/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>11720433

Ok, this is going to get set straight:

Speakers work by vibrating. Specifically, they get sent a voltage, which causes the cone to move a certain distance from it's base. Changing the voltage rapidly produces waves, and hence sound (and why they 'pop' at DC, because they effectively 'snap into place').

How effective they are at vibrating to certain frequencies depends on the -physical characteristics- of the speakers. For example, larger speakers tend to produce low frequencies exceptionally well, but struggle with higher ones.

Which is to say no single set of speakers can truly reproduce an exact copy of a recording, because it will over-represent certain frequencies while under-representing others.

Engineers measure this distortion with a Frequency Response -graph- which shows given an input, how much the output changes (over/under representation).
For example:
http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz296/solderdude/allM50graphs.jpg

Which is a frequency response graph for the ATH-M50, according to Google and some internet forums (sellers are generally shitty in this regard and don't actually provide the graphs).

Now, this is measured in dBs, which is logarithmic. So, a -10dB signal is 0.1 the amplitude of the original, or has the effect of turning your volume down by 90% for that frequency.

So, what this shows you is that the ATH-M50 strongly attenuates the 2-5k region (cutting down a good part of the human vocal range), and also the 11k (cymbals, nasally sounds, etc). Data above that isn't shown.

These deficiencies are compensated by using -different- speakers with -different- characteristics so the combined effect is close to a flat line. An alternate method is to adjust the frequencies coming out of the sound card, but that can damage your speakers/is hard to do precisely (also, the sound cards can be bad about frequency responses if they're cheap).

Which is to say, there is no 'master race' of speakers. At the least, you need a set.

>>11407091

It can be. I understand that it's an aspect of Japanese minimalism; the revisiting of phrases and ideas as the persons involved come to understand them.

It doesn't translate over very well because it's a cultural thing. Unfortunately the translators who don't understand that tend to write repetitive lines that completely miss the point, and thus ruin the whole thing.

So, don't feel too obliged to keep the literal version, especially in cases where a literal translation destroys the meaning.