27 Mar
2010
27 Mar
'10
11:04 a.m.
On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 12:53:22PM +0000, James Stone wrote:
I read something in tape-op about some "golden
eared" guy who detected
something wrong with a neve desk IIRC and when they analysed it, it
turned out there was some problem with the freq response above 60K or
some other equally unbelievable figure. From what I read they are
supposed to have a really transparent sound (whatever that means).
Whatever that means, indeed.
A classic way for analog circuits to fail is to have some
oscillation above the audio range - up to several MHz is
possible - and that can affect the sound in very sublte
ways, and depending on the signal itself. More often than
not such things depend on how the circuit is connected,
on wiring capacitances, power supply impedances, etc.
Problems like this can be very different on production
hardware and laboratory prototypes, and are not always
revealed by traditional measurement methods. It wouldn't
be the first time for such a defect to remain unnoticed
for years. Until someone hits exactly the type of audio
signal that gets affected in a percetible way, and has
the ears to detect it. But still these are defects,
nothing magical about them.
Also in the era when manufacturers such as Neve made
their name, there were *lots* of badly designed filter
circuits in use. So if Neve or one of the others made
something that was 'just OK', it would get noticed and
create a myth, even if objectively it was just a good
quality circuit without problems.
I doubt something similar could be done with digital
as the placebo
effect is completely lost!
Placebo effects and nonsense exist in the digital world
as well, and are even harder to debunk.
Ciao,
--
FA
O tu, che porte, correndo si ?
E guerra e morte !