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General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

"Politics is the art of the possible."




Politics is not necessarily a dirty word. In the broadest sense, politics is what enables us to live together in relative civility and not "Omnes in bellum contra omnium."

(Each one at war against everyone.)

Reviewers have to listen to recordings, subjectively to evaluate loudspeakers. To evaluate loudspeakers, you have to make do with what is on recordings--that's the politics of getting along.

Recordings range from acoustical-horn recordings to 20 or more channels, and even with more than one mic per channel. So, the critic puts on a recording and tries in good faith to convey his impressions--we hope, impressions formed by years of experience, study, and self-criticism.

It is tempting to say that a loudspeaker cannot reproduce something that is not on the recording, but, I think that is a wish, rather than a statement of fact.

A loudspeaker's design can on the one hand add a greater sense of reverberant field that most other loudspeakers do; that is easy to prove.

And I would not rule out that a radically different loudsespeaker design might exaggerate initial transients while damping reverb tails sufficiently to give "edge enhancement" (to borrow a video term) to a recording, thereby soaking up some wetness. Wetness that is on the recording, but, now you don't hear it. I can envision that.

On some recordings, the inner lines are laid bare--there are 20 or more different microphones to thank for that--but you might not hear authentic blend.

On other recordings, the orchestra speaks with one voice, but, whether that line is a low clarinet part or a high bassoon part might leave most of us guessing.

What to praise? What to damn?

My peak formative musical experience was the first time that a student orchestra I had just joined tuned up, and I was sitting as the new principal second violin. I was immersed (perhaps Baptized is a better term?) in sound, and I have been trying to understand how THAT works ever since. So this is not at all the first time I have grappled with these issues.

How's this for an interim remedy?

Every audio critic should have one orchestral recording that is unquestionably multi-miked up the wazoo (what ever that means--wazoo that is). I nominate Leopold Stokowski's London Phase 4 "Pictures at an Exhibition" for that.

And every audio critic should also have an iconic Decca Tree three-channel recording, and for that I nominate the Charles Munch BSO Debussy "La Mer."

Play them both, and then try to explain in each case, what the Device Under Test adds or subtracts.

Howdja like them apples?

jm



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