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  #121   Report Post  
 
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Gary Rosen wrote:
wrote in message
...
Stewart Pinkerton wrote:


Nope, there are *lots* of badly recorded and/or mastered CDs out
there. Ditto for LP, of course.



Unfortunately your claims about the CD v. LP debate completely ignore
this important fact.


As do yours.



Prove it. Quotes please.


Your claims about LP are at least as absolutist as
Stewart's if not more so.




I suggest you reread both my claims and Stewart's. I challenge you to
find and cite one single post by me that can be claimed to be
absolutist. Good luck.





Scott Wheeler










































  #123   Report Post  
Billy Shears
 
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In article ,
Marc Foster wrote:

"Reconstruction filter", you say? What is that needed for? Did something
change from the original signal? If you can't follow that analogy, then
you're simply not thinking abstractly enough. No one is saying vinyl
doesn't distort the analog signal. And I have not even said the ultimate
analog signal coming from the CD player is worse than the signal coming
from
the phono stage. I am saying digital technology has a fundamental design
flaw, and that is that the signal is distorted on purpose. It's inherent
in
the technology. Whether the end result is more faithful to the original
signal is beside the point.


As others have pointed out, you simply don't understand how digital
sampling and playback works. If you are asking why a reconstruction
filter is needed, that is absolute proof of your lack of knowledge. Two
required parts of a digital system are a band limiting filter on the
input to the ADC to eliminate frequency components above 1/2 the
sampling frequency and a band limiting filter on the output of the DAC
(called a reconstruction filter). If you properly implement both
filters the output will be exactly the input.


Not exactly the input. Perhaps exactly the input below 22khz.
  #126   Report Post  
Helen Schmidt
 
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Stewart Pinkerton wrote:
On 2 Jul 2005 18:56:36 GMT, "Helen Schmidt"
wrote:

Stewart et al have no evidence about subjective state of listeners,
beyond simplified verbal reporting of state that compresses the
percepts themselves.


I may not, but Al certainly does! Once again I ask, did you not read
the posts regarding the development of perceptual codecs such as MP3,
AAC, Dolby etc? They are based on *massive* amounts of research into
the subjective state of listeners, specifically their ability to
detect any difference between the original sound and the lossy
compressed version.


The question that really interests me about subjective state is how we
can distinguish between "realistic percepts in the listener's mind"
and "vague pleasant feelings in the listener's mind."

The objectivist declares a priori this question is unanswerable and
uninteresting. What the objectivist never seems to realize is that
this is simply his *opinion* and most definitely not a fact of
nature. I suspect the objectivist takes this position because he feels
inadequate to address this question, or because his brain is simply
wired to be "uninterested" in such matters.

Determing whether people can hear small changes in sound is almost
irrelevant to the question I pose. The objectivist prefers theories
supported by empirical data and rejects introspection as a source of
data. That's fine, and this choice will lead almost inevitably to the
belief that the objectively better system is also subjectively
better. However, the objectivist should realize that existing empircal
data has very little relevance to the question I pose. Introspection
as source of data, especially careful introspection by experienced
musicians, is quite as relevant as the empirical data. In fact, I
believe it is *more* relevant. This is also my opinion, and just like
the objectivist's opinion, there is no empirical way to verify it.

The objectivist also believes that merely suggesting vinyl or analog
stimulates more lifelike musical percepts is to introduce an
unnecessary mystery. What the objectivist fails to realize is that
there is nothing wrong about introducing a theory which also
introduces a mystery, when the data leads in that direction. And the
data from careful introspection most definitely leads in that
direction. It is simply the arbitrary choice of the objectivist to
reject this data a priori.

Helen
  #128   Report Post  
 
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jeffc wrote:
The fact that you don't even acknowledge that converting to the digital
domain and back to analog is a fundamental problem,


It's not a problem at all. We can convert to digital and back and wind
up with something that's audibly indistinguishable from the original.
That would be a fact.

bob
  #129   Report Post  
chung
 
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jeffc wrote:
"Chung" wrote in message
...

I would surmise, based on your posts, that Stewart understands a lot more
about good vinyl sound, and that he is a lot less biased, than you.



What exactly do you think I'm biased about?


How about this very first sentence in your first post in this thread:

"Technically, digital is crude compared to vinyl, because vinyl is
analog which is pure." To say that vinyl is "pure" totally ignores the
degradations introduced to the signals, and shows bias towards vinyl
technology.

In fact, based on your posts, you have really contributed zero, or
worse, negatively, on this thread. Funny that you should accuse Stewart
of not contributing.
  #130   Report Post  
Chung
 
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Billy Shears wrote:
In article ,
Marc Foster wrote:

"Reconstruction filter", you say? What is that needed for? Did something
change from the original signal? If you can't follow that analogy, then
you're simply not thinking abstractly enough. No one is saying vinyl
doesn't distort the analog signal. And I have not even said the ultimate
analog signal coming from the CD player is worse than the signal coming
from
the phono stage. I am saying digital technology has a fundamental design
flaw, and that is that the signal is distorted on purpose. It's inherent
in
the technology. Whether the end result is more faithful to the original
signal is beside the point.


As others have pointed out, you simply don't understand how digital
sampling and playback works. If you are asking why a reconstruction
filter is needed, that is absolute proof of your lack of knowledge. Two
required parts of a digital system are a band limiting filter on the
input to the ADC to eliminate frequency components above 1/2 the
sampling frequency and a band limiting filter on the output of the DAC
(called a reconstruction filter). If you properly implement both
filters the output will be exactly the input.


Not exactly the input. Perhaps exactly the input below 22khz.


To be picky about it, Marc did not restrict that comment to CD.


  #132   Report Post  
 
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Per Stromgren wrote:
On 4 Jul 2005 19:37:56 GMT, wrote:


1. RTI
2. Stan Ricker

The question for you is can you name any audiophile mastering engineers
that are converting analog master tapes to digital these days.


I did not say that!


1. I see you didn't provide any audiophle mastering enginees that are
converting an analog signal to digital before sending the signal to the
cutting lathe so no points for you.
2. Stewart said." BTW, as noted elsewhere, since every modern
vinyl cutting facility includes a digital delay line for Varigroove
purposes, *all* new music recordings are digital by definition,
whether purchased on black or silver discs."
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...157d165b80de42
You followed this point of Pinkerton's with...
"Please name one vinyl cutting facility, used above hobby scale, that
doesn't have this!"
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...157d165b80de42
So you certainly seemed to be behind Pinkerton's claim that *all*
current LP mastering is converting thesignal to digital.



I said that there is digital delay line in the
cutter! You have to pretty extreme in your fear of digital conversions
to give up that.




It isn't about fear it's about facts. Pinkerton made a gross factual
error and you backed him up.



And be *very* sure that you haven't had any digital
signals in your source chain.




Gosh, I hate to sound like a skipping record, pun intended, but you
need to reead my posts. I have a CD plyer and a substantial CD
collection and I like the sound of a good many of those CDs. Please pay
better attention.




Stan Ricker is an interesting example, by the way. From SRM:S web
page:

"SRM USES THE MOST UP-TO-DATE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY " (Stan own use of
case.) We don't now what he uses it for, of course. Accounting?



Yeah Stan also is a world class mastering engineer for CDs. Gotta have
digital equipment to do that don't ya?




"THIS SYSTEM IS WIRED WITH CARDAS CABLE FOR LOW DISTORTION,WIDE-BAND
AUDIO, AND SHAKTI RF ABSORBERS FOR BEST POSSIBLE SIGNAL-TO-NOISE
RATIO."

Yep. Shakti RF Absorbers.



Yep world class mastering to boot. Go figure.





Per.


And I still wonder what this fear of digital is?




Your imagination no less.




Vinyl sounds like
vinyl, whatever fed it, analog tape or a digital memory.




Well, IMO that is more often than not better than the alternatives.





Scott Wheeler
  #134   Report Post  
 
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Helen Schmidt wrote:
The question that really interests me about subjective state is how we
can distinguish between "realistic percepts in the listener's mind"
and "vague pleasant feelings in the listener's mind."


Um, why can't we just ask people? "Do you think this is more realistic
than that? Do you think this is more pleasant than that?" Seems pretty
simple to me.

The objectivist declares a priori this question is unanswerable and
uninteresting.


Well, as I've just shown, it is quite answerable. And depending on the
context, it could also be very interesting. I am, of course, an
objectivist. So that shoots your theory.

What the objectivist never seems to realize is that
this is simply his *opinion*


Well, no, it turns out to be the opposite of my opinion.

and most definitely not a fact of
nature. I suspect the objectivist takes this position because he feels
inadequate to address this question, or because his brain is simply
wired to be "uninterested" in such matters.


Please, enough of your charm offensive. (Note to moderator: She is
pushing the line.)

Determing whether people can hear small changes in sound is almost
irrelevant to the question I pose.


Agreed. So you're wrong about objectivists once again.

The objectivist prefers theories
supported by empirical data and rejects introspection as a source of
data.


Introspection is not a source of data. But as we discover below, you
have an unconventional definition of "introspection."

That's fine, and this choice will lead almost inevitably to the
belief that the objectively better system is also subjectively
better.


Again, I disagree. The objectively better system may not be the
subjectively better system. It depends on what you mean by
"subjectively better." But if you leave it up to the listener to decide
(as any objectivist would), then it is quite possible for some
listeners to find an "inferior" system to be subjectively better.

However, the objectivist should realize that existing empircal
data has very little relevance to the question I pose. Introspection
as source of data, especially careful introspection by experienced
musicians, is quite as relevant as the empirical data.


If by introspection, you mean, asking people whether X is better than
Y, you're using a very odd dictionary. But if you want to know whether
people find X to be better than Y, asking them does produce the
relevant data.

In fact, I
believe it is *more* relevant. This is also my opinion, and just like
the objectivist's opinion, there is no empirical way to verify it.


It's hardly an opinion, it's bleedin' obvious. And, once again, an
objectivist is agreeing with you. So you are wrong again about
objectivists.

The objectivist also believes that merely suggesting vinyl or analog
stimulates more lifelike musical percepts is to introduce an
unnecessary mystery.


Nonsense. There is no mystery. There are multiple possible
explanations, and no, we can't be sure which explanation(s) is/are
correct for a particular listener at a particular time. But which
explanation is correct for particular listener at a particular time
doesn't seem a terribly important question.

What the objectivist fails to realize is that
there is nothing wrong about introducing a theory which also
introduces a mystery, when the data leads in that direction. And the
data from careful introspection most definitely leads in that
direction. It is simply the arbitrary choice of the objectivist to
reject this data a priori.


Well, you haven't introduced any data. None. All you've done is
demonstrated that you haven't a clue about what objectivists really
think. So why do you persist?

bob
  #135   Report Post  
Helen Schmidt
 
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Helen Schmidt wrote:

The objectivist also believes that merely suggesting vinyl or analog
stimulates more lifelike musical percepts is to introduce an
unnecessary mystery. What the objectivist fails to realize is that
there is nothing wrong about introducing a theory which also
introduces a mystery, when the data leads in that direction.


As a footnote, plenty of scientific theories introduced great
mysteries, such as quantum mechanics. If the objectivist attempts
to answer this by saying those were empirical theories, I point
out once again that we don't have any empirical data relevant
to the question I pose---like it or not, our choice is between
peripheral empirical data, and directly relevant subjective reporting.

Helen


  #136   Report Post  
Keith Hughes
 
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Helen Schmidt wrote:
Stewart Pinkerton wrote:

On 2 Jul 2005 18:56:36 GMT, "Helen Schmidt"
wrote:


Stewart et al have no evidence about subjective state of listeners,
beyond simplified verbal reporting of state that compresses the
percepts themselves.


I may not, but Al certainly does! Once again I ask, did you not read
the posts regarding the development of perceptual codecs such as MP3,
AAC, Dolby etc? They are based on *massive* amounts of research into
the subjective state of listeners, specifically their ability to
detect any difference between the original sound and the lossy
compressed version.



The question that really interests me about subjective state is how we
can distinguish between "realistic percepts in the listener's mind"
and "vague pleasant feelings in the listener's mind."


That's a lot of words for "No". Your seemingly arbitrary (IMHO)
dichotomy assumes of course that "realistic" and "pleasant" are not
linked. Something that, for any individual listener, *you* cannot
readily determine.

The objectivist declares a priori this question is unanswerable and
uninteresting.


Really? I've never seen anyone say that the question is unaswerable.
Interesting, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. You *will* hear
that such information is of scant practical value, due to its
irrelevance to the engineering aspect of sound reproduction. Sound
reproduction is an engineering discipline; how would the answer to your
question be relevant to hardware design and implementation?

What the objectivist never seems to realize is that
this is simply his *opinion* and most definitely not a fact of
nature.


I smell straw burning...

I suspect the objectivist takes this position because he feels
inadequate to address this question, or because his brain is simply
wired to be "uninterested" in such matters.


Ah yes, condescension in lieu of cogent objective reality-based arguments.

Determing whether people can hear small changes in sound is almost
irrelevant to the question I pose. The objectivist prefers theories
supported by empirical data and rejects introspection as a source of
data. That's fine, and this choice will lead almost inevitably to the
belief that the objectively better system is also subjectively
better.


If you actually believe this, then you have truly misunderstood the vast
majority of postings by your *personal* cadre of Objectivists. The
objectively better system will, by definition, be the better system
based on objective measurements. It will be the higher fidelity (i.e.
most faithfully reproduce the stored data - from whatever front end)
system. Subjectively, its a crap shoot. Everyone is free to form
preferences based on whatever criteria they choose.

How many times must every objectivist restate the same before this
ludicrous, clearly willful, misrepresentation dies the ignoble death it
so richly deserves?

However, the objectivist should realize that existing empircal
data has very little relevance to the question I pose.


And you should realize that the question you pose, or its answer, has no
relevance to the objectivists ability to create better equipment. You
*do* realize that sans objectivists, you would be introspecting in
silence, do you not?

Introspection
as source of data, especially careful introspection by experienced
musicians, is quite as relevant as the empirical data. In fact, I
believe it is *more* relevant. This is also my opinion, and just like
the objectivist's opinion, there is no empirical way to verify it.


You assume there's no way to verify it. That *you* are unable to create
the requisite protocol is hardly sufficient to say it's impossible. *If*
it were interesting enough to researchers of sufficient understanding
and ingenuity, I'm sure a great deal of relevant data could be collected
and analyzed. Stand back, you don't want to get crushed in the mad rush...

The objectivist also believes that merely suggesting vinyl or analog
stimulates more lifelike musical percepts is to introduce an
unnecessary mystery.


Wrong. The objectivist believes that to invent some mysterious,
indescribable, unmeasureable, nearly mystical quality/parameter/property
(call it what you will) to support flawed observations (i.e. sighted,
non level matched, etc. - you know the list) is pointless. If you feel
vinyl is more lifelike, great, listen to vinyl. The obsession with
needing to find some *technical* justification for your (the "vinyl"
group) preference is something I find hard to understand. Preferences do
not require validation.

What the objectivist fails to realize is that
there is nothing wrong about introducing a theory which also
introduces a mystery, when the data leads in that direction.


There's that burning straw smell again...

And the
data from careful introspection most definitely leads in that
direction.


Correction: your introspection leads *you* in that direction. Not the
same thing at all. Like a lot of objectivists here, I listened to vinyl
for 30 years and loved it. I switched to CD for better sound - first to
be shed of the clicks/pops/wow etc. Yes the mastering was often pitiful
in the early days, and I kept playing LP's that sounded better than
their vinyl counterparts, but that was soon remedied, and now CD is
vastly superior to vinyl to my ears. So you see, no introspection is
required for me - the technically superior medium *sounds* better, and I
switched *Because* it sounded better.

It is simply the arbitrary choice of the objectivist to
reject this data a priori.


Whatever 'data' you believe you may have acquired while wandering the
hallways of your mind, is simply not relevant to me or anyone else. You
cannot objectify that data in any meaningful way such that it can be
imparted to, and evaluated by others. Your 'data' may be fantasy,
delusion, or transcendental truth, but the result is the same. If it
cannot be objectified and/or quantified in such a manner that it can be
unambiguously communicated and evaluated, it is not "Data" in any
traditional sense. Its personal experience, valid for the perceiver, but
of little practical utility.

Keith Hughes
  #137   Report Post  
Steven Sullivan
 
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Mike Gilmour wrote:
"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On 3 Jul 2005 20:46:05 GMT, "Mike Gilmour"
wrote:

"Per Stromgren" wrote in message
...
On 3 Jul 2005 15:17:49 GMT, wrote:

What happens to that signal
between there and the loudspeakers is another matter. If you mean
vinyl, then say vinyl. BTW, as noted elsewhere, since every modern
vinyl cutting facility includes a digital delay line for Varigroove
purposes, *all* new music recordings are digital by definition,
whether purchased on black or silver discs.

Every? Are you sure about this?

Please name one vinyl cutting facility, used above hobby scale, that
doesn't have this!

Per.



To quote Tim de Paravicini:

"I do ensure that the old digital delay lines for Varigroove are not used.
Most of the stuff cut nowadays is constant pitch anyway, so we dispense
with
that sort of thing"

Discuss :-)


Tim is a well-known 'off the wall' extremist who restores ancient
all-valve tape recorders. Not to be regarded as 'above hobby scale'.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering


A hobby indeed. Pink Floyd happily uses Tim's modified equipment aboard
Astoria Sound Studios


They (Guthrie) also use Shakti Stones. Alas, recording engineers
aren't necessarily *sceintifically minded*. Or even *engineering-minded*.


Ry Cooder also achieved Grammy winning recordings via T de P's work
refer also Water Lily, Chesky, Island Records and many others who have
produced excellent results thanks to Tim's work.. He modifies a
variety
of valve equipment not just 'ancient all-valve tape recorders' as valve
equipment is still used in some studios as are valve microphones. Yes
I knew Tim, eccentric yes but 'off the wall' extremist are very harsh
words. Tim's work is respected in many quarters. T Mike



There's an awful lot of unexamined premises floating around in many
quarters of the high end. An *awful* lot of people who think 'I hear it'
is sufficient proof that 'it' is real. Though of course it's easy to
demonstrate quite the contrary.



  #138   Report Post  
jeffc
 
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"Per Stromgren" wrote in message
...

And I still wonder what this fear of digital is? Vinyl sounds like
vinyl, whatever fed it, analog tape or a digital memory.


Vinyl has a chance of being purely analog throughout the reproduction chain,
CD does not.
  #139   Report Post  
Steven Sullivan
 
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chung wrote:
jeffc wrote:
"Chung" wrote in message
...

I would surmise, based on your posts, that Stewart understands a lot more
about good vinyl sound, and that he is a lot less biased, than you.



What exactly do you think I'm biased about?


How about this very first sentence in your first post in this thread:


"Technically, digital is crude compared to vinyl, because vinyl is
analog which is pure." To say that vinyl is "pure" totally ignores the
degradations introduced to the signals, and shows bias towards vinyl
technology.


In fact, based on your posts, you have really contributed zero, or
worse, negatively, on this thread. Funny that you should accuse Stewart
of not contributing.


I hope he's not suggesting that the grooves inscribed in a slab of *vinyl*
are 'pure' representations of the original sound wave, simply because they
are wave-shaped too...because that would be absurd.
  #140   Report Post  
 
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chung wrote:
Per Stromgren wrote:
On 4 Jul 2005 19:37:56 GMT, wrote:


1. RTI
2. Stan Ricker

The question for you is can you name any audiophile mastering engineers
that are converting analog master tapes to digital these days.


I did not say that! I said that there is digital delay line in the
cutter! You have to pretty extreme in your fear of digital conversions
to give up that. And be *very* sure that you haven't had any digital
signals in your source chain.

Stan Ricker is an interesting example, by the way. From SRM:S web
page:

"SRM USES THE MOST UP-TO-DATE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY " (Stan own use of
case.) We don't now what he uses it for, of course. Accounting?

"THIS SYSTEM IS WIRED WITH CARDAS CABLE FOR LOW DISTORTION,WIDE-BAND
AUDIO, AND SHAKTI RF ABSORBERS FOR BEST POSSIBLE SIGNAL-TO-NOISE
RATIO."

Yep. Shakti RF Absorbers.

Per.


And I still wonder what this fear of digital is? Vinyl sounds like
vinyl, whatever fed it, analog tape or a digital memory.

Per.


I often wonder the same thing. Why the militant stance, among the
vinylphiles, against digital in general and CD in particular,




What militant stance would that be? Are you really reading the posts by
those who prefer LP playback? Can you cite one militant stance taken by
any such posters?



and why
such reluctance to accept euphonic distortion and other psychological
precertion factors as basis for preference?




Interesting question. I wonder why the people who claim the preference
is due to euphonic distortions consistantly fail to cite any research
that supports their claim. If my preference were the result of
"euphonic distortions" I would not feel any different about those
preferences. Actually I would want those who produce CDs and LPs to
figure out what is going on and use that information to continue to
produce LPs and CDs that sound more life like to me.



Just accept the digital (CD
and hi-rez) as the technically superior medium, and understand that
there is more to a recording than the medium.




Technical superiority has no meaning without a reference. So long as my
reference is the sound of live music and Lps continue to to better job
of getting me closer to that sound more often than not I have no
interest in this alleged technical superiority. It isn't technically
superior if it doesn't do a better job of serving it's purpose. But I
will say this, CDs have improved tremendously since they first hit the
market. but IMO that is *not* due to the people who have defended that
medium on the basis of specs but due to the eforts of people who heard
the short-comings from the get go and decided they would do something
about it. The irony is that the folks who prefered vinyl were the ones
most instrumental in the improvements in CDs. If everyone acepted the
false notion that we had perfect sound forever from the begining there
would have been no efforts to make things better. You guys really
should thank vinyl enthusiasts. I doubt it will happen.



Scott Wheeler


  #141   Report Post  
jeffc
 
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wrote in message ...
jeffc wrote:
The fact that you don't even acknowledge that converting to the digital
domain and back to analog is a fundamental problem,


It's not a problem at all. We can convert to digital and back and wind
up with something that's audibly indistinguishable from the original.
That would be a fact.


Yes, we *can* fool some of the people some of the time, so it's a fact in
that sense. But it's hardly a strong or compelling statement when worded
that way, is it? Digital is a great medium in many ways, far better than
analog vinyl in many ways. That doesn't change the *fact* that converting
to digital and back to analog is an inherent, fundamental design problem
when pursuing perfect sound reproduction. I've heard plenty of digital
recordings that are crap, precisely and specifically because they are
digital. I've also heard some that I can't distinguish from the original.
That doesn't change the fact mentioned above.
  #142   Report Post  
josko
 
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"Helen Schmidt" wrote in message
...

The objectivist also believes that merely suggesting vinyl or analog
stimulates more lifelike musical percepts is to introduce an
unnecessary mystery.


Not at all. There are good reasons why some audiophiles prefer vinyl to
CDs, some of them technical (for example added distortions, poor
transfer of old masters onto CDs early on...), some of them
psychological (too numerous to mention here).


What the objectivist fails to realize is that
there is nothing wrong about introducing a theory which also
introduces a mystery,...


No mystery here.

....when the data leads in that direction. And the
data from careful introspection most definitely leads in that
direction. It is simply the arbitrary choice of the objectivist to
reject this data a priori.


Who is going to analyze this introspective data? Those who gave it?
Objectivists only have problem with introspective data when such data
clashes with physical reality, which mostly is *not* the case when
somebody tries to explain his/her preference for vinyl over CDs, unless
he or she argues his/her position with arguments that are simply wrong
from an engineering point of view (for example, vinyl has infinite
resolution). Would you accept the introspective data that says, for
example, that a silver speaker cable is "sounds better" than a copper
speaker cable of the same construction?

  #143   Report Post  
 
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Steven Sullivan wrote:
Per Stromgren wrote:
On 4 Jul 2005 19:37:56 GMT, wrote:



1. RTI
2. Stan Ricker

The question for you is can you name any audiophile mastering engineers
that are converting analog master tapes to digital these days.


I did not say that! I said that there is digital delay line in the
cutter! You have to pretty extreme in your fear of digital conversions
to give up that. And be *very* sure that you haven't had any digital
signals in your source chain.


Stan Ricker is an interesting example, by the way. From SRM:S web
page:


"SRM USES THE MOST UP-TO-DATE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY " (Stan own use of
case.) We don't now what he uses it for, of course. Accounting?


"THIS SYSTEM IS WIRED WITH CARDAS CABLE FOR LOW DISTORTION,WIDE-BAND
AUDIO, AND SHAKTI RF ABSORBERS FOR BEST POSSIBLE SIGNAL-TO-NOISE
RATIO."


Yep. Shakti RF Absorbers.


Per.



And I still wonder what this fear of digital is? Vinyl sounds like
vinyl, whatever fed it, analog tape or a digital memory.


Ricker has a Bachelor's in Music Education...but I see no evidence of
engineering or science eduction. This is ever so common among recording
'engineers'...including lots of famous ones like Ricker.



Maybe scientists aren't the best candidates for recording engineers. No
wait, Atkinson was a degree in science and hes a pretty darned god
recording engineer.



So their
advocacy of Shakti products can be distinguished from superstition
*how...?




If he had a degree in science it would not be a superstition in your
opinion? Hmmm where does that leave you with Atkinson and his beliefs
in audio?







Scott Wheeler
  #144   Report Post  
Ban
 
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wrote:

Stan Ricker is an interesting example, by the way. From SRM:S web
page:

"SRM USES THE MOST UP-TO-DATE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY " (Stan own use of
case.) We don't now what he uses it for, of course. Accounting?

"THIS SYSTEM IS WIRED WITH CARDAS CABLE FOR LOW DISTORTION,WIDE-BAND
AUDIO, AND SHAKTI RF ABSORBERS FOR BEST POSSIBLE SIGNAL-TO-NOISE
RATIO."

Yep. Shakti RF Absorbers.

Per.


And I still wonder what this fear of digital is? Vinyl sounds like
vinyl, whatever fed it, analog tape or a digital memory.

Per.


I often wonder the same thing. Why the militant stance, among the
vinylphiles, against digital in general and CD in particular,




What militant stance would that be? Are you really reading the posts
by those who prefer LP playback? Can you cite one militant stance
taken by any such posters?



and why
such reluctance to accept euphonic distortion and other psychological
precertion factors as basis for preference?




Interesting question. I wonder why the people who claim the preference
is due to euphonic distortions consistantly fail to cite any research
that supports their claim. If my preference were the result of
"euphonic distortions" I would not feel any different about those
preferences. Actually I would want those who produce CDs and LPs to
figure out what is going on and use that information to continue to
produce LPs and CDs that sound more life like to me.



Just accept the digital (CD
and hi-rez) as the technically superior medium, and understand that
there is more to a recording than the medium.




Technical superiority has no meaning without a reference. So long as
my reference is the sound of live music and Lps continue to to better
job of getting me closer to that sound more often than not I have no
interest in this alleged technical superiority. It isn't technically
superior if it doesn't do a better job of serving it's purpose. But I
will say this, CDs have improved tremendously since they first hit the
market. but IMO that is *not* due to the people who have defended that
medium on the basis of specs but due to the eforts of people who heard
the short-comings from the get go and decided they would do something
about it. The irony is that the folks who prefered vinyl were the ones
most instrumental in the improvements in CDs. If everyone acepted the
false notion that we had perfect sound forever from the begining there
would have been no efforts to make things better. You guys really
should thank vinyl enthusiasts. I doubt it will happen.


Scott, I have been working in recording studios since 1975 and I have seen
the advent of digital studio gear. EMT was making a reverb unit in '74 for
the price of a nice car. All good studios were immediately buying it,
because how could have Pink Floyd, Genesis, Kraftwerk etc. have got this
sound on their records without it? Before we were using big steel plates 2m
x 1.25m size, a smaller gold-foil reverb and even torsion springs for this
purpose. There was also some alley in the cellar with a loudspeaker and
mikes.
The digital reverb sounded so much better and was incedibly versatile, that
we rarely used the other methods at all any more, and so did every studio.
And the same happened with the 24 track 2" tape machines. Beautiful
craftmanship by MCI, every track had also a dbx noise reduction module.
Every week I calibrated the two 24tracks, of which 2 or 3 tracks were not at
spec and unstable, we used these tracks for auxiliary things like handclaps
for the rhythm and fader automation or synch-tracks.
With the digital recording all these imperfections disappeared, you didn't
need the technician any more and in everybody's eyes the recording quality
improved a lot.
So I can guarantee that 100% of the recording studios were using at least
one digitally working piece of gear since 1975.
And we were well aware of the shortcomings of digital, studio ownwers are
known to be utterly conservative. But with the digital you suddenly heard
the A/C, the room imperfections much more clear, all this was usually buried
in the tape noise. With 20dB more dynamic range a lot of details showed up.
Isolation had to be increased for better sound proofing. In fact the whole
studio was renewed, new concepts (LEDE) showed up, a technological
revolution was triggered by digital.
And the same is true for live acts, the sound has so much improved, and
still digital sound processing is a growing art, a challenge to develop
algorithms. Maybe someone comes up with a good phono simulation, and in a
DBT nobody can distinguish between a record player and the simulation. :-))
--
ciao Ban
Bordighera, Italy
  #146   Report Post  
Ed Seedhouse
 
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On 5 Jul 2005 03:48:52 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:

wrote in message ...
jeffc wrote:
The fact that you don't even acknowledge that converting to the digital
domain and back to analog is a fundamental problem,


It's not a problem at all. We can convert to digital and back and wind
up with something that's audibly indistinguishable from the original.
That would be a fact.


Yes, we *can* fool some of the people some of the time, so it's a fact in
that sense.


Actually it's a fact because it is a proven theorum of mathematics. No
amount of hand waving or name calling can change that.


Ed Seedhouse,
Victoria, B.C.
  #147   Report Post  
Chung
 
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jeffc wrote:
"chung" wrote in message
...

I would surmise, based on your posts, that Stewart understands a lot more
about good vinyl sound, and that he is a lot less biased, than you.


What exactly do you think I'm biased about?


How about this very first sentence in your first post in this thread:

"Technically, digital is crude compared to vinyl, because vinyl is analog
which is pure." To say that vinyl is "pure" totally ignores the
degradations introduced to the signals, and shows bias towards vinyl
technology.


Excuse me? That's a non-sequitur, and you're just looking for monsters
under the bed. Any rational person could deduce from my post that I meant
CD undergoes a transformation from analog to digital back to analog,
therefore it's not pure analog, whereas lots of good vinyl is. What on
earth could you possibly have thought I meant by "pure"?


And, pray tell, what is "pure" in the vinyl process? Let's examine the
signal chain and the many transformations that take place:

1. Sound waves picked up by microphones. This is a transformation from
mechanical energy to electrical energy. Frequency response errors,
distortion and noise are added.

2. Microphone outputs are processed by mixers, equalizers and
compressors. Frequency response errors, distortion and noise are added.

3. Output is stored on analog magnetic tape. Analog voltages are
transformed to magnetization of particles on tapes. Frequency response
errors, distortion and noise are added. By the way, magnetic particles
are discrete, and not continuous, as you expect "analog" to be.

4. Tape is replayed and output to cutter via non-linear amplifiers.
Magnetic orientation of particles are transformed into voltages, which
subsequently get transoformed to mechanical energy (heat) to deform the
disc master. Frequency response errors, distortion and noise are added.
Due to limitations of cutters, certain compromises such as bass summing
to mono are made. RIAA equalization is also intentionally applied.

5. Master is used to make LP copies. This is a mechanical step where
tolerances result in frequency response errors, distortion and noise.

6. Cartridge picks up groove modulations in the LP during playback.
Mechanical energy is once again transformed into electrical energy, and
frequency response errors, distortion and noise are added.

7. Preamp amplifies tiny voltages from cartridge, and reverse RIAA
equalization is now applied. From this point on, the signal is amplified
linearly by amplifiers such that there is sufficient power to drive the
transducers: speakers or headphones.

8. Speakers transform electrcial energy to magnetic energy to move
drivers, and drivers' mechanical motions get transformed into
time-varying air pressure that the ear detects as sound. Frequency
response errors, distortion and noise are added.

So once again, given that there are these multiple transformations from
one type of energy to another, with the unavoidable errors introduced,
how can you call vinyl playback "pure"? What is so magical about keeping
things in the analog domain?
  #149   Report Post  
Stewart Pinkerton
 
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On 4 Jul 2005 18:51:37 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:

"Chung" wrote in message
...

I would surmise, based on your posts, that Stewart understands a lot more
about good vinyl sound, and that he is a lot less biased, than you.


What exactly do you think I'm biased about?


For one thing, the so-called 'purity' of vinyl, which doesn't
withstand even the most cursory examination.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
  #150   Report Post  
Stewart Pinkerton
 
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On 5 Jul 2005 03:46:50 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:

"chung" wrote in message
...

I would surmise, based on your posts, that Stewart understands a lot more
about good vinyl sound, and that he is a lot less biased, than you.


What exactly do you think I'm biased about?


How about this very first sentence in your first post in this thread:

"Technically, digital is crude compared to vinyl, because vinyl is analog
which is pure." To say that vinyl is "pure" totally ignores the
degradations introduced to the signals, and shows bias towards vinyl
technology.


Excuse me? That's a non-sequitur, and you're just looking for monsters
under the bed. Any rational person could deduce from my post that I meant
CD undergoes a transformation from analog to digital back to analog,
therefore it's not pure analog, whereas lots of good vinyl is. What on
earth could you possibly have thought I meant by "pure"?


That argument has already beeen deconstructed, as I showed that vinyl
undergoes at least six fundamental transformations of form between the
original performance soundfield and your speakers. You seem not to
understand the meaning of the tern 'analogue'.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering


  #151   Report Post  
Stewart Pinkerton
 
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On 4 Jul 2005 18:52:01 GMT, wrote:

Chung wrote:
jeffc wrote:
"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...

You're just attempting to trot out the worn-out and snobbish old "if
you prefer CD, that's because you've never heard top-class LP"
argument, which simply doesn't wash. Lots of audiophiles with
extensive experience of top-class LP playback prefer CD. That being
the case, there's no need to search for any mechanism which causes LP
to be 'more lifelike', because it simply isn't for most listeners.

For example, I prefer CD most of the time. The fact remains, you view
things in black and white when they don't exist that way, you've been wrong
about half of the stuff you've written in this thead,


I'm realluy curious here. Which are "half of the stuff" Stewart
Pinkerton wrote that you considered wrong, and which are the other "half
of the stuff" he wrote that you considered right?



I don't know about the ratios but if you want a list of things Stewart
said that are factually wrong just in this thread.
1."The reconstruction filter ensures that the output is a smooth curve,
following the original bandwidth-limited input signal *exactly*, not
approximately." Fact is it can never be "exact."


Fact is it *is* exact in theory. Had you been honest enough to quote
my entire statement on this, you'd have noted that I went on to point
out that any lack of exactness in practice, is due to the *analogue*
components of the system - and occasionally to the algorithms in use,
depending on the amount of computational power available in the
equipment. It remains the case that there is *no* theoretical
'fundamental flaw' in digital, unlike vinyl.

2. "Purity however implies unsullied, and vinyl is seriously sullied by
surface noise, by rolled-off and summed to mono bass, by inner groove
distortion, by midrange phase problems, and by severe harmonic
distortion. Vinyl is 'pure'? I think not.......... " While bass is
commonly summed i is not aways summed, severe harmonic distortion? B.S.
Bass rolled off? Balony that is not an inherent limitation of vinyl so
long as we are limmiting our discussion to the audible bandwidth.


These are all features of 99.9% of commercial vinyl. Only a very few
extreme audiophile LPs have not rolled off the bass (think Sheffield
Drum and Track records, of less than 8 minutes per side duration!),
while even they still summed the bass to mono, to avoid total loss of
groove depth. Plus of course 'severe harmonic distortion' most
certainly is a feature of vinyl, with levels a hundred or more times
higher than CD.

Midrang phase problems/ I'd like to see the evidence that Lp has
inherent audible "midrange phase poblems."


Why do you think LP sounds 'airier' than CD?

3."No, analogue has a single meaning, which you appear not to
undertstand." that's a good one. Main Entry: [1]an?a?logue Variant(s):
or an.a.log /'a-n&l-"og, -"?g/ Function: noun Etymology: French
analogue, from analogue analogous, from Greek analogos Date: 1826 1 :
something that is analogous or similar to something else 2 : an organ
similar in function to an organ of another animal or plant but
different in structure and origin 3 : usually analog : a chemical
compound that is structurally similar to another but differs slightly
in composition (as in the replacement of one atom by an atom of a
different element or in the presence of a particular functional group)
4 : a food product made by combining a less expensive food (as soybeans
or whitefish) with additives to give the appearance and taste of a more
expensive food (as beef or crab) Seems it has at least four
definitions.


As do many words, but the *primary* definition you list is the one
which applies to audio. Note that *none* of the above definitions has
anything to do with vinyl, which is a very *poor* analogue of the
master tape signal.......

As ever, you have more interest in semantics than in honest debate of
sound quality.

5. "The electrical signal coming from the microphone(s) is an analogue
of the original soundfield." Thats a good one. A soundfield is a three
dimensional space yet the signals from the mic are one dimensional.


Depends on the microphone(s). As already noted elsewhere, have you not
heard of the Calrec Soundfield microphone? There are several mic
arrangemnents which will capture the full stereophonic soundfield
(stereophonic in the sense of 'solid sound' rather than two-channel).

Amplitude either goes up or down. It's a gross error in fact.


So does the amplitude of the original soundfield, so you are the one
who is committing gross errors of fact here.......

6. "*all*
new music recordings are digital by definition, whether purchased on
black or silver discs." This one is the king of factual errors on this
thread. Turns out that this is a load of nonsense. One would have to be
pretty oblivious of the state of audiophile LP mastering to make such a
gross error.


A *gross* error? Hardly. While it's true that a few extremists such as
Tim de Paravicini do eschew digital delay lines in vinyl mastering, my
comment certainly applies to much more than 90% of current vinyl
production. BTW, the great Stan Ricker ( from whom you claimed to have
e-mail) uses a Sonec Compudisk computer with a digital delay line as
an integral part of his LP mastering facility. Note this from Part 3
of his very lengthy interview on 'enjoythemusic.com':

"Now, what's interesting about the way this cutting system is set up
is that I could do direct to disk with preview because one of the
integral parts of it is this digital delay unit which is 50 kilohertz,
20 bit sampling made by Yamaha. It has adjustable delay, in stereo,
of up to 5 secs, adjustable to the 100th of a millisecond. The lathe
requires a 1200 millisecond delay for doing a 45 cut at 33. This is in
addition to the delay built into the Compudisk computer itself. "

Doesn't sound very 'analogue' to me.........

Now I could go on and on but the day is short and the
thread is long. This is just from Stewart's first four posts. Stewart
has made 23 posts so far and at a rate of 1 1/2 factual rrors per post
(assuming he didn't get any better) I can see how someone would
genrealize and claim that half his stuff is just plain wrong.


Of course you can - because your claims are as spurious as ever!
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
  #152   Report Post  
Stewart Pinkerton
 
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On 4 Jul 2005 15:25:03 GMT, "Mike Gilmour"
wrote:

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On 3 Jul 2005 17:43:08 GMT, "Mike Gilmour"
wrote:

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...


I can often hear tape hiss in quiet passages, and particularly if it's
faded out between tracks, but it's generally *below* the surface
noise. As you'd expect.


I find the opposite that tape hiss is considerably above that of the
records
surface noise, fade out between tracks is very clearly heard.


Given that surface noise is *never* more than 75dB below peak cutting
level, even on ridiculously 'hot' cuts, that suggests that you listen
to pretty noisy masters! :-)



Measurements on
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/...CDformats2.php
range from -84dB around 1kHz to -96dB around 10 Khz for a mass produced LP
bought at a 'thrift' store for 1$,
you'll see the measurements of quality MSFL vinyl are considerably better,
as expected.


That rubbish by Christine Tam was already blasted in this forum for
its technical incompetence. Those numbers are only applicable for
*narrow band* measurements, not for the standard wideband noise floor
measurement, which in *fact* gave a figure of 45.7 dB for the wideband
dynamic range of the LP, against 65dB for the CD.

BTW, Scott might like this quote from the same page as you are
selectively quoting:

"Now clearly LP loses out in dynamic range, even against the CD
recording (by comparing the figures in the Maximum - Minimum RMS Power
row). This is to be expected, given the surface noise on LP (which is
quite audible on my system). "

combination of stylus profile, cartridge quality, machine cleaned vinyl
and
high-end phono stage.


None of this can overcome the basic level of surface roughness
exhibited by even the very best 'virgin' vinyl. This is not a matter
of opinion - it's readily measurable.


It would be helpful if you actually managed to substantiate claims via your
own or others research rather than making broad sweeping statements.


The Christine Tam article actually demonstrates this quite
effectively, if you avoid selective quoting and her misinterpretations
in support of her own vinyl bias.

I do have valve hiss but this is barely discernable
by ear due selected low noise signal valves.
I'm really surprised that you find the reverse to be true.


I'm really surprised that you seem to have no well-recorded LPs....


That statement is groundless as I have collected quality recordings for over
40 years owning a large collection of well recorded LP's including many
Mercurys and UHQR's. I suggest you research verifiable measurements
relative to high end vinyl systems before making such extraordinary
statemernts.


Nothing extraordinary about it. I doubt even Stan Ricker would suggest
that tape hiss is higher than surface noise on any of his masters.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
  #154   Report Post  
Stewart Pinkerton
 
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On 4 Jul 2005 18:52:45 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...


The only bias I can see comes from the 'subjectivists', who make
claims for vinyl that simply have *no* evidential support whatever.
There is also widespread ignorance of how digital actually works, and
you appear to be one of the main culprits in this regard.


The fact that you don't even acknowledge that converting to the digital
domain and back to analog is a fundamental problem,


It's not. Shame that you still fail to understand this, despite
comprehensive explanations.

and doesn't occur in
most of the best vinyl recordings,


You have absolutely *zero* evidence for that ridiculous claim.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
  #155   Report Post  
Stewart Pinkerton
 
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On 5 Jul 2005 03:48:52 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:

wrote in message ...
jeffc wrote:


Digital is a great medium in many ways, far better than
analog vinyl in many ways. That doesn't change the *fact* that converting
to digital and back to analog is an inherent, fundamental design problem
when pursuing perfect sound reproduction.


Utter rubbish, most certainly *not* a fact, and you even admit it
below. Sheesh!

I've heard plenty of digital
recordings that are crap, precisely and specifically because they are
digital. I've also heard some that I can't distinguish from the original.
That doesn't change the fact mentioned above.


Had you a logical bone in your head, you would realise what a
ridiculous contradiction you just stated.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering


  #156   Report Post  
Stewart Pinkerton
 
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On 4 Jul 2005 18:54:44 GMT, Billy Shears wrote:

In article ,
Marc Foster wrote:

"Reconstruction filter", you say? What is that needed for? Did something
change from the original signal? If you can't follow that analogy, then
you're simply not thinking abstractly enough. No one is saying vinyl
doesn't distort the analog signal. And I have not even said the ultimate
analog signal coming from the CD player is worse than the signal coming
from
the phono stage. I am saying digital technology has a fundamental design
flaw, and that is that the signal is distorted on purpose. It's inherent
in
the technology. Whether the end result is more faithful to the original
signal is beside the point.


As others have pointed out, you simply don't understand how digital
sampling and playback works. If you are asking why a reconstruction
filter is needed, that is absolute proof of your lack of knowledge. Two
required parts of a digital system are a band limiting filter on the
input to the ADC to eliminate frequency components above 1/2 the
sampling frequency and a band limiting filter on the output of the DAC
(called a reconstruction filter). If you properly implement both
filters the output will be exactly the input.


Not exactly the input. Perhaps exactly the input below 22khz.


Which part of "a band limiting filter on the input to the ADC to
eliminate frequency components above 1/2 the sampling frequency'' did
you fail to understand? CD is only one digital standard.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
  #157   Report Post  
Stewart Pinkerton
 
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On 4 Jul 2005 22:23:09 GMT, "Helen Schmidt"
wrote:

The objectivist also believes that merely suggesting vinyl or analog
stimulates more lifelike musical percepts is to introduce an
unnecessary mystery. What the objectivist fails to realize is that
there is nothing wrong about introducing a theory which also
introduces a mystery, when the data leads in that direction. And the
data from careful introspection most definitely leads in that
direction. It is simply the arbitrary choice of the objectivist to
reject this data a priori.


No, it is the arbitrary choice of that tiny minority who prefer vinyl
to reject majority opinion, and insist that there *must* be a
mysterious mechanism, despite being told of several obvious and
already known mechanisms likely to underlie their opinion. This is
actually nothing to do with 'objective vs subjective', it has to do
with desperate self-justification and defence of a minority position.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
  #158   Report Post  
 
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Stewart Pinkerton wrote:
On 4 Jul 2005 18:52:45 GMT, "jeffc" wrote:

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...


The only bias I can see comes from the 'subjectivists', who make
claims for vinyl that simply have *no* evidential support whatever.
There is also widespread ignorance of how digital actually works, and
you appear to be one of the main culprits in this regard.


The fact that you don't even acknowledge that converting to the digital
domain and back to analog is a fundamental problem,


It's not. Shame that you still fail to understand this, despite
comprehensive explanations.

and doesn't occur in
most of the best vinyl recordings,


You have absolutely *zero* evidence for that ridiculous claim.



Have you not learned your lesson yet Stew? Do you need a list of all
the records with superb sound that did not go through a A/D D/A
conversion? hee is a bief and limited overview. The entire catalogue of
the great Mercury, Decca, EMI, and RCA classical recordings from their
golden eras, the entire LP catalogs from Sheffield, Reference
recordings, Performance Recordings, Wilson audio, Waterlily, the entire
catalogs of Blu Note and Riverside jazz from their golden eras, the LP
reissues from APO, Classic, Cisco, Spakers corner, Testiment, Chesky,
MFSL, Audio Fidelity, S&P, DCC, etc. etc. There's your proof. Do with
it as yo please. Didn't you say you own many of these LPs? How could
you claim there is no evidence if you made such a claim?



Scott Wheeler
  #159   Report Post  
Helen Schmidt
 
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Stewart Pinkerton wrote:
On 3 Jul 2005 15:48:31 GMT, "Helen Schmidt"
wrote:


Personally, the reason it matters to me is the effect on new people
entering the hi-fi field, and kids growing up and starting to learn
about audio. They hear the adults and the more experienced people
assert things about the world, and they are influenced by that. A kid
might hear an explanation of why format XYZ is superior to format ABC,
and he might internalize this assertion, and (and this is key) he
might take this explanation to be a truth about his *subjective*
experience. People are prone to taking objective statements and
thinking they define in some way subjective truth.


If I drop an anvil on your head from twenty feet up, it *will* do you
severe damage, and will probably kill you. This doesn't require much
in the way of philosophical argument or 'subjective internalisation'.



This is so irrelevant it's obvious you don't have a clue about the way
people take objective statements as some kind of statement about
subjective truth. As I've said, my purpose here is not to change
anyone's mind about digital. It is not to provide technical
justification for analog. It is this: to show how the objectivist's use
of language and their worldview is merely their choice; it is merely
their *opinion* that their worldview will lead to better audio; it is
merely their *opinion* that "audio is engineering" and most definitely
not a fact of nature; and that they are doing harm by throwing this
opinion around as though it were a fact.


Later, Jenn wrote:

OF COURSE they are above the thresholds of human hearing, or I wouldn't
be able to hear them. I'm also fairly pretty confident that you
wouldn't be able to hear what I hear.


Stewart replied:

Now, exactly what gives you reason to think that?


Stewart is so focused on the low level details he has a hard time even
acknowledging the existence of the higher level. It's *obvious* that a
highly trained conductor like Jenn can hear things Stewart
can't.


Is it? In terms of fidelity to an original live performance? Why?


Apparently I need to explain something basic about music to you. The
qualities of musical details are inseparable from the meaning of the
music. A trumpet player produces a certain tone quality not because he
likes it, but because that tone quality supports the expression
inherent to the music at that moment in time. A conductor doesn't just
notice that the hall ambience sounds "nice"--he sets tempo, balance,
and articulation so that three work together with the ambience to
convey his musical intentions.

Change any of these details, and you change the meaning of the
music. A recording engineer can hear how a certain choice of
microphone changes the qualities of details--but Jenn can observe with
much greater precision whether those changes support or hinder her
expressive intentions.


It is the purpose of a conductor to maximise the musical value of a
live performance. It is the purpose of a recording engineer (given
that we're talking about a 'live' recording) to capture the musical
integrity of a live performance and deliver that to the mixdown master
tape. Which person would you consider to be more aware of the
fundamentals of the *reproduction* of music?


You are thinking like an engineer--which is fine if you are doing
engineering, but you need to understand where your habits of thought
lead you astray. You want to divide the task and apply
specialization, which is normal for an engineer.

*Hearing* (not in the sense of picking up sound, but in the sense of
noticing patterns) is primary for a conductor. Jenn may have many
*techniques*, but these techniques are all informed by, and exist in
the service of, her careful listening to sound. Any musician could
tell you that the ability to listen is primary. This is something
often misunderstood by non-musicians: that musicians develop certain
techniques which they simply repeat. Actually everything a musician
does is informed by hearing in the moment.

Hearing is also primary to the recording engineer. The recording
engineer has much technique, but it is all informed by his hearing in
the moment--his ability to hear and respond to what he hears.

As I said above, the qualities of details are inseperable from the
meaning of the music. So you cannot make a hard distinction between
the recording engineer's job and the musician's job. Given a choice of
two recordings A and B, the recording engineer may find A to be closer
to life, while Jenn may find B to be closer to her musical
intentions. The perspective of the recording engineer may match yours,
but almost surely Jenn's perspective better matches what I listen for
in a recording.

It is your mistaken assumption that the sound qualities are separate
from the musical meaning.


Someone operating under the level transfer fallacy thinks that
a pattern merely needs to be above the threshold of hearing to be
perceivable.


It must be nice to be able to assign failure on the basis of a
terminology you just made up.

Later, someone (I think Mark DeBellis) wrote:

But there is training and there is training. There are lots of
different things on which one can focus attention, and some are more
musically significant than others. I'd be inclined to give a lot of
weight (at least initially) to Jenn's sense of what to listen *for*.


Stewart replied:

I wouldn't, as she's listening for faults in the *performance*, not
in the sound quality per se. I'm not saying that she isn't well
trained and a good listener, just that her specific training gives
her no special advantage in terms of live vs recorded sound.


Again Stewart is implying her level of perception is not useful in
discriminating live and recorded sound.. very telling that he uses the
word "sound" and not "music," because again he is working on just the
lowest level. The level transfer fallacy and the subjective
composition fallacy is what leads Stewart to think that this level is
more fundamental.


You are making assumptions here which have no basis in reality. The
recorded sound is *more* than the music, not less. It includes hall
ambience, audience noise, all the subtle cues that divide the original
performance from the recording. I suggest that it's Jenn who is
operating on the simpler level here.............



Very telling that you include among your list of extra-musical things
"the hall ambience." You have no understanding whatsoever of how hall
ambience works together with tempo, articulation, and balance to
convey the musical intention.

Also, you have habits of language which keep leading you astray. You
mention the "recorded sound has more than the music.." In comparing
"more, less, higher level, lower level" I'm not
talking about the signal on the recording. I'm talking about what is
in the minds of the conductor and the recording engineer, what is
inside their subjective experiences. They certainly have different
things in mind, and Jenn almost certainly has a higher-level
perspective on how the details work together to make the music.

There is no comparison between how listening to music develops your
ear, and how participating in music-making develops your ear.



Music is Art - Audio is Engineering


I see now how your belief that "audio is engineering" has led you to
create an artificial separation between the listening skills of the
conductor and the listening skills of the recording engineer.

Helen

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Chung wrote:
jeffc wrote:
"chung" wrote in message
...

I would surmise, based on your posts, that Stewart understands a lot more
about good vinyl sound, and that he is a lot less biased, than you.


What exactly do you think I'm biased about?

How about this very first sentence in your first post in this thread:

"Technically, digital is crude compared to vinyl, because vinyl is analog
which is pure." To say that vinyl is "pure" totally ignores the
degradations introduced to the signals, and shows bias towards vinyl
technology.


Excuse me? That's a non-sequitur, and you're just looking for monsters
under the bed. Any rational person could deduce from my post that I meant
CD undergoes a transformation from analog to digital back to analog,
therefore it's not pure analog, whereas lots of good vinyl is. What on
earth could you possibly have thought I meant by "pure"?


And, pray tell, what is "pure" in the vinyl process? Let's examine the
signal chain and the many transformations that take place:

1. Sound waves picked up by microphones. This is a transformation from
mechanical energy to electrical energy. Frequency response errors,
distortion and noise are added.



I suppose this does not happen with CDs? LOL you are grasping at straws
now.




2. Microphone outputs are processed by mixers, equalizers and
compressors. Frequency response errors, distortion and noise are added.



1.See above
2. Tell this to the folks at Sheffield Lab, Reference Recordings,
Waterlily, Performance Recordings. Analog Productions. etc. etc. etc.
Buy yeah, alot of lousy recordings, analog and digital, do go through
all this. How again does the CD avoid this?




3. Output is stored on analog magnetic tape. Analog voltages are
transformed to magnetization of particles on tapes.



Digital information isn't stored on anything?



Frequency response
errors, distortion and noise are added.



Oh really? Whose job is it ti add distortion to the tape?



By the way, magnetic particles
are discrete, and not continuous, as you expect "analog" to be.



So does that make it digital and thus reuire a/d d/a conversions? Or
did you forget that Jeff clarified his claim about purity?




4. Tape is replayed and output to cutter via non-linear amplifiers.



You are grasping again.




Magnetic orientation of particles are transformed into voltages, which
subsequently get transoformed to mechanical energy (heat) to deform the
disc master. Frequency response errors, distortion and noise are added.
Due to limitations of cutters, certain compromises such as bass summing
to mono are made. RIAA equalization is also intentionally applied.

5. Master is used to make LP copies. This is a mechanical step where
tolerances result in frequency response errors, distortion and noise.

6. Cartridge picks up groove modulations in the LP during playback.
Mechanical energy is once again transformed into electrical energy, and
frequency response errors, distortion and noise are added.

7. Preamp amplifies tiny voltages from cartridge, and reverse RIAA
equalization is now applied. From this point on, the signal is amplified
linearly by amplifiers such that there is sufficient power to drive the
transducers: speakers or headphones.



All that and not a single thing that is relative to Jeff's claim.






8. Speakers transform electrcial energy to magnetic energy to move
drivers, and drivers' mechanical motions get transformed into
time-varying air pressure that the ear detects as sound. Frequency
response errors, distortion and noise are added.



Well CD also avoids that as well I suppose. LOL.




So once again, given that there are these multiple transformations from
one type of energy to another, with the unavoidable errors introduced,
how can you call vinyl playback "pure"? What is so magical about keeping
things in the analog domain?




How can you go through all that when Jeff already explained
specifically that he as refering to the fact that analog requires no
*A/D D/A conversion*???




Scott Wheeler
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