Re: [NTLK] Checking in / iPod Comments...

From: Marco Mailand (Newton2k1_at_mac.com)
Date: Tue Oct 30 2001 - 15:07:44 EST


From: "Eric L. Strobel"
> Funny thing is, if you talk to a TRUE audiophile,
> you find out that *they* SNEER at "CD-quality" as being unacceptably poor!
I know also a few of those audiophiles, which claim to hear the differences
between an analog HiFi and a digital recording. The human ear is very
sensitive for very small differences in frequencies but only if a reference
is there! We hear 1/100 of Hertz difference between two e.g. guitar strings
and we hear also the small jitter caused by dirt on the capstan shaft. But
the lowpass filter of a normal CD player sits at 20kHz which is about as
twice as much as we can hear. This filter 'rounds' the tiny steps between
the bit changes of the data stream and makes the whole digital signal
appearing to be analog. But there's more: by oversampling of the 'coarse'
16-bit 44.1kHz audio stream they cheat the listener and calculate
intermediate points which never existed in the original recording but allow
to put the low-pass filter to sit on higher frequencies and have the attack
appearing harder.

But finally the excellent sound of whatever source (analog or digital) is
put out into a crappy room with asymmetrically arranged furniture or usually
anisotrop reflection from the walls. Okay, real audiophiles have no
furniture :-) and listen only with the best headphones. And then did they
ever check their ears? My doctor found recently that I have about -15dB
hearing ability at 6.8kHz on each of my two ears, which might have been
caused by one single explosion like a fireworks rocket.

I can really not understand any audiophobie unless the person proofes his
hearing.
But on the other hand are there really bad MP3 players too, e.g. the one of
the Jenoptik JD350-MM Digital Camera (Even I hear the difference ;-)

--
With best regards / Viele Gruesse!

Marco Mailand http://slsbd.psi.ch/timing

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