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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: I question the premise posted by John Marks on April 22, 2014 at 09:39:43:
For a lot of source material and even more importantly, for many commonly-used microphones, a properly functioning 44.1-kHz converter is all you will need because whatever the Platonic ideal is of the harmonic structure of a trumpet or whatever, many mics aren't catching anything over 20kHz. Lost in the noise.
The reason you go for bandwidth is not because there is material up there but to reduce phase shift.
So, until someone makes a serious stab at blind testing of, for instance, a good concert piano mic'ed using "known good mikes" (choosing at random, AKG 414s in ORTF) and makes one pass at 44.1/16 and one pass at 44.1/20 and one pass at 44.1/24 and then 24/96 and 24/192, and then has a decent playback system and listeners like Michael Fremer who have previously demonstrated the ability to do better than random coin-tossing in public blind testings, there will just be a lot of what I referred to in the April issue of Stereophile as "faith-based chatter" and no rigorous inquiry.
Personally, I go for something as real if I can hear it and verify it with measurement. Consequently I tend spout 'spec-based chatter' instead.
FWIW, one of the most experienced recording and mastering engineers tells me that if the end product is to be a CD, it is far better to record at 44.1/24, because even downconverting from 88.2 "leaves fingerprints."
I find that the elimination of the brick wall filter to be far more important- and so do recordings at 88.2KHz as the resulting Redbook has less phase shift and sound better (less 'digital'). It is easy enough to hear this difference, although usually I am dealing with the raw files in this regard than the final CD.
I have previously expressed my disinclination to take part in faith-based chatter about the sound of vinyl. It has a distinctive, bandwidth-limited mechanically-resonant sound that many people have warm emotional associations with. (As do I. Sealed copies of my JMR 180-gr. Bob Ludwig remastering of "Songs My Mother Taught Me" for over $300.)
I can't speak for all LPs, but most cutting systems have no worries putting 30KHz on the lacquer. We run a Westerex 3D and it goes down well below 20Hz as well (our cutter amps have full power to 2Hz). Your comment about 'mechanically-resonant' is blatantly false- it may be that your playback system has/had faults but that is not something coming from the cutting system. It is true that any cutterhead has a mechanical resonance, but it is also true that there are a variety of techniques for dealing with it, not unlike how you deal with mechanical resonance in a loudspeaker. FWIW this is a common myth associated with vinyl.
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Follow Ups
- RE: I question the premise - Ralph 11:41:56 04/22/14 (0)
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