 In part one we have learned that our brain is constantly trying to play tricks on us and how we should fight that. We also learned about spatial imaging, ear candy and that we should only vary one component when comparing equipment. You might check out part one if you haven't watched it already. I put a link in the top right corner and in the show notes. The next job is to identify fingerprints or shortcomings in your reference setup. If you can't find any, you are either not a gifted listener or an extremely brilliant set builder. I have never heard a stereo without shortcomings and I would be highly surprised if such a thing would exist. Most likely you have to try again until you come up with one or more shortcomings, things that are not supposed to be there. The difficult thing here is that your brain knows it's listening to a stereo and stereos sound like stereos and not like real sound according to your brain. Let's take one of the most difficult things to get right in a stereo, sibilance control. Many audiophiles take for granted that distorted sibilance is not on par with the real world. Even seasoned listeners tell me that's in the recording when I know it isn't. That's okay for it is rather difficult and often expensive to get it right. So you better learn to live with it. But for argument's sake, let's say that you want to improve sibilance control in your setup, then it would be nice to find out what causes it. The only way to find out is to replace individual components piece by piece and including cables and music files or discs. It's therefore handy to have audiophile friends to exchange equipment and cables with. Friends can also point you to properties of the sound, both positive and negative, that are remarkable. That way you teach each other to listen, and yes, initially you will misinterpret some properties as will your friends. That brings us back to video one. Make sure that no egos get in the way, for that will absolutely lead to errors. As an exercise, connect your smartphone as a source and listen to the changes it causes. Or the old CD player you gave to your son that he no longer uses since it needs those funny silver discs. We learn easiest when the information has big impact, like burning your finger on a hot stove. Luckily there are alternatives, like structuring the information, and that's what I do when judging equipment. When playing music I scan for all kinds of properties, often one or two properties immediately demand your attention. Note them down and then structurally scan for all other parameters. Again, do not use a limited number of discs, vary the discs you use, but only use discs that you know well. You might check on the following parameters. Tambra. Do all instruments, especially voices, sound natural and free from coloration? Resolution. How well are instruments separated from each other and how well can you hear, for instance, the left and right hand of a solo piano track? How well can you follow a baseline? Spatial imaging. How well is the acoustic space in a recording projected behind and sometimes even outside the loudspeaker? Stereo impression. How well are the instruments placed within that spatial imaging? Are they easily located and do they have their own space in the stereo image, offering a 3D image? Sound balance. How well is the balance between the instruments in the recording? Distortion. Are there instruments that sound distorted? This is often most clear on human voices, brass, glockenspiel, tubular bells and the like. Sibilance control. Sibilance, like sharp s-sounds in vocal music, is difficult to get right. Both vinyl and digital sources can suffer from it, although it's often easier to solve with vinyl by better setting up the tone arm. Noise. Do you hear noise not related to the music playing? Modulation noise. Do you hear noise that is related to the music playing? Microdynamics. This is about hearing dynamic behavior and transients on individual instruments, like discovering a marimba playing in the back of a stereo image, or the tapping of a glass. Finding shortcomings in a stereo is simply put scanning and quantifying the aforementioned parameters. That can only be done if you are fully relaxed and have a clear head. Stress is killing, also for evaluating gear. Alcohol and canine-holding beverages, like indian tonic, should be avoided too. The room you are listening in should have a low noise level. Digital sources vary in output voltage between slightly under two volts to slightly over three volts if it's a single-ended connection. That normally uses RCA connectors. Two balanced outputs will be twice as high in voltage and use XLR connections. With both single-ended and balanced there is a difference between the lowest and the highest voltage of 3.5 dBs. If you don't compensate for that, the loudest sounding setup will sound the best according to your brain. A difference of only one dB might be of influence. Therefore stick a piece of master tape around the volume control and mark the positions. If the amp has a digital readout of the volume setting, that's even simpler. If you are comparing amps, place them next to each other so you can easily swap connections without touching the volume control. Comparing loudspeakers is a lot harder. The tonal balance between loudspeakers can differ greatly and that can have influence on the level measurement. That's the reason I don't use a single frequency but pink noise for SPL measurements. It will take the total sound pressure level into account. Another thing when comparing loudspeakers is acoustic coupling. Never place the speaker pairs next to each other, for then the playing speaker will set a woofer cone and thus the internal air in the neighboring speaker in motion, which will color the sound of the speaker playing. You best place the non-playing speaker away from the playing speaker. The other side of the room is a fair choice. In another room is the best choice. A fairly workable compromise is to short-circuit the terminals of the non-playing speakers. That will limit the movement of the woofers. Depending on the efficiency of the loudspeakers they can differ in loudness and a given power from almost nothing to even 20 dBs or more in extreme cases. You can easily set levels using a sound pressure level meter app on your smartphone. Please don't call that a dB meter. Use the official abbreviation SPL meter. Set the app to slow and A-weighted. Play pink noise and set the volume control for a given level, like 75 dBs SPLA. Then swap the gear you are comparing and do the same. Some apps have pink noise generators built in, but pink noise files are readily available on the internet too, as MP3s, Rouse or YouTube video. Select the sound level you feel comfortable with, but don't go beyond 80 dBs SPLA. You best listen at the position you normally sit when playing music, although it can be interesting to listen at other places in the room too. Of course loudspeaker placement will have a significant effect on the sound quality. Wrongly placed loudspeakers can sound boomy, a harsh midrange and poor to non-existent spatial information. Watch my video loudspeaker placement long version for my two-step approach to loudspeaker placement, the easiest way to set up your loudspeakers properly. You only need a piece of string, a small mirror, some masking tape, a pair of ears and some time. As I've said before, don't use AB switching. You can establish a number of differences that way, like tonal balance, but that is only a part of the possible artefact. Unless there are large differences with other artefacts too, of course. And your brain adapts to differences in, for instance, tonal balance quite easy. It therefore is important to listen equally long to both devices on the test. Play a track on setup 1, then do the same on setup 2. While listening scan the earlier mentioned criteria and try to rate each criterion on a scale of five. Best make a scoring table on a notepad. I find the paper one plus pencil the best choice. Do that on as many tracks you can. You might attempt to do a blind test, but that's not always easy. First you need a second person to do the swap, which will make judging for you harder because of the social pressure. But you also have to make sure that there are no clues that give away what is playing, like the sound of the input selector or differences in sound of the CD mechanism. Even the face of the person switching between the two setups might give away some info. In scientific blind test, no one in the room is allowed to know what setup is playing. Most important is you take your time. Spread the evaluation over several sessions on several days, if you can. If not, do one hour sessions with at least 30 minutes breaking between and do as much time not listening to the music. What? I learn a lot about equipment when I have the music at the background volume while reading, playing a game of Solitaire or for instance writing this text. My auditory system is then at rest and only warns me if unusual situations arise. For instance hearing details in a recording I had not heard before or a distorted voice in a recording where it shouldn't be. Or literally when writing this paragraph the fantastic texture of the bass of Way Down Deep by Jennifer Warnes from the album The Hunter. Playing was the fantastic chord Dave and M-scaler combo in my setup one. I'm not sure this works equally good for non-trained listeners, but if it isn't, it's a good reason to start training. As I've tried to indicate by starting with a bit of my history in part one of this video, the ability to judge audio equipment has a lot to do with experience. An experience is practice times time, so the only way to get experience is to start practicing. Not that you have to, if you just want to enjoy the music that's perfectly fine for that is, or at least should be, the goal of audiophile equipment. Let me also stress that all this is my experience, based on what I did in practice and was told by those whose shoulders I am privileged to stand on. Furthermore, I won't claim it's the only way to work. It's just my way of working. Which brings us to the end of this show. As usual, there will be a new video next Friday at 5pm central european time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up, or link to this video on the social media. It's much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video in Youtube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.