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Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Some Goon posted:

^^^^^^^E: it's perfectly possible to make a lovely DAC.

Oh yeah it is.

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Neurophonic
May 2, 2009
The DBX units are pure overpriced, low functionality trash and sound terrible. If you buy a new unit from them be prepared to modify it internally at a later date.

As much as it might not be ideal, you’d be better off finding a Chinese import. Something from dBmark would be a good shout. There’ll be a seller on eBay somewhere.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

KozmoNaut posted:

I'm sure you have actual proof of this supposedly bad sound quality this time?

You know, something verifiable instead of baseless poo poo slinging?

Yes, I own one of each type. The DR260 was my first LMS, which was 16 years ago. It was old then.

You’re welcome to directly A-B compare them to another unit. The filter maths is bad so the values you enter don’t correlate to other units, it has a very high noise floor, the ‘limiters’ on the PA2 introduce distortion, and I’ve had to solder the mains supply directly to the board for someone on a gig twice in the past.

The Behringer DCX is an infinitely better buy if you’re on a tight budget.

Neurophonic fucked around with this message at 10:25 on Aug 22, 2020

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

KozmoNaut posted:

"Just buy both and A-B test them" is not realistic on a normal person budget.

Funnily enough, the DCX I trialed in my setup had significantly higher noise floor that the Driverack PX. I sent it back to Thomann for that reason. It's a shame, because I would have liked to use that and a DEQ for my setup at the time.

I would like to see measurements and some sort of credible proof of bad math/design, thanks.

E: the reason I ask so pointedly is because I've seen "dbx bad!" repeated so much in pro audio circles that I consider it a meme by now. Yet nobody actually provides any proof, it's always just taken as a given on pure hearsay.

Common noise floor issues with the DCX are just a loose ribbon or contact from the main board to the bottom of the casing. You can fix both with a screwdriver and a bit of cardboard.

The dbx is probably fine if you’re only ever doing low level listening, but as soon as you’re starting to add many filter points you’ll notice the thing seeming to behave weirdly. The main one is the incredibly limited options in terms of filters, and the lack of proper limiting. For the cash, you can do a lot better - even if it is a “no name” Chinese unit.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

KozmoNaut posted:

"This device is so much better, you just need to open it and add some cardboard" is not exactly a ringing endorsement.


If your go-to method is to "add many filter points" in order to solve issues, you're better off fixing those actual issues, rather than patching them over with DSP.

Not sure you've ever used even the PX or the newer models, or you only have experience with the 260 and older. You're mentioning issues that aren't issues anymore.

The "lack of proper limiting" is dbx's OverEasy setting for compressors and limiters. Disable that and it limits like you're used to.

E: but of course, I'm eagerly awaiting some documentation of said horrible issues with the dbx units, which thousands of sound techs seem to still like very much despite all of that. And I can't find a single mention anywhere if this non-limiting limiter-behavior you mention.

EQ and filters are not inherently bad or wrong. It’s also not exactly difficult to implement the basics in a way that is predictable, but they don’t seem to manage that. Does it not strike you as odd that you’re defending a DSP unit that isn’t good at DSP? If you just need a high pass and low pass filter, and no EQ, why buy the unit in the first place?

They’re also not latency compensated at the output stage, so you need to constantly readjust your time alignment if you’re using extra filter points. Even then you have what, two or three per band?

You might want to go over these slide notes from an AES presentation:
https://bennettprescott.com/downloads/DSP_Differences.pdf
There is an article version of the data here:
https://www.bennettprescott.com/downloads/TwoProcessors.pdf

The “filters narrowing as you approach Nyquist” traces are from a dbx DSP.

Also, here’s a photo from one of the dbx DriveRack 360 that I had to replace the mains cabling on for another provider, mid show in Brazil.



One of them was brand new. All of them powered on, but would not pass audio because of a failure in the post-boot preamp check. Of course, this isn’t displayed anywhere, it just doesn’t work.

It’s a well documented issue, and their own support just shrug their shoulders.

The limiters work as a basic non-infinite compressor even with OverEasy disabled. It raises the RMS level very quickly, leading to earlier thermal failure on woofers.

I will say that their iPad app is very nice, but it’s certainly not worth the asking price for that alone.

dbx is another brand that once was great, but now just sits firmly in the overpriced MI grade range. Corner cutting is rife there, sadly. I’m not sure how many “thousands” of engineers outside the weekend warrior level would stand by the dbx as a professional piece of kit now either. It’s not bad, for a hobby system, but there are far better options at that price point.

If you want a badge then I would recommend that you go for a second hand BSS or XTA unit.

Neurophonic fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Aug 24, 2020

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

KozmoNaut posted:

And yet people seem to be getting perfectly fine results with the hardware, because it works despite perceived and possible genuine flaws. Funny that.

E: To be clear, I don't have any sort of blind brand loyalty to any brands, nor am I going after you personally. I do respect your experience, but I do find it odd that you seem to have a serious grudge against dbx in particular.

Likewise on blind loyalty, but if I’m spending over £500 on a unit, I expect it to at least be competitive. Holding products to some basic standard is important, especially from a once reputable firm.

I dunno, maybe it bugs me more than it should, but I’ve seen a lot of sound systems at various levels that don’t sound their best because of dbx “quirks”. That’s also operator error, to an extent, but it’s normal to have faith in something that costs a not-insignificant amount of cash.

Isn’t it a saying in this very thread that digital audio should be a solved problem?

KillHour posted:

Aren't DBX and BSS both owned by the same company?

Yes, and that’s part of the problem. The BSS units I mentioned are pre-Harman. They don’t make any standalone non-modular DSP units now. The original BSS guys left after that deal and now run Linea Research. Who make pretty excellent kit, albeit much more expensive.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

TTerrible posted:

is there a non-audiophile DIY audio gear thread? I think I saw an electronics thread buried in DIY or something.

Wonder how cheap you could make a linear timecode clock that isn't megabucks. :haw:

If it isn’t megabucks or esoteric it has no place in the market.

I’ve watched a well respected - but also very much up his own arse - speaker designer use an atomic clock to drive his DAC at a demo.

https://en.antelopeaudio.com/products/audiophile-10m/

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

taqueso posted:

High freqs are annoying anyway, maybe I should get ear canal reduction surgery

If anyone feels the opposite of this, Victorian ear trumpets are back:

https://www.flareaudio.com/pages/earhd

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

KozmoNaut posted:

Clipping blows tweeters because they get overloaded with high-frequency overtones from the square waves that are generated. I've only ever seen this happen in live settings where they were trying to use too small amps for concerts. And it will sound like absolute hot garbage, so usually people turn it down way before damage happens.

Overloading drivers usually either melt the voice coils or if they can take it, mechanically damage the drivers from overexcursion. But you need quite a lot of power to do it instantly, or time for the coils to overheat.

That guy absolutely didn't blow his speakers with clipping, he blew then apart with way too much power.

Too much peak power below the cutoff of the cabinet resonance, most likely with some loving stupid BASS MADNESS equalisation on Winamp or something. It takes some effort to shred something that badly, especially if you can see the driver moving.

It’s cool though, a replacement is probably only about four times the price it should be from the manufacturer.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

GonadTheBallbarian posted:

Can you hear it under normal conditions and is it an objective improvement?

Yes and yes.



A fivefold improvement in the midrange is not to be sniffed at, but the real benefit is in linear response through the upper frequencies. Especially when driven hard, that will be very noticeable.

They also handily provide the schematic and the equations used for derivation for their lumped element model if you’d like to very it for yourself in COMSOL or similar.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

BurritoJustice posted:

I've lost respect for KEF with this marketing nonsense because quoting 11Hz when it can't go over 80dB at 20Hz is a straight lie by industry terminology because I'm sure I can quote my phone as going to 11Hz if I don't include how many dB down

Even including the “dB down” figure can easily be misleading. Stick a low pass on your sub at 60Hz and hey, suddenly the -3dB point is a whole octave lower!

No graph, no trust.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009
I have a new favourite. There are multiple pages to enjoy.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/acousticsystem4/sugar.html

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Yuns posted:

The advent of the excellent afforable ESS and AKM based DACs along with great class D amps like the Hypex and Purifi amps have basically made excellent audio a commodity. The things that make the biggest difference now are the output devices speakers/headphones and improving the listening space/adjusting for room acoustics with an UMIK and REW or Dirac and a lot of that ends up being personal preference. I bought an UMIK and Dirac Live and equalized the entire frequency range to the target, I found I didn't like the target curve and prefer manually adjusting so I got a refund on Dirac and will just stick to REW. The main things I found with the REW/Dirac was that the Kube 12b has totally sufficient bass that is decent in the 20s and that I have a bizarre null at 233 Hz that seems to make no audible difference but is really distinct on a graph.

In other news, SVS just announced the 1000 Pro series of subs which replaces the 1000 including adding the DSP that's in their higher end offerings. Should be a really good option for the budget and space conscious.

I’d argue that’s because the ‘magic bullet’ tools are not going to be able to determine why a dip in magnitude response is occurring, and whether or not an EQ fix is appropriate. Even with multiple measurements, the data has to be weighted accordingly. That includes taking things like the usage into account - making a pretty graph in a 10cm window isn’t much use if there’s two sofas of family who have to listen to the system. Humans (with sufficient information and experience) can be quite good at that.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

TheMadMilkman posted:

Oh, absolutely. But you can find some great modern recordings that are recorded with the surround mix in mind, and those can be incredible. With the very best of them you don’to even realize the surround channels are active. They just add the decay and ambiance you would hear in the hall.

But it is definitely a niche that I would love to see replaced by Atmos- based encoding. Object-based encoding that automatically decodes and places sound based on the number of speakers you actually have? Heck ya.

You mean this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-H_3D_Audio

Tidal & Sony’s “360 Reality Audio” is using this to do spatial decoding. They also have some form of machine learning to generate individualised HRTFs, but being Sony the entire process and the technical stuff behind it is obfuscated to death. It’s what PS5’s 3D audio is using too.

Neurophonic fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Mar 5, 2021

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Olympic Mathlete posted:

I like the second one "the next step is to reduce speaker distortion. The speaker compensation setting does this .............BY PRODUCING ADDITIONAL DISTORTION..."



This concept actually works for reduction of linear distortion. It’s patented, by someone who is very respected and has been used for concert systems for quite some time.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20070223713A1/en

https://web.archive.org/web/20100905123918/http://www.eaw.com/products/nt/brochure2/gunness.html

Section 8.2 of this shows the benefit on a nice graph.
https://www.klippel.de/fileadmin/klippel/Files/Know_How/Literature/Papers/Green%20Speaker%20Design%20Part%202.pdf

You can’t achieve it by just fiddling with some knobs while listening, though. It needs planning, measurement and analysis from the design stage of the speaker in question.

Yet another example of someone misunderstanding the concept. Or, understanding it and realising how easily audiophiles are separated from their money.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

DancingShade posted:

Would any generic usb phone audio dongle do the job?

Google search for "Comsol USB-C to 3.5mm Audio Cable 1m Black" and find a supplier or equivalent product in the country and currency of your choice.

Apple’s USB-C to 3.5mm is £9 in the UK and measures insanely good by any standard. It’s a little quiet perhaps but that’s not an issue if it’s going to an amplifier:

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/apple-usb-c-to-3-5-mm-headphone-jack-adapter.23420/reviews

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Combat Pretzel posted:

Did anyone ever take the Airpods apart and try to measure them?

Why would you need to take them apart? So long as a dummy head and torso system is used with a decent fit, and has been used to measure other headphones for comparison (because individual ears have vastly different head related transfer functions) then you get usable data with minimal effort.

That said I’m actually quite surprised there isn’t a dataset available online already. Especially for the Pro model.

Edit: scratch that, soundguys.com have the goods. Forgive the screenshots;



I finally get access to the one at university again in the coming weeks, but I don’t have AirPods to test. I suppose I could buy and return a set, but that seems like a lot of effort. I will finally get to do Nuraphones, although in hindsight the patent documentation and citations told me everything I need to know there.

Neurophonic fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Mar 22, 2021

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Here you see the huge difference that fit and ear profile makes. Also, it’s interesting that they use a 9 kHz cutoff. Technically that is the limitation of the HATS for things like HRTF measurement, so it’s kind of ok? But the data gathered above there isn’t useless.

Oh, and these are small signal measurements. I’m more interested in response curve at high drive levels personally, as well as distortion profiles.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009
You’re only doing it properly if you take the highest SINAD rated amplifier on the market and use it to drive a soft dome tweeter that hits obscene amounts of distortion at a few volts of input.

At least the folks getting JMLC or spherical based horns turned in nice wood by actual craftsmen are spending their money on something reasonably sensible. Assuming their listening position is several metres away, in a large room, of course.

This is my favourite madness of late. They call it an “is wall” speaker instead of “in wall”. It’s 4-way with 8 drivers - all off the shelf pro audio components with the most costly in the region of $400 a piece at RRP - in each multiple entry horn. I would 100% actually build this, just for the impact value:

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009
https://aforara.com/

Go wild on their instagram, if you’re keen you could very well determine the components used and make an educated guess at the horn geometry to DIY.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Wasabi the J posted:

You'd likely need elephant ears to hear the difference.

Thanks for making me actually look into this on my bathroom break. Clearly using my academic access for what I actually need to be doing...

Anyway, here’s an open access paper:
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00359-004-0553-0.pdf



It looks like they’re not obscene. 120 dBZ SPL between 14 Hz and 35 Hz at 1 metre is within the realms of the infra-subs I use for testing aerospace equipment (and sometimes, really fun gigs).

The hearing threshold of a 7-year old Asian elephant was determined to be 60 dB at 17 Hz and 65 dB at 16 Hz in the only test I can find. Here’s the human curve:


So yeah, even though they have massive ears and cochlea compared to us, it looks like our torso and bone conduction means we aren’t a million miles away in terms of perception.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009
drat right they do, which is why it was interesting to see that we experience roughly the same infrasound levels. Auditory processing in the brain is doing a whole heap of legwork for us and them.

Fun fact: the subs I mentioned above are designed by the same guy who built a special servo-driven box to test that elephant infrasound theory out in the wild:

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/way-down-deep-ii-servodrive-contrabass

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

TheMadMilkman posted:

Can’t talk about infrasound without mentioning rotary subwoofers. Those things are wild. I do recall a guy on AVS that installed one (in the theater that he had excavated under his garage— dude was kinda wild) and, after testing it, found out that his neighbors were convinced there was an earthquake. Now THAT is bass you can feel.

The cost of those is madness but I do fully want one. They’re a bitch to install correctly though, you need a massive rigid cavity into the room.

If we’re talking physical actuation, I have a bunch of these that I still haven’t figured out a use for, partly due to being in rented accommodation:
https://www.powersoft.com/en/products/transducers/mover/

Did consider mounting them to my office chair at one point but I haven’t had access to the 3D printer at the labs to make a mounting apparatus.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Olympic Mathlete posted:

I'm not, no. Found it, Club Sub in Austria. 32 subs, drivers fitted into cast concrete enclosures. Pretty much the entire back wall of the venue. Supposedly able to hit 7hz.



https://www.prosoundweb.com/powersoft-amplifier-modules-drive-unique-wall-of-bass-in-austria/

I know the guys who installed this, it’s an interesting project but like many things a little saturated in hyperbole. Still seriously cool. I wish some people would justify the budget for these sorts of projects, but sadly sound is often way down the priority list for venues.

That club isn’t run super loud, considering. Grelle Forelle also in Austria has a similar setup using horn-loaded subs which is more ‘party’.

If you’ve ever been to Fabric with the ‘body sonic’ dance floor, a similar number of Mover would physically launch you off the floor. They’re incredibly poky.

Oh, and did you say M-Force sub? Here’s a 40” one I work with sometimes for an art project. It’s actually for sale, if anyone wants to really upset their housemates/partner/accountant...


I work a fair bit with roots / reggae sound-systems and they are generally very far from ‘hifi’ - and many of them are as anti-science and measurements as the audiophile world - but it’s also a lot of fun. Friendly rivalries between crews, and experimentation is a big part of it. If you think of them as the equivalent of a guitar rig, where tubes and cabinets make a certain artistic sound, then it makes more sense.

Notting Hill Carnival is an experience everyone should get to at some point in their lives, and going to a small-ish dance where the speakers nearly outnumber the crowd is something I’ve missed very, very much in the last year.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Dirt Road Junglist posted:

I found a video with DIY instructions on how to make amplifiers out of the transistors and other components you can scavenge out of a CFL lightbulb base. You're obviously not going to get an audiophile sound out of them, but if all you need it to pump music thru a loudspeaker into a party space, you can do it with some trash and a soldering iron in about 10 minutes.

Everyone should do more of the things on this slip mat from a friend’s soundsystem:


If anyone fancies a little jaunt into this world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7LVx6k2gm0

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

qirex posted:

So this is interesting: a Youtube guy published his own music [that just happened to include a bunch of test tones, sweeps and full test suite in the songs] to Tidal in MQA and measured the output, the results are incredibly not flattering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRjsu9-Vznc
MQA's predictable response was to call him dumb in an email and get his songs pulled from Tidal. Apparently Tidal is serving lossy 44.1 MQA when there's a high res master instead of FLAC. I guess it's on to Qobuz for me!

Before watching the video, you can just set Tidal to HiFi rather than Master on the preferences and you’ll get the WAV/FLAC?

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

GrandMaster posted:

Have you heard the rebel sound performance from the redbull soundclash?

Supergroup made up of:
David Rodigan
Chase & Status
Shy FX
MC Rage

Bare dubplates, they smashed the other crews

https://youtu.be/KKDSgMddOO0

I have yes. I was system tech for one of the other crews :argh:

BurritoJustice posted:

This guy has some real dubious audiofool content and is a big proponent of weird conspiracy theories about Audiosciencereview being paid off, but this video is good quality and highlights some real marketing bullshit

Yeah I watched it last night, couldn't really pick a ton of holes in this video. I'm generally 'meh' about the MQA stuff, apart from the fact they're serving the MQA file even if you have it set to HiFi for everything.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

shortspecialbus posted:

FLAC is simply source quality - whatever the quality of the source, that's the quality you get with FLAC, exactly, or else it's no longer lossless. But yes most of them are just made from CDs, I'd assume.

I have an SACD for Dark Side of the Moon and I like it a lot for the 5.1 mix, but I can't see wanting SACD more generally.

SACD works just fine as a multi-channel FLAC in my experience, I’ve got quite a few 5.1 mixes that I was using for spatial audio research in that format. Hell, even a 6 track WAV is more convenient than a drat DVD.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

qirex posted:


Can we make this the thread background?

My favourite thing about the video that links from that is the guy is trying to be really earnest about using a magic algorithm to make pretty flat marketing graphs. They (and others in PA land) make out that “IIR bad” because it adjusts phase response. The irony is that if you’re applying them properly to the minimum phase components of the loudspeaker then the phase adjustments are a benefit, not a hindrance. FIR has its place - whacking all your IIR filters inside one is great for a start - but holy crap you can so easily overdo it.

Hopefully they do use the technique to fix their notoriously barky and harsh vocal range which typically sat bang on crossover from the reflex LF to the HF horn. If anyone is interested, this is the an overview of the technique:
http://www.excelsior-audio.com/Publications/Optimizing_Loudspeaker_Directivity_Through_the_Crossover_Region_rev10.pdf

The proud little diagram of their loudspeaker measuring robot indicates flaws in the measurement process, which for balloon data is meant to be far field. You can adapt nearfield measurements but it requires the use of a surface mounted around the enclosure, and I’m pretty sure Dave Gunness & EAW still hold the patent on it.

It is sorta nice to see them throwing the kitchen sink at their most well known product but anyone thinking these things sound hifi are kidding themselves. They’re not gonna be bad, but it’s a party box.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

taqueso posted:

That sounds like someone who has not experienced GHz sampling with natural wood conductors for their power cables (the high tensile strength lignin fibers are able to withstand the massive sampling load).

https://www.kv2audio.com/technology.html#DynamicVsSampling

quote:

At KV2 we undertook a different approach to digital to overcome the inherent problems in existing systems. We looked at an alternate conversion process developed by Sony™ and Philips™ called Direct Stream Digital or DSD. The Super Audio CD (SACD) is based on this digital format and unlike PCM conversion, DSD technology is based on a 1 Bit Sigma-Delta converter that produces a stream of pulses. The amplitude of the analog waveform is represented by the density of pulses and is called Pulse Density Modulation (PDM). The resulting digital bit stream is encoded at an enormous 2,822,400 samples per second! (2.8224MHz)

This a company making PA products, not even hifi. If you scroll down there’s this beauty:

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

This has to be genius level trolling.
https://www.audiowood.com/shop/little-sound-things





https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Houndeye

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

KillHour posted:

This gives me an idea for a listening room on a giant seismologically isolated platform. You know, so the sound of plate tectonics doesn't get in the way of your enjoyment of *reads notes* The Sheffield Track & Drum Record.

Why not the whole distance and hit a triple-isolated floating fully anechoic room? Of course, an acoustically dead room is a bit strange to be in, so the next step is to add a fully three-dimensional wave field synthesis system so that you can accurately recreate any room reverberation time curve of any venue or space you can think of.

It should be possible for somewhere between $500k and $1m, before adding your hifi of choice.

For only $10k extra, I’ll hand carve you a “no wives allowed” sign and integrate a secret code word entry panel for your new man cave.




I need to wait for my physical copy to land but holy crap look at that third study.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Professor Shark posted:

We're planning a small outdoor wedding next month and I have been given the job of finding a decent quality speaker for music to use with an iPod for some ambience while we eat. Is there a Good Approved speaker that the thread could recommend?

If it’s just for one day, find a local PA rental house and take whatever self-powered box they have. Something like a Yamaha DSR112 will be plenty loud and good, albeit not bluetooth. We’ve owned 16 of them for years and they’re one of our most versatile boxes.

quote:

ONLINE LECTURE
Perspectives On Audio: Information vs Data; Fidelity vs Resolution

Tuesday 17th August 2021, 7:00–8:30pm (approx.)
Bob Stuart, MQA

Audio bridges science and engineering with the complexity of the human listener. If we are to close that gap, we need to ask the right questions. This talk begins with a tutorial overview of modern auditory science that is pertinent to fidelity and resolution. It also sketches information flow in the listener giving some surprising estimates. Next, a quick tour through sound reproduction, starting with analogue, shows how a ‘narrow’ approach to digital audio has inadvertently embedded key errors in recordings and playback systems. This is briefly illustrated with seven theories of ‘High-Resolution’ and a consideration of the paradoxes of losslessness and data vs information flow.

When we consider the whole chain from microphone to loudspeaker, and more precisely define objectives for transparency using principles of communication theory, modern sampling theory and current auditory science, we show that a better engineering solution is indeed possible.

J. Robert (Bob) Stuart studied electronic engineering and acoustics at the University of Birmingham and took an M.Sc. in operations research at Imperial College, London. While at Birmingham he studied psychoacoustics under Professor Jack Allison, which began a lifelong fascination with the subject. In 1977 Bob co-founded Meridian Audio and served as CTO until early 2015. In 2014 he founded MQA Ltd where he is currently full-time as Chairman and CTO. At the request of Hiro Negishi and Raymond Cooke, Bob chaired the advocacy group Acoustic Renaissance for Audio between 1994 and 2002. In the 1990s he worked with Michael Gerzon and Peter Craven on lossless compression and was instrumental in its adoption for optical discs.

Bob has contributed to the DVD-Audio and Blu-ray standards and has served on the technical committees of the National Sound Archive, JAS and the ADA (Japan). In 2020 the Royal Academy of Engineering awarded him the Prince Philip Medal for his exceptional contribution to audio engineering. Bob’s professional interests are the furthering of analogue and digital audio and developing understanding of human auditory perception mechanisms relevant to live and recorded music. His specialities include the auditory sciences and the design of analogue and digital electronics, loudspeakers, audio coding and signal processing.

Bob joined AES in 1971, has been a Fellow since 1992, and is a member of ASA, IEEE and the Hearing Group at Cambridge. Bob has a deep interest in music and spends a good deal of time listening to live and recorded material.

This online lecture is organised jointly by the AES UK Section Cambridge Group and IET Cambridge Local Network. It is open to all, but registration will be required here. A link to the Zoom session will be sent to registered participants prior to the talk.

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Z9hZtKFLRHG-U7Ng2aKerg

Open registration for anyone interested in hearing the man himself talk about MQA.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

qirex posted:

I assume anyone who asks an actual question will be kicked off the zoom, "paradoxes of losslessness and data vs information flow" my rear end

Unfortunately I don’t think Zoom enables their “high res” function for guests otherwise it would be quite fun to introduce a simulation of the reflected high order harmonics that video found from MQA unfolding into my mic feed.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

A new favourite in a sea of gibberish: ‘you might be talking to an ear moron’

http://www.teoaudio.com/technical/

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009
My oversized ‘hifi’ is all hand me down parts from the high end of the pro audio world or leftovers from prototyping for projects that didn’t make it to launch. Things like the original ‘money no object’ Dolby Lake DSP aimed at top end studios that were broken, but fixable, and a set of ‘main’ monitors designed to go inside the wall.

It’s all run from off cuts of multi core speaker wire and whatever XLR cable was left on the reel from an install.

If I actually bought that stuff new, even at component level it would have run well over £20k - it’s using the same HF dome as the most expensive box from PMC for example. There’s very little chance I’d have considered it if I was paying that much though. I’d probably be pretty happy with a pair of KEF LS50 Meta and a Danley DTS10 sub if I was buying. Total cost easily under £10k including amps and peripherals and it wouldn’t occupy half the room.

Post lottery win, I’d buy those ridiculous 12ft square multi entry horns I posted a bunch of pages back just because why the hell not.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Fantastic Foreskin posted:

You're not wrong. I knew somebody who worked at microcenter and they make all their money on cables and extended warranties. The employee discount lets you get anything at 5% over cost, which on actual hardware generally amounted to $0 discount.

Yup. See printers, paper and ink for more of the same. If you’re selling a PC and you can’t get the customer to take tons of peripherals, you’re probably not making a dime.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

Jeherrin posted:

Has this nonsense been posted before?

https://www.theaudioworks.co.uk/all-bits-are-not-created-equal/

My favourite bit (pun intended):

I’m the link to a page to explain what ‘Blu-spec’ is that doesn’t exist on Wikipedia.

Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

strtj posted:

I've wanted a pair of Magnepan speakers for a long time and I'm 100% sure they're worth the money, but that doesn't mean they would necessarily work well in my room or with the rest of my gear.

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/magnepan-lrs-speaker-review.16068/

Neurophonic fucked around with this message at 11:09 on Oct 5, 2021

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Neurophonic
May 2, 2009

qirex posted:

I remember reading a Magnepan review way back when I first heard about them and I lost it when the reviewer said “they really opened up when I moved them 10 feet from the back wall.”

Well that’s just dipole radiation. You get as much out of the rear end as you do out the front, so you’ve gotta try to even out the pattern a little to keep anything close to a flat response at the listening position.

Some of the Linkwitz stuff is like this too, but sounds better and is cheaper. There’s some interest stuff in the modern planar world, but Magnepans aren’t it.

If you want esoteric and “theoretically perfect” then going for a “pro” ribbon system based on Mundorf AMTs, or just buying something by Alcons is a good start.

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