The Difference Between Sound Quality and Sound Effect
Sound Quality (音质 - Yīnzhì) refers to the fidelity and accuracy of the sound reproduction. If hard to grasp, think of it as analogous to the 'image quality' (画质 - Huàzhì) of a digital photo.
If a photo has pure colors, rich detail levels, accurate brightness/darkness, we say it has good 'image quality'. We can process it: increase color saturation, boost contrast, sharpen, or add effects. The photo might look enhanced, but the original image quality is degraded.
Sennheiser IE80
Sound quality is similar. Using an equalizer to boost bass/treble, adding DFX plugins, etc., might make the sound subjectively more pleasing, but often sacrifices sonic detail.
Processing or enhancing sound (or images) is sometimes necessary to suit personal preference. However, don't mistake this for *improving* sound quality. More processing, more plugins—generally means *more* degradation of the original sound quality.
Another point: Many compare the 'sound quality' of different media players. Comparison is fine, but understand *how* to compare, lest you appear uninformed.
We usually listen with effects/EQ enabled. In this state, we're mostly comparing *sound effects* (音效 - Yīnxiào), not the intrinsic sound quality. Removing effects, we're essentially comparing the players' decoders. If players use the same decoder, differences are negligible. Even with different decoders (especially mature MP3 decoding), differences are subtle. On typical home PCs, claiming to discern them is often self-deception—or simply confusing sound effects for sound quality.
If a photo has pure colors, rich detail levels, accurate brightness/darkness, we say it has good 'image quality'. We can process it: increase color saturation, boost contrast, sharpen, or add effects. The photo might look enhanced, but the original image quality is degraded.
Sennheiser IE80
Sound quality is similar. Using an equalizer to boost bass/treble, adding DFX plugins, etc., might make the sound subjectively more pleasing, but often sacrifices sonic detail.
Processing or enhancing sound (or images) is sometimes necessary to suit personal preference. However, don't mistake this for *improving* sound quality. More processing, more plugins—generally means *more* degradation of the original sound quality.
Another point: Many compare the 'sound quality' of different media players. Comparison is fine, but understand *how* to compare, lest you appear uninformed.
We usually listen with effects/EQ enabled. In this state, we're mostly comparing *sound effects* (音效 - Yīnxiào), not the intrinsic sound quality. Removing effects, we're essentially comparing the players' decoders. If players use the same decoder, differences are negligible. Even with different decoders (especially mature MP3 decoding), differences are subtle. On typical home PCs, claiming to discern them is often self-deception—or simply confusing sound effects for sound quality.