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Capturing the MUSIC; a furtive cause? What R We...

...missing when we listen to recorded music in our homes?

There's been a lot of talk lately -- and not so lately -- about the empirical (listening) vs. the scientific (measurable) EFFECTS regarding a number of things not least of which is changing the connecting wires in a reproduction network.

Rather than regurgitate the whole gamut of conflicting argumentation bandied around, I thought I'd just provide a link to an interesting reproduction (sorry for the pun) of a seminar by J. Boyk* at Caltech: "Capturing Music: The Impossible Task".

It's a short and interesting read.

For those who have already read this, pls excuse the redundancy in favour of those that haven't.

In this abstract Boyk touches on MUSIC, the difficult task of recording & reproducing music correctly --i.e. as the musician intended it to be heard -- and the diffulties inherent in trying to gauge or measure "QUALITY" of the recording & reproducing equipment.

Many interesting points made. Rather than expand further & waste server space, I'll just reproduce (that word again!) a nice little paragraph from the abstract:
A ...friend ...won the Westinghouse Science Talent Search in high school with his work on hearing; and continued in the field through a doctorate and professorship; but now works on vision. "Why the change?" I asked. "Listen!" he said, "In vision, at least we know what the questions are!"

I'd be interested in any comments &/or feedback. Cheers!

*Mr Boyk is a pianist, a lecturer at Caltech, and also does consulting work in related fields. He studied Maths.
gregm

Showing 2 responses by detlof

detlof
1,899 posts
 
Greg old friend, in picking up your thread after its hiatus of almost exactly three years, I'm beginning to wonder why it drew so little response in spite of the fact of its essential importance to us music lovers, celebrating our passion both in live performances or in front of our rigs at home. Is it, that an audiophile - and I take it that the people who congregate here belong to that breed - are not necessarily music lovers? Is it, even if they love music, that they shun live performances? Is it, that for many of us the rig is more important than the quality (in the sense of musicality )of what it produces, or is it, that discernment of ear has gone down the drain for many with the obvious loss of interest in complex classical music generally? Just wondering.......
Cheers,
detlof
1,899 posts
 
Dear Greg, didn't realize you were still around, saw your post about snake oil and wires. I still think your questions above are valid and I must say, that I still like my response. Sad, that it was all squashed and shut up by drab common sense.
Complacency will probably never be our own, will it?
Cheers,
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