Respectfully disagree.
Music which arrives via sound pressures waves is a single entity. It is only through an abstraction of mathematical formulas that this is represented as a series or set of individual sine waves. This is an abstraction at best.
Will Analog be better than my high end digital?
- Thread starter bebop86
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Respectfully disagree.
Music which arrives via sound pressures waves is a single entity. It is only through an abstraction of mathematical formulas that this is represented as a series or set of individual sine waves. This is an abstraction at best.
Respectfully disagree. Virtually any musical envelope waveform can be represented by the sum of multiple sine waves. That's not to say that accurate reproduction of sine waves guarantees accurate reproduction of music, but it does suggest (almost to the point of certainty) that accurate reproduction of music first requires accurate reproduction of sine waves.
I say just take it out an set it up (ask for help if need be). Enjoy it for what it is just now. If you like it then you can always explore better options.
I'm 95% analogue, but I'm starting to enjoy the digital format (in between turntables at the moment) and I'm having a wonderful time with my very old H/K DVD47 (CD/DAD-A/SACD) player. I've been selectively burning some of my FLAC files onto CD for playback through my main rig and I'm having a blast. My digital front-end is poor, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.
I'm 95% analogue, but I'm starting to enjoy the digital format (in between turntables at the moment) and I'm having a wonderful time with my very old H/K DVD47 (CD/DAD-A/SACD) player. I've been selectively burning some of my FLAC files onto CD for playback through my main rig and I'm having a blast. My digital front-end is poor, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.
How about:
Virtually any musical envelope waveform can be represented by the sum of multiple sine waves.
Music arrives via sound pressures waves to a microphone, that then converts it to a electrical signal which is a single entity.
The loudspeaker then converts this single entity back to multiple sine waves in the room.
Virtually any musical envelope waveform can be represented by the sum of multiple sine waves.
Music arrives via sound pressures waves to a microphone, that then converts it to a electrical signal which is a single entity.
The loudspeaker then converts this single entity back to multiple sine waves in the room.
Not an abstraction: A physical reality.
Actualy a sine wave would be that: A single entity. On the contrary Music is ... a lot of sine waves
Not an abstraction: A physical reality.
Actualy a sine wave would be that: A single entity. On the contrary Music is ... a lot of sine waves
What I am referring to is the pressure wave that ultimately strikes the ear drum which is a pressure value over time. A good conversation would be about the brain's ability to create a spatial 3D reality from the complex phase relationships of these pressure waves. What happens when you strip subtle phase relationships in favor of a limited frequency bandwidth as is done with digital recording techniques? Digital does not recreate a perfect recreation of the pressure waves but rather it recreates a facsimile that we as engineers have deemed good enough. The "good enough" is a set of measurements that have evolved over time based upon what people can and cannot hear. Many of the studies are old and many come from the telecommunications industry where the concern focused on quality of speech and not the "perfect" recreation of a musical experience.
So this is just my opinion which in this case is probably no better than any other relatively intelligent person here since this is outside my specific area of expertise. But I do wonder if the difference that so many of us continue to hear between digital and analog reproduction isn't rooted in the differences in how phase relationships are preserved. I think there is too much focus on frequency response. It is this complexity that I refer to as opposed to just frequency response.
The interpretation of a non sine wave signal by digital FFT spectrum analyzers is an abstract of the signal measured and not the reality of the signal. This is partially why there are so many different views of the data: e.g. Hamming, Blackman Gausian, Hann etc.
Engineers have come to rely upon measurement devices that are essentially colored lenses that they interpret through. All measurement devices have limitations that deliver fractional views of the reality of that which is measured. This is a fact that must be factored in when we interpret what is seen through these lenses.
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This is a common misunderstanding about digital recording. Even though the frequency response is limited, phase accuracy is not impaired.
Nothing is the audio world is perfect. But the digital part of an audio system is way more accurate than any mic & pre-amp combination in use today.
This is totally incorrect! Modern test protocols and test equipment have allowed serious audio professional's to fine tune just what an audiophile can or cannot hear.
I would suggest reading a few of the JJ Jonhston papers:
http://www.aes.org/sections/pnw/ppt.htm
Run a square wave at 1khz or 10khz through a red book record/playback process and tell me that the slew rate on transients has not been altered. You can argue whether it is audible but not that it is altered. Whether we can can hear beyond 20khz on pure sine waves is irrelevant to the loss of transient accuracy since we are much more sensitive to arrival times and phase relationships than frequency response.
RE AES: Read it and more ..
Will Analog be better than my high end digital?
I hope so , i spend about 15.000 euro on analogue equipment versus 230 euro on digital
I hope so , i spend about 15.000 euro on analogue equipment versus 230 euro on digital
Speedskater,
I would suggest you explicitly refer some of these test protocols and test equipment, or quote parts from the documents you refer. IMHO this type of answer is useless in a forum. The link you give us has tens of documents.
Thanks. IMHO harmonic distortion is a sine wave, we could conclude that all we have is perfect sine waves. Do you agree?
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