[LAU] What is the best MP3 encoder?

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 02 April 2013 12:46:07 Ralf Mardorf did opine:

> On Tue, 2013-04-02 at 11:32 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > So I used a cmos op-amp which uses very little current at normal
> > signal levels.  The TLO74/84 family.  These were great, and could
> > make 29 volts P- P on a +-15 volt supply rail at around .007%
> > distortion.
> 
> I still own a lot of TL07* (at least a stick with some 702), it's
> written that my Behringer mixer does use 4580 and it's written that the
> ADA8000 does use TL072, but that the ADA8200 will use 4580.
> 
> Years ago, when I got my Behringer mixer I worried about the many TL07*
> I bought a short time, before I bought the mixer. A friend confirmed
> that at that time TLs were less used anymore for audio gear.
> 
> I never made ABX tests for op-amps, but IMO a lot of IC gear is able to
> keep up with good discrete circuits, at least in the homestudio price
> range those newer op-amps IMO do sound very good.

And I wasn't saying that it was todays cat's meow.  I forgot to mention 
that this was 25 years ago.  Should have.

The production video switcher we used for many years, a Grass Valley Group 
300-3A/B, used a grocery sack full of a slightly bigger than an airmail 
stamp, custom made op-amp that Grass designed.

Of course, as the far end of the bathtub curve of time vs failure rates 
approached, it lost a channel, one of those little ceramic cards had died.

I called Grass, they wanted $1500 and would not guarantee that the 
remaining ones on the shelf were good.  That wasn't good enough for me, so 
I started scouring catalog's & calling the chip makers.  I forget who came 
to my rescue with a one rail 5 volt video speed op-amp with an in my hand 
price of less that 2$.  So I asked for samples & they sent 5, gratis.

I should have bought 50 because it was so much better and faster that it 
threw the color phase noticeably off when that mixer channel was in use.  
If I had sufficient stock, I would have shotgunned the other 5 identical 
boards so they would have all matched again.  But changing them out was a 
good 3 hours a board, so it never got done, but by the time I retired, the 
other 4 were in it because of more failures. Since one board then had 3 of 
those in it, the color hue shift was getting to be obnoxiously obvious.

When I announced I was retiring, the first thing they did was replace it 
because they knew I was the only one still living who might be able to fix 
it. They paid about 100k for another brand new one from a new company, and 
4 years later it was on its last legs.

Then digital needed to be done, so the building was rebuilt for a brand new 
rack room and two control rooms, 3 more edit bays, 2 production offices, 
and an all new area for engineering since there are now 2 tv channels, 4 
programs, originating there plus a radio station.  That has had its share 
of 'teething' pains, but the junk seems to have largely been swept out in 
the 5 years since, so its usually running pretty good.  All with gigabit 
ethernet, and some 10Gb in one instance, its nice to be able to move a 1 
hour long program file from one box to another in 2 or 3 seconds. :)

Cheers, Gene
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