I'll see you and raise 1, and they though perpetual motion could not be patented.
https://www.google.com/patents/US6362718
Has there ever been a "breakthrough"? Digital audio has changed everything but still isn't in any way considered a breakthrough, just a slowly developing tech since the 1930s.
I think there have been quite a number of them. The switch from wax cylinder recordings to flat discs, the introduction of electronics into "phonographs", the arrival of long-playing vinyl records, the invention of the moving-coil loudspeaker, reel-to-reel tape recorders which for the first time allowed people to make an almost instantaneous recording, the unexpected emergence of the compact cassette as a Hi-Fi medium, the arrival of Dolby B noise reduction - all of these were breakthroughs in their time.
I disagree quite strongly - I would say the arrival of the Compact Disc format was the single greatest breakthrough in the history of recorded audio. At one single stroke, every major weakness that had plagued audio recording was gone, erased to levels below the threshold of detection. No more wow, no more flutter, no more pops, ticks, and scratches, no more harsh distortion near the centre of the record, no more gradual degradation on every playback.
It fact, it is impossible to audibly improve on CD quality digital audio; these days it's fashionable to believe that 24 bit converters and 192 kHz bit rates are Good Things (TM), but in fact there are no audible improvements to be had, though measured performance (noise floor, THD at very low recording levels, etc) can be better.
Since the CD, it seems to me the biggest improvements we've seen have been slow, progressive improvements in materials and construction of speaker drivers and speaker systems. No huge breakthroughs, but today you can actually buy a tweeter that is ruler-flat beyond 25 kHz, and that was a very difficult thing to find in, say, 1970.
Most of the other "breakthroughs" since the CD have actually been breakthroughs in convenience or music distribution channels, usually accompanied by a backward step in audio quality, or a sidewise step at best. Most of us can't hear flaws in a good high-bitrate MP3, but few would argue it is an improvement in audio quality over a CD quality WAV file.
I think if there are to be any true breakthroughs to be had in the near future, they will have to center on loudspeakers, and the more accurate recreation of the audio sound field around the listener(s). (Though "accurate" means nothing in the world of highly engineered popular music, where there was no original performance to capture accurately in the first place!)
It's worth remembering that the first tinfoil audio recordings were made in the 1870s. Audio recording is now a mature, nearly 150 year old technology. It is quite rare for a technology that is already 150 years old to experience any new breakthroughs - all you can hope for at that point is usually small progressive improvements.
The other thing to remember about mature technologies is that people stop caring about them. As an example, today, nobody in the developed world is excited about kitchen refrigerator technology - but it was earthshaking at one time. Similarly, today almost nobody in the developed world cares about audio technology.
(They still care about music en masse, that's wired into the human brain, and won't change for the forseeable future. But they don't care about the details of the technology that delivers the music to their ears.)
-Gnobuddy
Another "big advance" was made in 1925, when the changeover was made from acoustic recording (acoustic diaphragm directly driving the cutting stylus, as Edison originally did) to electrical recording (microphones and electric cutting heads). It was (and still is, if you listen to recordings of the era) a really big improvement between before and after that point.
There was a time (the 1960s and 1970s, maybe the 1950s as well ) when good hifi was first becoming available to consumers that people would sit and listen to an LP and not do anything else (other than perhaps have a drink or something).
One might list the Sony Walkman as the big "advance" that got people away from this. It was the first "personal stereo" as opposed to the "home stereo" with its turntable, big speakers and such. With good (or at least half decent) sound so freely available (also in the car stereos of the time), it became less of something special (something people specifically took the time to do) and more ordinary, and more of a background soundtrack of life.
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MultitrAcks and overdubbing revolutionized recordings. Imagine Sargeant peppers or Dark Side of the Moon without those.
What I would like to see is multiple mixes of the same material in one package. The producers squashed to garbage radio mix, the engineers hi dynamic audiophile mix, a 5.1 surround mix and maybe more.
Well that appears to me to be turning your own personal opinion into "fact" by a wave of a magic wand!
I disagree with what you've said - they are all technological advances but none have been "breakthroughs".
Digital technology started developing in the 60s and continues to develop and evolve today. It's been a long and smooth journey taking in general tech advances as they occur outside the world of audio.
The CD standard was not a technological breakthrough in any sense whatsoever - the tech already existed and in fact better tech was around at the time too. Different digital formats to PCM were also around at the time, e.g. from the likes of dbx, and were already in use in studios around the world in the 70s.
The CD standard came about though A COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIP, a simple decision to standardise something and own the format for commercial purposes. It won out over other potential digital formats and methods (that didn't have such a commercial push) simply out of a bunch of people making some commitments. They then worked towards using existing tech to develop a specific and commercially viable set of technologies from what was already around.
To re-iterate, that cannot be considered a breakthrough - audio technology just doesn't work that way. Audio tech takes from already established science and puts it into practice in the field of audio but does so over many many many years and moves relatively slowly.
What you may percieve as a consumer and user of audio equipment is that completely new commercial products hit you at once. Again that is no kind of tech breakthrough, only a consumer experience.
I think the only real breakthroughs occured in the early days of recorded sound. Magnetic tape changed things considerably but was invented back in 1928 and even then was based on tech from the 1880s but simply using a different base material (previously using thin wire).
I'd say that other technological breakthroughs have occured quite outside of the world of audio and then have slowly worked their way into popular usage in the audio world.
Perhaps the thread is being taken to mean "What important developments have their been that have changed the way we do things today?". That is quite watered down from the idea of a "breakthrough" IMO.
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Just by example of what I mean, this from a wiki on optical discs:
Invented in '69 for video, didn't surface in any meaningfull way in audio for another 11 years or so - slow adaptation because that's how these things work. Audio has never really been at the forefront of scientific discovery or research, only development of commercial sollutions in general.
Invented in '69 for video, didn't surface in any meaningfull way in audio for another 11 years or so - slow adaptation because that's how these things work. Audio has never really been at the forefront of scientific discovery or research, only development of commercial sollutions in general.
"maybe not wired"
Hi there: My take on future breakthrough is found in the last sentence of Gnobuddy's post where he states, "wired into the brain" or maybe not wired, but otherwise transmitted "DTBA" )direct to brain audio!)...regards Michael
Hi there: My take on future breakthrough is found in the last sentence of Gnobuddy's post where he states, "wired into the brain" or maybe not wired, but otherwise transmitted "DTBA" )direct to brain audio!)...regards Michael
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Which will probably come with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), so you have to buy brain-pills from the copyright holder before your brain can actually decode the DTBA signal!
I think most of us already have a sort of DTBA - most of us hear music in our heads a lot of the time, don't we? (Even when it's quiet around us.)
-Gnobuddy
Pehaps the discussion should be what improvent can be made with present technology. Lets not forget its all about commercial these days. We all are in the minority group. Whatever so call break through that might take place will just trickle down to us & again it's just going to be used as a marketing tool
that's starting to sound like the Monsanto model
BTW, Natbderg couldn't be more right
Chris - it's a matter of context. Do we include the first successful manufacture of high-grade vinyl as an audio breakthrough? It was a necessary precedent for the arrival of the LP. But most people wouldn't call the successful mass-production of vinyl it an "audio breakthrough", though in a fundamental way, the switch from shellac to vinyl was part of the audio breakthrough I mentioned earlier.
Along the same lines, the fundamental research-level breakthrough behind all digital audio (long before the CD) was Claude Shannon's 1948 research paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication". Shannon was a genius among geniuses, and his work was an incredibly brilliant breakthrough. However, in my opinion, few would describe it as a breakthrough in audio.
Natbderg mentioned the switch from wire recording to magnetic tape, but, IMO, missed the actual breakthrough: early magnetic recordings were weak and too heavily distorted to be anything more than a curiosity, until it was discovered that applying an ultrasonic "AC bias" signal to the recording head, made it possible to make high-quality audio recordings for the first time.
(This application of ultrasonic AC bias applies to both wire recorders, and the subsequent magnetic tape recorders.)
When I (and, I would venture to say, most people on this thread) say "audio breakthrough", I mean "a breakthrough in commercially available audio products for the consumer". And that's exactly what the CD was.
-Gnobuddy
current status of "DTBA"
Hi there: The current status of Direct To Brain Audio involves cochlear implants which take the place of natural conversion of sound waves into electrical signals, substituting electronic equipment which then connects to the brain. DTBA is not a limited concept of music reproduction, it could also become telephony...just think about something and automatically it would be transmitted to the nearest repeater station and on to the message receivers DTBA...regards, Michael
Hi there: The current status of Direct To Brain Audio involves cochlear implants which take the place of natural conversion of sound waves into electrical signals, substituting electronic equipment which then connects to the brain. DTBA is not a limited concept of music reproduction, it could also become telephony...just think about something and automatically it would be transmitted to the nearest repeater station and on to the message receivers DTBA...regards, Michael
that sounds eerily like a plot element from one of my favorite late 60's flicks - "The President' Analyst"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PebCB0IIANI
"....and this may come as a surprise to you, but there are quite a few people who actually dislike The Phone Company"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PebCB0IIANI
"....and this may come as a surprise to you, but there are quite a few people who actually dislike The Phone Company"
I probably shouldn't reveal this but...........I caught wind of most likely the next big technological advancement in audio will be and am so excited I can't contain myself.
For the past few years CERN was more or less a front for the real research. Well all the secrecy and hard work has paid off.
WE NOW HAVE AN AMP THAT GOES TO 11
Yup. You heard it here first. An amp that finally goes to 11. Eat that NASA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For the past few years CERN was more or less a front for the real research. Well all the secrecy and hard work has paid off.
WE NOW HAVE AN AMP THAT GOES TO 11
Yup. You heard it here first. An amp that finally goes to 11. Eat that NASA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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