[LAD] Re: Direct Stream Digital / Pulse Density

[Maitland Vaughan-Turner]

Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> sez:

>
> On Tue, 2007-09-25 at 19:31 +0200, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
>
> > A nice variation on this theme occured years ago at an AES conference.
> > The speaker wanted to demonstrate that 'digital' sound was crap, by
> > using the familiar 'push down the extended arm' test. Test persons
> > listening to analog sound could easily resist, while they lost all
> > force when listening to a digital recording.
> >
> > What the speaker didn't know was that the PA system used to play the
> > tracks was fully digital...
>
> I once helped prepare the equipment for a double-blind test of speaker
> cables.  All the golden-eared audophiles picked out one cable as being
> far superior to the others, with better clarity and definition in the
> upper harmonics and tighter more defined bass or some such bollocks.
>
> I did have to buy my Mum a new extension lead for her lawnmower, though.
> Sixty feet of Black and Decker's finest, with Speakon plugs soldered to
> it.
>
> Gordon

That's pretty freaking funny.  Reminds me of the Penn and Teller where
they sell the diners in a trendy restaurant water from a garden hose
on the patio.  haha  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc  it's
really funny stuff; worth watching if you have a couple minutes.

Incidentally, I get my water from a mountain spring up the road (can't
do much better than that, eh?), although I *have* bought a bottle of
two of Evian in my day :)

As for the double blind audio test, I reckon you guys have all seen
the new AES journal by now (if not, go to your mailbox).  There is a
double-blind test where people were played DVD-A and SACD's, but some
of them were passed through an extra A/D/A stage at 16bit-44.1khz.
There was something like a 50% success rate in choosing the audio
source correctly.

Maybe it *is* all in my head...?

Although, I wonder if ear training has anything to do with it.  I'm
super dorky sometimes, and I used to mix multitrack projects to
different bit-depths/sample-rates and then try to train myself to hear
the differences between them.  hahaha, I figure most people don't do
that sort of thing...


~Maitland