9221mac@hou2f.UUCP (M.CARLETTA) (06/05/85)
It's really quite comical to see all of the verbiage in the news group about whether CD's or $5000 turntables have better imaging, whether we can hear the difference between digital and analog filtering, whether an amp with .005 percent distortion is better than one with .01 percent, etc. We are completely ignoring effects which must be orders of magnitude larger. Has anyone come up with a way to capture the audio "reality" of an event and recreate it faithfully? I think not. Look at the confusion regarding miking techniques. How much information is lost when we try to capture music in a couple of mikes? Isn't it a little like trying to project a globe onto a flat map? Are we taking snapshots when we could be taking holograms? How much information is lost forever in the recording process? How about speakers and listening environments. AR's new "magic" speaker is highly directional (with some "ambience" thrown in), DBX says you need a speaker that is omnidirectional, Polk is giving us L, R, L-R, etc, and what about all of the more standard speakers? What radiation pattern will allow us to best approach reality? Some claim early reflections are vital for a feeling of ambience, others claim early reflections are to be avoided like the plague. We need some heavy duty PSYCHOACOUSTICS. Maybe someone will make a real breakthrough, improving the quality of reality reproduction by an order of magnitude, and then all the little details we concern ourselves with will reallly make a difference. Steve Johnson
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (06/06/85)
> imaging, whether we can hear the difference between digital > and analog filtering, whether an amp with .005 percent distortion > is better than one with .01 percent, etc. We are completely > ignoring effects which must be orders of magnitude larger. Yes, but one of the main areas of discussion was how much was lost what the engineer who made the master tape heard when he had his final product, and what we as consumers get out of our stereos. I guarantee that the sound that comes out of certain passages of my bargain basement CD player not only do not sound like anything in nature, they would also cause the engineer to wretch )Ron