Re: [linux-audio-user] Re: Digital Fidelity

On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 12:24:26PM -0800, Maluvia wrote: I am called to comment, with what I would hope are understanding and compassion. We all live under superstitions. Someone who is a brilliant musician has the strangest misconceptions regarding themselves and personal relationships... let us say about love. Someone wise in the realm of relationships and communication is woefully ignorant about electrical matters... cannot so much as change a lightbulb. So whenever we encounter what we believe to be ignorance in an area we are knowledgeable, perhaps it stings inwardly because of all the huge universes of our own darkness that surround the particular oasis of illumination at which we water (to mix metaphors.) At any rate, encountering what one believes to be emphatic ignorance often leads to strong reactions. On the subject of the direction of signals in cables, I think I can offer to put the issue to rest by reminding all parties that audio signals from a microphone or to a loudspeaker are carried by the AC (alternating current) component of electron movement. Thus the direction of the electric current reverses many thousands of times each second, more or less depending on the pitch. One can verify this by using a sinewave generator to drive a loudspeaker while watching the waveform on an oscilloscope. One immediately observes the waveform going both above and below the zero point. A change in the sign of the voltage means that the current flows in the opposite direction. To those of us to whom this is deeply understood to the point of being intuitive, we are surprised to encounter another opinion--as tho someone were arguing that the earth is flat, or that intercourse is not a factor in the making of babies. Perhaps this idea is harder to grasp for a person without an intuitive familiarity with the behavior of negative qualities--a rather recent cultural development. It is one thing to attempt to convince a person that they are mistaken, another to admit one is wrong on a subject one has been convinced for many years: the latter requires humility, the former can tolerate any amount of arrogance. We all grow inasmuch as we can recognize and learn from our own experience, and from the wisdom of others. All of which takes place more readily in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Thank you for your attention. -- Joel Roth