Dear Thom: Fortunatelly, like JH told us, there are different " roads " to meet the " border " and the freedom to do it.
Any one has its own " principles and priorities " and music bias in the sound reproduction.
Thom IMHO the best noise is no noise. Now, if we can't dissapear that noise then a good noise is " better " than a bad noise.
We are not " specs/number " lovers per se, but in some way we have to reflect what we are hearing through our designs.
We think that our designs not only have to " sounds great " but to measure great too and if we could achieve both targets that's will be great, don't you think?
I agree with JH about the emotional link with the music through and audio system, with out this interaction between the music and us it does not matters specs or design.
We try hard to have that link in the sound reproduction perception and at the same time to meet very low noise/distortions/colorations and accuracy ( like in the RIAA eq ).
Thom, I know that in theory almost all designers have ( between others ) these targets on mind but when we heard at those designs and when we read the specs I almost always ask me where/why some of them loose those targets. I'm not saying that we are perfects, far from that, but maybe we take care more in deep about simple " things " in the design philosophy, like José told us: the technology is there ready to help us, we only have to use it.
Jcarr: +++++ " The magnitude of RIAA error is not particularly useful unless we also consider the range of frequencies that are affected by the error. in practice, a 1dB deviation that only hits one note is not going to be very noticeable, but a 0.1dB error that spans an octave or more can be quite noticeable. " +++++
I agree with this statement if the RIAA was a line instead than a curve where if one " note /discrete frequency " moves all the adjacents moves too usually more than 2 octaves, we perceive these kind of deviations like a colored sound: these colorations belongs to the audio device but not to the original recording.
I agree with Jcarr about: +++++ " The results of using NFB have a lot more to do with the capabilities and sensibiities of the designer than NFB per se ... " +++++
this is something that José and I discuss several times and the conclusion was the same that Jcarr posted: depend of the designer, where to use, how to use it, how much use it.
Btw, JH and Thom we are not marketing oriented ( we don't manipulate the signal to achieve a " marketing signature " or something ), we are on the audio device design because we like it and because almost all the designs out there can't achieve our goals/priorities in the music sound reproduction in the way we like it, as a fact we design to meet our targets not the consumer ones, we think that through our audio/music experiences, honest on the design, open mind and having the live event like reference we could meet ( or ve near ) the consumer priorities. Maybe we are wrong but it is the way we think.
There is no single parameter that define perse the audio device design, usually all designs have to meet several goals to be " listenable ", how different from others?: that's depends on the designers skills, designers goals and execution of the design in a finish product.
There is no perfect designer/design, we all have limitations of different kind and always have limitations on the quality/tolerances of the parts that we use it: all these parts have limitations and in theory those limitations will be our limitations. Other subject about is the cost/retail price that is a important limitation when we want to share/market the audio device between some price range level.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Any one has its own " principles and priorities " and music bias in the sound reproduction.
Thom IMHO the best noise is no noise. Now, if we can't dissapear that noise then a good noise is " better " than a bad noise.
We are not " specs/number " lovers per se, but in some way we have to reflect what we are hearing through our designs.
We think that our designs not only have to " sounds great " but to measure great too and if we could achieve both targets that's will be great, don't you think?
I agree with JH about the emotional link with the music through and audio system, with out this interaction between the music and us it does not matters specs or design.
We try hard to have that link in the sound reproduction perception and at the same time to meet very low noise/distortions/colorations and accuracy ( like in the RIAA eq ).
Thom, I know that in theory almost all designers have ( between others ) these targets on mind but when we heard at those designs and when we read the specs I almost always ask me where/why some of them loose those targets. I'm not saying that we are perfects, far from that, but maybe we take care more in deep about simple " things " in the design philosophy, like José told us: the technology is there ready to help us, we only have to use it.
Jcarr: +++++ " The magnitude of RIAA error is not particularly useful unless we also consider the range of frequencies that are affected by the error. in practice, a 1dB deviation that only hits one note is not going to be very noticeable, but a 0.1dB error that spans an octave or more can be quite noticeable. " +++++
I agree with this statement if the RIAA was a line instead than a curve where if one " note /discrete frequency " moves all the adjacents moves too usually more than 2 octaves, we perceive these kind of deviations like a colored sound: these colorations belongs to the audio device but not to the original recording.
I agree with Jcarr about: +++++ " The results of using NFB have a lot more to do with the capabilities and sensibiities of the designer than NFB per se ... " +++++
this is something that José and I discuss several times and the conclusion was the same that Jcarr posted: depend of the designer, where to use, how to use it, how much use it.
Btw, JH and Thom we are not marketing oriented ( we don't manipulate the signal to achieve a " marketing signature " or something ), we are on the audio device design because we like it and because almost all the designs out there can't achieve our goals/priorities in the music sound reproduction in the way we like it, as a fact we design to meet our targets not the consumer ones, we think that through our audio/music experiences, honest on the design, open mind and having the live event like reference we could meet ( or ve near ) the consumer priorities. Maybe we are wrong but it is the way we think.
There is no single parameter that define perse the audio device design, usually all designs have to meet several goals to be " listenable ", how different from others?: that's depends on the designers skills, designers goals and execution of the design in a finish product.
There is no perfect designer/design, we all have limitations of different kind and always have limitations on the quality/tolerances of the parts that we use it: all these parts have limitations and in theory those limitations will be our limitations. Other subject about is the cost/retail price that is a important limitation when we want to share/market the audio device between some price range level.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.