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