dar@vector.uucp (David A. Roth) (12/04/88)
I am aware of the sound quality limited to the telephone because of bandwidth, however I have noticed that certain makes and model phones have better sounds. I have a $12-13 radio shack phone that sends and receives sound better than the higher priced GTE phone I have. So what is the top of the line phone to use for sound quality? Thanks in advance. David A. Roth Columbus, Ohio ...att!cblpn!dar ...arpa!cblpn!dar ...arpa!dar
hsc@mtund.ATT.COM (Harvey Cohen) (12/07/88)
>From article <telecom-v08i0194m01@vector.UUCP>, by harvard!cbnews.att.com!dar@vector.uucp (David A. Roth): > I am aware of the sound quality limited to the telephone because > of bandwidth, however I have noticed that certain makes and model > phones have better sounds. > I have a $12-13 radio shack phone that sends and receives sound > better than the higher priced GTE phone I have. > So what is the top of the line phone to use for sound quality? A telephone is a specialized device for voice communication. It is not intended for use with music or any sounds other than speech. Telephone sound quality, therefore, is normally perceived in terms of human speech in a matrix of background noise. The best telephone sound quality maximizes intelligebility and recognizability of the speech and the speaker while minimizing background noise. This is NOT done by making the frequency response or the dynamic response as flat as possible, as one would for hi-fi music. Nor is bandwidth as important as it is for hi-fi music. Telephone speech quality is also sensitive to the type and amount of acoustic background noise. This is partly because telephones are designed to feed the user's speech back to the user's ear (i.e. sidetone) at a reduced level. Many of the sets sold for home use (and perfectly acceptable there) are poorly adapted to noisy offices because of the effects of sidetone response as well as dynamic response. The shape and position of the transmitter and receiver in relation to the user's mouth and ear are also important. In summary, designing a phone to work well is much more complicated than just putting together sound components to yield the highest fi, and selecting a phone depends at least somewhat on your usage pattern as well as the quality of the phone. -- Harvey S. Cohen, AT&T Bell Labs, Lincroft, NJ, mtund!hsc, (201)576-3302