When we shut down the family business in 1989, a recruiter got me in to Harman in Northridge for an interview. Then another interview. Finally they said Well the senior design engineer position evaporated, but now we really need somebody to manage the techs and solve some problems. I started on a Tuesday in Feb. 1990 (Monday having been President's Day iirc). On that Friday Andy Hefley came in to say goodbye to the techs, as his program had been cancelled and he laid off (rather chilling way to start!). Initially I didn't have a desk or a computer, just a bench, and I got the three techs from hell.
By the time I decided I wanted to be a consultant (everyone told me I was nuts) my title was Principal Engineer for what had become Harman-Motive. I resigned and was told whatever you may think you will NOT get any work from Harman-Motive --- you're not getting away with this! But I had a contract with Corporate R&D, so I knew I'd have some work. Last day as an employee was May 20, 1994. Then Harman Consumer discovered I was available and hired me as a consultant. In the early days of that, a relatively new division, Harman Interactive Group, became a customer of the consumer group. After doing some early computer-centric demo systems, I proposed to Mike Watts of HIG that we might do better going direct. I also gave myself a big raise at that point
I worked pretty steadily through many ups and downs of the various incarnations of computer-centric audio divisions, essentially doing all of the "clean-sheet-of-paper" designs for the electronics of the powered speakers. I was shown the door abruptly in December of 2004 and haven't been back since.
At a recent reunion of mostly-laid-off Harman employees, an HR person said there was a phrase in currency now: "Doing a Brad Wood", a practice strongly frowned upon
Once this was found to be the case, It had to be analyzed. The data was not imagined... so the source of this had to be found.
Turns out the explanation is dead simple and violates... nothing. Took me all of a few minutes to figure it out.
This, 'implementation', it does what I expected it to do - and it does it well. No white paper required, just the real world example of how the given battery life is extended in a notable way. The battery life extension provides the proof all on it's own, and the answer is both mundane and obvious, once you hear it.
Bohr? This would be the Bohr whose ideas about the atom were a useful stepping stone to a proper quantum theory but are now only taught to schoolchildren?Chris Hornbeck said:
Entropy? This is the entropy at the heart of thermodynamics and information theory, adequately explained by statistical mechanics?
Day to day engineering? Would that be the engineering firmly based on science which most engineers do, or the new age mumbo-jumbo which sometimes passes for engineering in the audio world?
It was Einstein's conversations/letters with Bohr from which the famous quote arose. Entropy and the unidirectional flow of time are fundamental but are yet unexplained in any theory of physics.
Thanks,
Chris
Adequate?
Are you....asking for adequate to substitute for fundamentals...in the face of discussions on precision?
Not only is the underwear on the outside of the pants in this case, they were put on the family dog and are no where near the given person.
One can go to the 'lessloss' black body radiator, and when they hear it,which can easily be done, they come to the conclusion that most people's ideas on cause and effect are literally on backward. the connection is not made.
according to how people think in engineering terms, there is no way that a nothing can affect a something. All the math says otherwise. All the thinking says otherwise.
Yet the blackbody radiator takes that... and just trashes it so hard that it is left crying and broken in the street. Linear and engineering understandings of cause and effect take a beating that leaves them thoroughly dead, irretrievably dead.
It thus becomes known in the person that the limits of their knowledge are of personal psychological stance and positioning, and has nothing to do with reality. It is the interpretation of reality, the mental position as tied to emotional reach/connection.... that is the core issue.
according to how people think in engineering terms, there is no way that a nothing can affect a something. All the math says otherwise. All the thinking says otherwise.
Yet the blackbody radiator takes that... and just trashes it so hard that it is left crying and broken in the street. Linear and engineering understandings of cause and effect take a beating that leaves them thoroughly dead, irretrievably dead.
It thus becomes known in the person that the limits of their knowledge are of personal psychological stance and positioning, and has nothing to do with reality. It is the interpretation of reality, the mental position as tied to emotional reach/connection.... that is the core issue.
Perhaps I misunderstood you. You appeared to be claiming that physics was somehow in a more primitive state than engineering.Chris Hornbeck said:
Time is a mystery, and I don't accept that the usual story about entropy explains time at all. Macroscopic objects, including people and cats, do seem to travel in time in one direction only even though sub-atomic particles may not be similarly restricted. Some fundamental issues like this should not be misused by the mumbo-jumbo people to dismiss what we do know.
I *do* claim that fundamental physics is still in a more primitive state than our current level of much engineering. Engineering doesn't keep finding new mysteries - it tends to solve problems and more on to the next problem.
Newton, Einstein and quantum mechanics are all completely time-reversable. They contain no internal direction of time and no entropy. The real world at least seems to, and we really don't have a clue why or how. Mysteries are wonderful and I embrace them.
Thanks,
Chris
ps: I certainly agree that misuse is rampant.
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Actually, it was never "explained", just some particular cases were observed and registered. Funny, but Dean Radin using statistics come to quite interesting results that can "explain" how thermodynamics is just a particular case that does not work always as desired. One conclusion from his work can be made that our mind influence result of random processes. Another conclusion can be made that our minds somehow predict the future, but we don't know how, and can't explain using current models based on sensory perception.
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what I'm trying to say is that
1+0=1 -- false
1+0=1+0 -- true
that 1+4+0+3+5+0+0 = 13+0+0+0, it can never equal a simple 13. It may be possible to simply to 13+3(0), but not beyond that.
It illustrates that the zero has a value, a connective tissue, a direct involvement and effect.... that must be attended to, regarding human understanding of reality vs what we'd like to think.There is no simplification to a nothing, the zeros are real value and must remain as they do, in actuality and in fundamental reality.
Once this is known, then the reason for the zero may become evident, for it is a something and must be analyzed as such.
Then we get to the part where Einstein said, about 15 years after relativity that..actually..the aether must exist for relativity to function. A skein a fabric, a backdrop... that is the zero.
He was ignored. We accept Brownian motion, and there is much more than that, if you go looking.
The fact that the Black-body radiator from lessloss has an effect forces the above considerations, regarding realization for the given person who may play with it.
this all folds back into audio, as we hear via the ears, and they do not weigh tiny signals as being nothing, we weigh them as tiny fluctuations in the sum peak levels we hear, thus we can hear quite minute levels of linearly analyzed noise and such.
We can see a single photon..and the ear/brain mechanism is a more evolved and more complex system than that of the visual.
Capacity for sonic acuity is both innate and learned. Like an athlete that has the genetics for it, some designers of gear and listeners of gear are simply designed for it. Then one can also teach the self and grow. The brain IS plastic and can change..... and does.
All is not equal in this realm of hearing vs design.
re: lossless black body radiator
I would let zero be zero (he left out rose quartz, must not have read Holger's stuff).
"Since these interactions are so interdependent and complex, audiophiles often introduce talismans, or tweaks, of mahogany, tourmaline, smoky quartz, and other such items placed in strategic locations throughout their systems. Typically, this specially balanced configuration in a highly tweaked out listening chamber takes years of trial and error to achieve. The attained joys of high class sound quality are of course highly desirable. Shouldn’t there be a more straight-forward and elegant way to address this stray noisiness? "
I would let zero be zero (he left out rose quartz, must not have read Holger's stuff).
"Since these interactions are so interdependent and complex, audiophiles often introduce talismans, or tweaks, of mahogany, tourmaline, smoky quartz, and other such items placed in strategic locations throughout their systems. Typically, this specially balanced configuration in a highly tweaked out listening chamber takes years of trial and error to achieve. The attained joys of high class sound quality are of course highly desirable. Shouldn’t there be a more straight-forward and elegant way to address this stray noisiness? "
For a true cabinet of Horrors on distortion (Audax Speaker users PLEASE do not look at this) this little Article has measurements of Speaker Distortion:
As we can see the woofer selected for the project has around 3% H2 at the tested level (not specified but probably at 2.83V input) pretty much across the board and 0.1% H3, at least other independent measurements of similar drivers by the Manufacturer show similar approximate levels.
There _are_ low-distortion speakers. Here is an example of a speaker I review in the May issue of Stereophile. SPL was 86dB at 1m. It is better than many tube amps!
Catching up on this marathon thread, hence the tardy response.
On a related subject, the Wavac amplifier was recently mentioned in this thread. After Stereophile's review was published, I figured that it would put paid to sales. I was astonished that, according to the importer, he sold 5 pairs of the amplifier following publication of our review.
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Attachments
John, some years ago when I was reviewing wine, I gave an astonishingly negative review to a rather obscure one. I mean, this was so over the top negative that the review is legendary, the single most popular thing I've ever written. When threads on "best wine reviews" appear on various forums, it still comes up. The importer was understandably furious with me.
Yes, you know the punchline. He sold every last bottle within days of my review.
Yes, you know the punchline. He sold every last bottle within days of my review.
John,
If it is a "normal" speaker (which it is not - just looking at the distortion) 86dB would be at around 1W power input and rated power would be at least 50W for a "normal speaker", so we are looking at a "-17dBFs" signal.
I'm eyeballing -70dB H2 (0.03%) and -76dB H3 (0.015%) though it is decidedly odd to see such high levels of H8. By the standard of 99% of the Speakers out there this is truely impressive, however for a 50W Tube Amp running at 1 Watt this is not that unusual, though it would be unusual for an SE Tube Amp running without looped feedback.
Now I have no idea what speaker this is, however from personal experience I would think it is a very high effciency system, Horns - Avant Garde maybe, which in the case of Avant Gard would be operated with around 10mW at 86dB/1m which would explain the low distortion levels.
If it is really one of the "mainstream" Cone & Dome High End Speakers I will look forward to the May edition with baited breath.
Meanwhile to illustrate the distortion performance of a "average speaker" here a trio of distortion measurements of relatively "average speakers", all taken at 90db/1m. The baseline of the chart is at 45dB SPL in each case, or -45dB compared to 90dB SPL or at 0.55% (meaning only distortion levels above 0.55% will show up in these graphs)...
They and many more can be found at www.speakermeasurements.com.
Ciao T
If it is a "normal" speaker (which it is not - just looking at the distortion) 86dB would be at around 1W power input and rated power would be at least 50W for a "normal speaker", so we are looking at a "-17dBFs" signal.
I'm eyeballing -70dB H2 (0.03%) and -76dB H3 (0.015%) though it is decidedly odd to see such high levels of H8. By the standard of 99% of the Speakers out there this is truely impressive, however for a 50W Tube Amp running at 1 Watt this is not that unusual, though it would be unusual for an SE Tube Amp running without looped feedback.
Now I have no idea what speaker this is, however from personal experience I would think it is a very high effciency system, Horns - Avant Garde maybe, which in the case of Avant Gard would be operated with around 10mW at 86dB/1m which would explain the low distortion levels.
If it is really one of the "mainstream" Cone & Dome High End Speakers I will look forward to the May edition with baited breath.
Meanwhile to illustrate the distortion performance of a "average speaker" here a trio of distortion measurements of relatively "average speakers", all taken at 90db/1m. The baseline of the chart is at 45dB SPL in each case, or -45dB compared to 90dB SPL or at 0.55% (meaning only distortion levels above 0.55% will show up in these graphs)...
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
They and many more can be found at www.speakermeasurements.com.
Ciao T
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