Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!kaepplein@amber.DEC From: kaepplein@amber.DEC Newsgroups: net.audio Subject: Re: Tighter bass and edgeless piano Message-ID: <511@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 12:18:08 EDT Article-I.D.: decwrl.511 Posted: Fri Sep 20 12:18:08 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 22-Sep-85 19:02:40 EDT Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 54 >Is there another domain of sound reproduction that has escaped >detection by electronic instruments but is be obvious to the ear? >Everything happens for a reason and anything that can be heard >can be measured. Yes. Julian Hersh and the manufacturers measure mostly static performance with sine waves. There are two problems here. The first is that sine waves poorly represent typical source material, and that the only test instrument that counts in the end is the ear. Music is very transient and ears are very sensitive to signal attacks among other things ( I don't have my psycoacoustics and computer music texts handy). If you are lucky, some reviews will publish a picture of a sine wave or impulse but they won't tell you the numbers for overshoot or the period/frequency/ cycles of ringing. Designers would love a subjective and quicker way of assessing performance than listening. There exists circuits for measuring distortion caused by capacitors. John Curl published one in the letters section of August's HiFi News and Record Review. >If someone does know what is happening with the CD 1040 mods >and can offer a rational explanation of why, fine. I want to >learn. Maybe we can all learn. Maybe even some of us can develop >less costly and equally useful methods for accomplishing the same results. First of all, a modified 1040 is much cheaper than a Nakamichi or a Mission or a Meridian. $330 is about what most players cost. I suggested the modification places for those not willing or handy with an iron. For under $10 you can replace the electrolytic DC filtering capacitors with film capacitors. Most CD players/VCRs/laser disk players/receivers could use this too. Electrolytic caps smear transients. For another $5, you could replace the opamps. The problem is that I don't know much about opamps and could not tell you which ones will have lower distortion than the NE5532's Phillips uses. Besides parts and labor, you are paying mod houses for their intelectual property. The two most important changes can be made for the cost of a disk. The most expensive change, a good audio cable, might come next. These are problems that are not solved with equalizers or ambience recovery modules. Fixing it amounts to the manufacturer spending an extra $10 but charging consumers an extra $500+ The Magnavox is not a bad unit. I'm sure Julian Hersh would say that its sounds just as perfect as any other player and would laud its immunity to shocks. It's a bargain in a market filled with outrageous hype. >Terry L. Zrust Mark Kaepplein