[W^3]

In article ,
Oregonian Haruspex wrote:

On 2013-12-14 00:14:01 +0000, W^3 said:

In article ,
Oregonian Haruspex wrote:

On 2013-12-04 01:07:05 +0000, Arny Krueger said:

Daniel J. Shanefield

http://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/...uaries-112013/

Daniel J. Shanefield, 83, of Honolulu, Hawaii, formerly of Princeton,
died
peacefully November 13 in Honolulu. He had lived in Princeton for 40
years
with his late wife, Libby, before moving to Hawaii in 2006.

Dr. Shanefield worked at ITT Laboratories in Nutley, N.J. until 1967 and
then at Western Electric (later Bell Laboratories) in Hopewell. From 1986
until his retirement in 2001 he was a distinguished professor of ceramic
engineering at Rutgers. Dr. Shanefield also taught ceramic engineering in
the Netherlands every summer for 15 years at the Center for Professional
Advancement. He was associate editor of the Journal of the American
Ceramic
Society from 1989 to 1999.

His hobby was writing about audio for popular magazines. Dr. Shanefield
was
notable for first describing the "equalized double-blind comparison" of
audio components in 1974, the cover story of Stereo Review in May 1976.
This
showed that some perceived differences in sound were being imagined by
the
listeners, especially when expensive equipment was involved. The test is
now
used worldwide for determining whether measurable improvements in music
reproduction equipment are actually audible.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Shanefield

Beginning in the mid-1970s, Shanefield was an early proponent
ofdouble-blind ABX testing of high-end audio electronics; in 1980 he
reported in High Fidelity magazine that there were no audible differences
between several different power amplifiers, setting off what became known
in
audiophile circles as "the great debate".[4]

There really is no debate, is there? I suppose when your magazine is
supported by advertisements for high-end audio equipment there might be.

Well there is still no end to this receiver sounds great, that one
sounds dark, etc, in today's audio (now usually home theater) reviews.

In my own home town, Portland OR, there is a nice high-end audio/home
theater store on the East side. I was able to learn a lot about how
the wireless section of AVR's actually worked. That was valuable
(answer: not like the advertising implied). The sales guy was very
forthcoming. Then there was the spiel at the end: Really, you can't
get the really good sound until you shell out for a megabucks AVR.

I am also a Portlander. I suppose you're talking about that place on
Hawthorne, no?

I seem to get by just fine with a mixing board fed by balanced audio
inputs, and feeding a pair of HS50Ms and a HS10W subwoofer, without any
receiver whatsoever. Then again, I do not wish to play around with
surround sound at this time. If I ever decide to, I will probablly buy
an outboard surround sound decoder such as one of the Dolby units and
integrate it into my setup that way.

I have read the audiophile rags and they amuse me quite a lot. I
especially enjoy the vocabulary. You know what they say, writing about
music (or I guess musical equipment) is like dancing about architecture.

Yes, Fred's Stereo on Hawthorne (sorry for the late response). I do
like Fred's, even with the snake oil, a little bit of old Portland
(rapidly disappearing with the influx of Portlandia watchers and
Chardonnay sippers). Your last sentence, I believe, comes from Frank
Zappa. I do think he was referring to music itself rather than
playback equipment.