Why are measurements important?

Before we dive into the details, it might be interesting to first define why measurements are important. And why perhaps not. Because, to be fair: for a lot of enthusiasts, measurements will not be important at all. They just want to listen to music. Or watch films, of course. And we totally get that. Not everyone likes to read graphs and interpret the numbers that roll our of the machines.

An extra check

At Alpha Audio, we see measurements mainly as an extra check. Does the manufacturer have its act together? Are the specifications they communicate correct? Think about the power an amplifier should deliver. Or the average impedance of a speaker. You will be amazed at how these are sometimes – consciously or unconsciously – way off…

Secondly, measurements give a little insight into how a manufacturer operates. Where does a manufacturer focus his design? What trade-offs did he make? Where were costs saved and was that the best choice (talking in hindsight is always easy of course!)

Learning!

Another important reason to measure is that you learn an awful lot from it. By diving deeper into the matter and actively working with it, you learn a lot about how a device works and its place in the audio chain.

For instance: by doing a lot of research into the influence of a data network on playback quality, we learned more about jitter, common mode interference and power supplies.

And by measuring cables, we have seen the influence of twisting, learned more about reflections in digital cables and termination impedances and their importance. It puts things in perspective. And in many cases, it also pokes through the voodoo to some extent….

Do measurements explain everything we hear?

No. It’s as simple as that. We can measure quite a lot, but far from everything. To take an example: we cannot ‘measure’ how smoothly an amplifier plays. Or how detail-rich a device plays. Nor is it possible to measure the stereo image of a loudspeaker (yet).

However, stable clocking affects detail in a dac. As does refinement. And we now know that a lot of feedback in an amplifier can make it sound dry; the flow and ‘playfulness’ in reproduction disappear a bit. It measures better, but it also often makes the whole thing a bit drier.

With speakers, phase and group delay is important for stereo imaging. In short: we can measure certain things that affect certain characteristics. But in the end, ‘musicality’ is not measurable. Just as it is not possible to measure ‘love’. We know which hormones play a role…. but attaching a rating to ‘love’ is just as impossible as measuring ‘musicality’. Only the ears can do that, along with our brain.

So is it meaningless?

We have many conversations about this. With colleagues, retailers, readers and developers. Is taking measurements as a journalistic platform pointless? We don’t think so. As mentioned earlier, you discover a lot by starting to measure devices. We also try to explain things through research – where measurements play a crucial role. Think of the research we did duting the great switch test, or our search for the influence of cables on sound By diving deeper into things, you learn a lot. And we think that’s worth it anyway! We hope you see it the same way.