[Gary Eickmeier]

"Audio Empire" wrote in message
...


You've brought-up a good point. When recording digitally, you just don't
want to come too close to that MSB. While a pro analog tape machine can go
over the 0 Vu mark occasionally with little or no consequences, you never
want to do so in digital. Of course, that means that you can set the gain
low
so that peaks never exceed -3 or so on the meters, and if an analog
recording
engineer were watching over your shoulder, he might accuse you of
recording
down in the "mud". Of course digital's wide dynamic range essentially
means
that, especially with 24-bit or DSD, that "down in the mud" comment really
hasn't any meaning. as, even in 16-bit, the "mud" is about 30dB below the
level or magnetic tape. But the dynamic range of an actual musical
performance can exceed even the the range of DSD or 24 or 32-bit PCM.
Whether this has anything to do with reproduced music never being able to
fool you into thinking it's real, I don't know.

Yes - I forgot that there are higher bit systems for recording. In fact, I
have at least one of those, in the form of a Tascam DR-01. The Zoom might
also be able to go up, I forget. I wonder if some sort of compander might be
employed even in digital, so that you can record a huge dynamic range
without fear, then re-expand it upon mastering.


On the Bose 901 front. I have to admit that I haven't heard a pair of 901s
since the early 'Seventies. What I heard then, I didn't like. That
artificially boosted bass (with tape-loop control box), the lack of decent
highs (no tweeters) and the lack of image specificity, really turned me
off.
I suspect that Bose has continued to develop the 901s, and for all I know
they might have improved considerably in the ensuing years. I must make a
point to give the latest ones another listen. So any comments I make about
Bose speakers are about the early generations of these speakers, not the
later models.

Well, certainly they have improved in many ways, such as the surrounds being
more impervious to Florida humidity destroying them. The sound? Perhaps in
the dynamics a little due to refined drivers. But no, you probably would
still not get a good demo of them in any environs except my own home. Even
the company has not learned how to use them properly. I am on the Series VI
now, and the manual still has us putting the speakers a foot or two from the
walls, where mine are pulled out five feet from all walls, a la standard
audiophile practice and IAW Image Model Theory.

The "no highs" accusation because they don't have tweeters (darn it) is
simply not true. I have measured them many times on various occasions, and
they go behond 16k I know. But the beauty of them is that the basic response
does not change as you get louder - all freqs, including the highs, just
keep getting louder and more dynamic, unlike perhaps a ribbon or a Quad
ESL-63 or something.

On the imaging, this is again totally dependent on the positioning of the
speakers, and when you get it right, by accident or by listening to me,
everything comes into focus and you suddenly understand what causes the
imaging qualities that "the big boys" try to charge you the big bucks for
and seldom quite get right. My imaging does not change with frequency and
all sounds come from the same point in space where they originated in the
recording, rather than coming forward with frequency or collapsing to the
speaker grills. The speakers totally disappear and project a soundstage
behind and beside them.

In this latest adventure with them, I noticed something new again - as I
cranked them up more and more, the image layering front to back increased to
an even more realistic degree, i.e. forward sounds came a little further
forward and rearward sounds recessed more, surprisingly. Maybe because I am
hearing deeper into the recording as I turn the gain up.

I wish you could be here. I will have to tear down this system some fine day
around 5 years from now, and in our new apartment none of this will be
possible ever again. If any of you are in Florida please give me a call
863-670-0850.

Gary Eickmeier