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In Reply to: Re: Please help me understand posted by Posy Rorer on April 3, 2007 at 09:24:36:
"We are opening with a steadily growing backlog of demonstrable physical, biological, and psychological anomalies, many of which have been featured in the meetings and journals of this society, and most of which seem incontrovertibly correlated with properties and processes of the human mind, in ways for which our preceding 20th century scientific paradigm has no rational explanations" = advanced audio products (aka "controversial tweaks" as they are known around these parts)I don't like saying this, but I really think until they either fix or undo digitization in consumer audio, such undertaking will be futile, if not useless.
Follow Ups:
Looks like Michael Fremer has got some explaining to do. That's Michael Fremer, uh, you know, the analog fanatic. He wrote in Stereophile that of the 5 best systems he heard at CES, 4 were digital. (Count 'em - 4 out of 5.)And that was five years ago.
I've heard some nice digital systems too. I just think with the problem of digitized audio playback, in regard to how the mind reacts to music, even with the best digital, the compromise is far greater than any tweak could counter.A couple weeks ago, I played a locally-sold LP of Dohnanyi/Cleveland doing the finale of the Schumann 2. I've have a different performance of the same work with the same performers on CD. And even with the inner groove distortion, there is something going on which is the essence of what music is all about- Artistic excellence creating a complex tonal nuance triggering an emotional response that almost cannot be described in words. With the CD, I hear a fine performance, but nothing beyond that. The LP is a Concannon cabernet sauvignon, CD is merely red wine. With all the tweaks for CD playback, it hasn't made a dent in reducing this disparity, which I think has baffled audiophiles and engineers alike.
A great digital recording can close the gap somewhat, but again, it's impossible to restore what's lost. (The problem is for every recording that make me forget vinyl, there are about 30 that make me want to play vinyl.) There's just too much lost. With the best recordings, what's lost is minimized, but it's still substantial.
Off the shelf digital is generally not satisfactory at all. The more we learn about why that is so, the better the medium will be, in terms of detail retrieval and all the rest. However, I am not willing to wait until the fixes are implemented by the manufacturers... ;-)
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