emotional component at play. While watching a movie, my visual sense gets engaged, and tends to lend some acuity to my hearing sense, thus tricking me into thinking that I hear deeper, wider soundstage and overall, more present, more convincing soundscape.

    But, as you said, if I obtain just the soundtrack CD and listen to it, suddenly the magic is gone.
    Don't you just hate it when you cannot detect where the post ends and a signature line begins?

    Alex.

  2. #22
    Join Date: Aug 2008

    Location: London

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    I'm Nat-andthat'swhyIdrink.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GreatGig View Post
    I was watching that myself Howard and was sorely tempted, but timing was all wrong cash wise. Someone got an excellent buy there for sure.
    Out of interest, what were you watching and sorely tempted by?

    "Perception trumps reality nearly all the time" - the statement isn't really clear enough for me to fully understand what it's saying, too broad.

    Our only interaction with the outside world is purely perception. Reality is filtered by our senses and then our brain's perception is the only reality we know of. None of us perceive ultra-violet light as any kind of reality like a bee does for example - it's completely ignored and without a science lesson we wouldn't even know it existed.

    Perhaps it would be clearer to say "Perception IS our reality".

    It is a combination of necessity and every creature's ego that make us presume our individual perceptions are reality in the first place. Reading some heated threads on various forums seems to show that some are less aware of this than others!

    Who said it with regard to hifi anyway?

  3. #23
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: South Wales

    Posts: 7,487
    I'm the'greatunwashed'.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nat8808 View Post
    Out of interest, what were you watching and sorely tempted by?
    Yeah, ignore me - I didn't really read the post and clicked on Howards link to his blog to see he had just sold an MF P270 power amp on eBay, which was the top item on his blog! It's back on eBay now too and a sweet deal........... got my wires crossed a bit
    "People will hear what you tell them to hear" - Thomas Edison

  4. #24
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Southern England

    Posts: 2,990
    I'm Howard.

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    Hi there. Thank you to you all for the responses. As I hoped, it’s all food for thought. Now then, if there is any interest then I’ll be happy to put finger to keyboard and expand on the subject.

    I should I guess explain where I’m coming from. Few people other than my development team (7 currently) know that my primary day to day work is as an inventor or if you prefer (and some do) software architect. I specialise in specific types of commercial challenges that focus on the differences between memory – and understanding. This is carried out online. I have a Patent on this but truth be told, these days I cannot understand my own Patent! At least one of my inventions has probably had an influence on your day to day life albeit through the finance industry and possibly health and safety.

    Anyway, these days I work on programmes that help people make better quality decisions, when I’m not selling hifi that is. It is for me a fascinating arena. As a consequence I have studied a lot of the more comprehensible academic works on how people make decisions. Or if you invert it, how – given the evidence – they so often make (or perhaps take; I never know the correct word in this context) decisions which work against them. I never applied my work to cock-ups in personal relationships though. I just couldn't get a handle on it because it defied mathematical analysis – and personally I hope it stays that way!

    HiFi is of marginal interest to me in this respect but it might be of interest to some of you. If so, then I’ll see what I can do.

    Nearly in conclusion, thank you once again for these interesting responses. Finally, I revisited the recipe I posted on the site recent. You can see it here > http://bit.ly/g82eap Sunday’s dinner for me and the ex Mrs. P went very well inasmuch as it all went to plan and no one was sick – which after all must be the litmus test by which these things should be judged.
    Well, hello.

  5. #25
    Join Date: Aug 2008

    Location: London

    Posts: 2,411
    I'm Nat-andthat'swhyIdrink.

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    Yeah, go on - put fingers (both of the pointing ones) to keyboard.

    I find that kind of thing interesting too although more recently am of the notion that people always make decisions that work for them at any given moment given the information available to them at that moment even if a bit later it turns out to work against them. That includes perhaps a moment of ego defense or a rush of adrenelin..

    From the decisions you make, good and bad, you can work out what your subconcious needs are and then take steps to reframe or change those needs when they're proving a problem in the longer term.

    In terms of buying something it starts to get complicated, all the different reasons/emotions playing behind each decision.

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