AVRant #136: Random Sounds
Clint’s back! Um… you remember him right? Editor-in-Chief of Audioholics? Anyway, he’s back and he’s got a lot to say. Specifically about color gamut of HD vs. SD. For those not in the know, Radio Paradise is pretty awesome. Cablevision won their lawsuit and now we’ll see remote DVRs… someday. Tom’s dad got a Velodyne sub – Tom gives the lowdown. BTW, Tom is working with the Audioholics store to make sure UPS doesn’t do to your sub what they did to his dad’s. How do you match a center channel? Do DVD players sound different? Is active room correction all that and a bag of chips? A bit about illegal downloads. Tom got a new phone – and so far loves it (which probably just means he hasn’t spent very much time with it). Thanks for listening and don’t forget to vote for us at Podcast Alley.
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“Perceptible” is a word. Why did Tom and Clint think “perceptible” was “made up”?
In fact, “perceptible” is an important word because of its difference from the word “perceivable”. Many people use “perceptible” and “perceivable” interchangeably, but there is a subtle and important difference.
For example, it is possible for something to be “perceivable” while simultaneously being “imperceptible”. Allow me to explain 🙂
If the difference in sound between two speakers is “perceivable”, it means that it is POSSIBLE for the observer to perceive the difference. In other words, there is nothing hindering the observer from hearing the difference.
Let’s say that I set up two different speakers behind a sound proof barrier and ask you to tell them apart. You would not be able to do so. The sound proof barrier would make any difference “imperceivable”. There is something (the sound proof barrier) stopping you from perceiving any difference.
But if I take the sound proof barrier away, now any difference in sound should be “perceivable”. There is nothing stopping you from hearing the difference.
So there is no hindrance: any difference is thus “perceivable”, but let’s say that you still do not notice any difference. The speakers are from different brands, we may even be able to measure a difference with test equipment, but just listening, you cannot tell them apart. That would make the difference in sound “imperceptible”. The difference in sound is “perceivable” because there is nothing stopping you from hearing the difference, but it is not “perceptible” because you did not actually hear any difference.
If you actually hear a difference and can tell the two speakers apart by their sound, then the difference in sound is “perceptible” AND “perceivable” 😉
So there was nothing wrong with using the word “perceptible”, Clint! There WAS, however, a glaring grammar error when Tom said that he “drug the subwoofer outside”.
Really, Tom? “Drug”?
The correct past tense of “drag” is “dragged”. You “dragged” the subwoofer outside. You did not “drug” it (unless you forced a needle into it or made it smoke some pot or something!)
lol – great to have Clint back! I vaguely remember that guy 😀
Yea Tom that was pretty much exactly what I was trying to ask about the DVD players audio. I’ll have to check out radio paradise now that Pandora’s limiting hrs.
By any chance are you a Opeth fan Tom?
yyeeesss dude – very good tunes are perceived on http://www.radioparadise.com
The Cablevision DVR issue is a nice win, but somehow I’m not excited about having all my DVR functioning like comcast’s VOD. I’m lucky if it will actually connect to the server 2/3rds of the time and using transport controls is about as fun as pouring battery acid in my eye.
And Clint, a lot of cable DVRs do :30 skip/:05 back, they just don’t document the function. If you have a universal remote like a Harmony you can add it from the database of codes. My Comcast motorola box has it.
Now if we could only get them to let us add a drive to the rear USB/eSATA ports so that we could actually record some HD content instead of sticking us with 160GB drives.
Thanks for the show guys. We should kill some more Horde sometime.