On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 05:37:50 GMT, (ludovic
mirabel) wrote:

Yes, I'm sure he heard the name. I did too. I just wonder why
giving a somewhat negatively coloured name should affect sensory
perception.

Simple really. It's distortion, which makes it a bad thing if you are
interested in *high fidelity* music reproduction. It's euphonic, which
means that it sounds pleasant. Hence, some people may well prefer the
effect, but it's still inaccurate. It all depends what you want - a
pleasant sound, or 'the closest approach to the original sound'.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

(Stewart Pinkerton) wrote in message ...
On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 05:37:50 GMT, (ludovic
mirabel) wrote:

Yes, I'm sure he heard the name. I did too. I just wonder why
giving a somewhat negatively coloured name should affect sensory
perception.

Simple really. It's distortion, which makes it a bad thing if you are
interested in *high fidelity* music reproduction. It's euphonic, which
means that it sounds pleasant. Hence, some people may well prefer the
effect, but it's still inaccurate. It all depends what you want - a
pleasant sound, or 'the closest approach to the original sound'.

You can't be serious. You do not really believe that what
arrives at my preamp. is "the original sound".
You know better than I do that it is what the particular
configuration of particular microphones that the particular
audio-enginner happens to believe in hears in a particular
concert-hall. Then our engineer closeted in his little room listens to
whatever is coming at him from his litlle monitor speaker and proceeds
to mix, equalise and shape according to his idea of what the "average
guy with the average set" wants to hear.
And the end-result is the D.G idea of what a symphony orchestra
sounds like.
I then listen to it in my room with my standing waves, my room
reflexions and my better or worse components.
Whereupon I fall on my face and say: "Good Lord, this violin
sounds like someone scratching white chalk on the blackboard. But I
must not touch it- this is what DG wanted me to hear and so be it."
Just kidding: I interpose my Behringer digital equaliser and
fiddle with my JVC X1000P Digital Sound Processor and thank my lucky
stars that I got one when it was still available. They don't make them
any longer. "Original sound" rules.
Ludovic Mirabel

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote
Simple really. It's distortion, which makes it a bad thing if you are
interested in *high fidelity* music reproduction. It's euphonic, which
means that it sounds pleasant. Hence, some people may well prefer the
effect, but it's still inaccurate. It all depends what you want - a
pleasant sound, or 'the closest approach to the original sound'.

There is an argument to be made for "a pleasant sound". I have heard
systems described as "accurate" that were not at all pleasant. I imagine
that a perfect system would so closely approach the original sound that it
would satisfy both the soul of the listener and whatever is satisfied by
accuracy. My hope of attaining that perfect system is ZERO, so I have to
compromise. I have to compromise on the components that I use (because of
cost), the room that I use (because of cost) and the software that I use
(because the music I like may or may not be available well recorded) so if I
could be certain it would be a sufficiently pleasant system I would happily
compromise in that direction.
I could justify this by saying that I want the sound not for itself
but for the effect, and tI'd accept an inaccurate effect that is as much
enjoyment as the original sound. If the desired effect were to create a
measurably closer approach to the original sound for whatever end that would
serve I might prefer a "better" system that was not so enjoyable. I wish I
did not have to consider compromise, but I do and if I have to err let it be
on the side of enjoyment. For example, we all know that x dollars spent on
a system that would satisfy a listener of chamber music would purchase a
system that a rock and roll kid would incinerate in a matter of minutes.
And that the system that would satisfy the kid would not please the chamber
musiocc listener. So almost any system most of us can afford is a
compromise. The problem is figuring out how to go about making the best
compromise.

Wylie Williams