Sound Quality Vs. Measurements

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Many electronics engineer that I know are not interested at audio. They do not understand the relation of sound perception and the measurement. They skeptic human can hear THD below 0,1% but if they design an amplifier they will love to get THD below 0,01%. Some of member here built an amplifier with THD 0,0001% ;)

Most people understand the correlation about frequency response and the sound perception. Timbre, stereo illusion, the time of attack time, decay time, reverb time (slightly) different are difficult for most people to recognize.

People who can recognize slightly different of sound usually do not undertand about electronic engineering. So they are difficult to communicate with electronic engineer.

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One of my amplifier tested by sound engineer. He said my amplifier sound very accurate and detail, except in one recording. After heavy bass passage in that recording, in about a second the sound was change (distort). In others amplifiers that he used, the timbre of that sound is different. What do you think the cause of distortion after heavy bass passage? The amplifier is not clipping and the volume control is remaining same when he test with others recording. He listen near field about 1m from speaker and SPL about 80 dB.
 
I would rather ask if the OP question is still valid today, and if yes - in what sense, since nowadays more than 90% of new music "recorded for public to own" makes heavy use of digital processing of dubious quality. It's everywhere, from sound samples to voice processors, from master to transmission. In any genre.

I don't really understand your point. Do you mean use of analog processing of dubious quality? Today's professional digital processing is more linear in measurement than any old day analog processing in general.
 
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Depends on the skill of the engineer.
Analogue tape has a different sound and overloads gracefully. Combine a tape machine (Studer) with racks of Dolby SR and you have a high bar to hit. I wouldn't say there is a clear winner on that one. For digital you must go to 32 bit to compete with a tape machine due to the dynamic range tape can have.

I will say that today's digital is excellent, and in the hands of a good engineer sounds great. There would never have been a Motown sound without saturated tape!

-Chris
 
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Depends on the skill of the engineer.
Analogue tape has a different sound and overloads gracefully. Combine a tape machine (Studer) with racks of Dolby SR and you have a high bar to hit. I wouldn't say there is a clear winner on that one. For digital you must go to 32 bit to compete with a tape machine due to the dynamic range tape can have.

I will say that today's digital is excellent, and in the hands of a good engineer sounds great. There would never have been a Motown sound without saturated tape!

-Chris


You would have to point me to a 32bit professional ADC ( a real one i mean, not a 24bit linear which output a 32 bit floating point stream).

48 bits fixed ( Weiss gear), 32 bit floating point, (etc, etc,...) have a great interest once we talk about digital treatments ( eq, comp, limitig, summing, whatever...) where digital headroom could be an issue (shortcut but close enough for the point) so yes it is used 'within' digital based gear or soft ( dedicated hardware, mixers, softwares - Daw or plug ins) but the defacto standard of interface is 24bit in proworld. It prooved to be 'enough' for 20 years in pro field if used wisely ( even a Sony DASH 48 was very good despite being first gen 24bits and even better with some dedicated wordclocks units).
It relieved us to have to flirt with 0dbfs at takes/recording ( first gen 16 bits ADDA) which in turn allowed to discover that the 'cold digital sound' was linked to transient distortion at recording and playback ( intersample distortion on converters mostly).

The 144db dynamic range ( less te 6 to 12 db headroom one have to give on analog side of AD) is well enough to challenge any of analog gear availlable i know of ( Lavry Gold, Weiss AD, Prism ADA, Cranesong, Forselltech, Anteloppe audio, Myteck, etc,etc,... anyone?).

That said i have to listen to something with a better musicality than a good tape! Yes it breathe ( noise, even with an SR there is a bit) but such is life ( le souffle c'est la vie!)...

But the availlibity to have transient limiting without time constants ( and enhancing as free) a natural low end, a coherency of technology through the recording chain (if pristine) just sound good for certain kind of music ( for rock and roll, metal, reggae,...no question you need a tape multitrack).

I was lucky to listen to a 2" 2 tracks ( originaly a 24 tracks Sony Apr-24) and sure this was something... even a Prism or Weiss converter sound 'different' ( those are the most transparent i've heard you can't spot them usually) once inserted.

We (mostly) agree Chris.
 
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Now, electrons move in foreordained discontinuous circular paths carrying discrete quantum energy packets on their backs as correctly described in the jumping-electron-point-in-orbit planetary atomic model. The postulated mereological harmonic relationships in the algebraically generated field extension model indeed make a lot of physical sense. The relationships between vibrations are clearly inferable to be expressed as quantitative ratios even if it can impose difficulty to visualize particle interactions in three dimensions, but any linear one-dimensional space will do just fine.

Numbers never lie. Learn how to employ the appropriate framework for looking at the data and how to draw the right conclusions from precise objective evidence-based statistical measurements directly representing specified phenomena.

Please don`t come and tell me otherwise.
 
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