geoffkait,
Things are just not that simple. There are distortions associated with speakers, with room acoustics anomalies such as slap echo, standing waves, reflected waves, with the effects of seismic vibration, the effects of mechanical vibration of motors, transforrmers, etc., the effects of static electric fields on the CD or LP and cables, the effects of induced magnetic fields in the wires and cables, the very large induced magnetic fields in large honking transformers, distortions resulting from wire and cable and fuses being installed in the wrong direction, distortions due to local environmental influences (Morphic fields), improper speaker set up, not to mention weather effects, sun spots effects, time of day effects. In other words in order to achieve "live" the audiophile who is attempting to get into audio nirvana must pay attention to everything, not just the speed of acoustic waves in air. All of this is true except if the last reference - "not just the speed of waves in air" is not dealt with your system will never produce live no matter how much control you have over the vibrations. The velocity has to be right or you are wasting your time. |
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atmasphere
What velocity?
The speed of acoustic waves in air is the most important aspect of sound reproduction to get right. It alone is responsible for the most destructive damage done to sound reproduction. There is no alternative way to create the illusion of live. Assuming you have almost everything to do with vibrations under control - what is left represents at least 70% of your systems remaining distortion. Knowing where to look is half the battle. You can talk about amplifiers all day long but if you expect to use it for audio you must address the delivery speed otherwise it falls short every time. |
The live reference conundrum remains interesting to me. Orchestral (not miked) music live as a reference should make you think about what an instrument does…a violin is omni directional but mostly up, and unless the violinist is chained to one spot and can only move the bow and fingering bits…and NOT move around (there goes that pesky phase coherency issue) especially relative to the other people who may be playing something at the same time all over the stage, you get some crazy sonic character to ponder. The fact that great mikes can capture more or less what your ears might hear (if your seat is suspended 15 feet above the orchestra), is good news. To get anything like the live mojo out of yer tweets and woofs is doable, but still…it's nothing like live and maybe that's not so bad. Most people get that…is watching play on a high def TV like live actors in your house? Of course not (note that live actors are often difficult to get OUT of your house…trust me), but it can still be friggin' great…I have a Britten LP with old Ben conducting and man the passion and vibe get through big time, even though the velocity may be skewed (!). Don't forget, that $90 fuse takes a month to break in and you might have put it in backwards in the first place and you're going to have to remember what your rig sounded like a month ago…daunting... |
wolf there are some among us apparently who can do all that with confidence. The "X-Men" of audio per-se? :^)
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