Date:         Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:22:06 +0200
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         George Brock-Nannestad <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Aren't recordings original sources?
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From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Hello all, how I hate the subject line even if the content is interesting.

Richard wrote:

............................. 
> I continue to see comments disparaging my use of the phrase "properly 
> designed". I do think that we need to get after manufacturers to 
> properly design equipment so that these synergistic cable effects are 
> minimized. .................................

----- I would like to draw a parallel. For years it was touted that it should 
be impossible to hear a difference between CD decks, because it was all 
digital and hence rock-solid. Some minimized the differences by green-edging 
the CDs, others tried to get jitter-free clock generators. However, it was 
only after Cambridge Audio (UK) discovered and demonstrated that actually 
mechanical vibrations were the cause of the discrepancies that CD decks 
became "properly designed". It had turned out that of the error correction 
available, the CD itself took this much, and varying degrees of errors in 
reading due to simple mechanical took the rest and in many cases even drove 
the error correction to the very audible interpolation.

Another parallel: Otala's discovery of Transient Intermodulation Distortion 
for transistor amplifiers: the effect of feedback loops that were too long 
and hence too slow. Beautiful results on stationary signals, but impossible 
saturation of the first stage on transients. The result was the development 
of local feedback. 

So it is a continuum of development, and it is only when a technology is 
completely discarded (such as coarse-groove 78 rpm) that the foundations that 
that technology was resting on get forgotten, and later generations will not 
be an improvement. There has been no fundamental improvement of coarse-groove 
78 rpm reproduction since 1948, even though later technology has been tweaked 
into service.

Kind regards,


George