In defense of audiophiles

Nearly 25 years ago, I walked into a “high-end audio” store for the first time. I intended to write an article exposing the enterprise – $10,000 amplifiers, $5,000 turntables, and the like – as a fraud. Could this souped-up gear sound that much better than mass-market stuff at one-tenth the price?

After a few seconds of listening, my agenda – and really, my life – took a new direction.

. By Fred Kaplan – Slate Magazine

A fun read and the story includes links to many other audio related stories at Slate.

Dolby to acquire low-bandwidth Swedish tech house

Dolby Laboratories says it will acquire Swedish technology house Coding Technologies in a deal said to be worth 250 million dollars. Like Dolby, Coding Technologies has a number of proprietary algorithms which improve the efficiency of compressed audio formats like AAC+ and MP3Pro. Dolby says that the purchase will “broaden its technology portfolio and [...]

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I think it’s a toss up between Degidesign and Dolby as to which has become the Microsoft of the audio industry. You don’t use their products because you want to; you use them because you have to.

Smarty-pants remarks from me aside, I’ve only found press releases about this so far, no discussion. What happens when Dolby owns the company that co-developed MP3 surround, a possible solution for delivering surround sound on digital radio?

Steinberg Releases WaveLab Version 6.1 Update

Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH announces a Version 6.1 update to its WaveLab 6 and WaveLab Studio 6 applications. The 6.1 updates offer new Internet publishing features that include RSS 2.0 support, a built-in FTP client, templates designed for easier setup and more.

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To say that the needs of the audio practitioner have changed in the past few years would be to understate the case rather dramatically.

AES Convention Report: From the world of Sound

Stumbled across this well-written article, a report on one person’s take away from the recent AES convention in New York. The whole article is worth reading but this in particular caught my eye.

Manufacturers of DAW’s based on the proprietary hardware concept are realizing their need to not only support open standards, but that any goal of “owning” the recording industry, of establishing “the standard”, is simply no longer realistic. The recording studio of the future will be based on many platforms, all speaking the same language.

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Study: Music downloads don’t affect sales

Michael Geist has a post about the results of a recent Canadian government survey of downloading and its effect on music sales, and the study (full text of which is here) came to two conclusions: one was that, in the case of those who download music, there was a slight positive effect on their purchases of CDs — in other words, they bought more than the average.

The broader conclusion of the study, which was commissioned by Industry Canada and done by two researchers from the University of London, was that when looking at the entire Canadian population, downloading (which is, after all, still a fringe activity) has no perceptible effect on music sales whatsoever.

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“A recent Canadian government study . . .” This is not some lobby group. Ingram has an article in the Globe today but it’s behind their “subscribers firewall”.

Human Auditory System: Researchers identify how blind people hear better

If you have ever wondered if there was any truth to the idea that blind people can hear better than sighted people, now you have a scientific answer – apparently it is so.   Alexander Stevens at Oregon Health & Science University has just published the results of an imaging study to identify which areas of the brain are activated when blind (at birth) people hear sounds.  It turns out that part of the area normally used for vision processing is co-opted into performing aural processing. New Scientist has a short write-up and a link to the journal article abstract.

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Absolutely fascinating. I’d always assumed – as my grade 5 teacher Mrs. Levy reasonably suggested – that blind people had simply developed their listening skills to a higher degree. Hmmm. I guess she was right. It just happened at a higher level than I anticipated.

O’Reilly — Review: Zoom H2 Handheld Surround Recorder

After tantalizing hints and a more tantalizing shipping delay, the Zoom H2 is finally here, promising digital surround-sound recording in the palm of your hand for only $199. Was it worth the wait? Well, let me say that it certainly lives up to its moniker: this is one Handy Recorder.

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More info from O’Reilly related to surround sound. This is an older review of a hand-held four channel recorder. There are lots of links to other resources and lots of reaction from readers who are trying their own experiments with surround sound.

DIY Surround-Sound DVDs + Surround Sound from your Mac

Learn how to make 5.1-channel Dolby Digital DVDs at home without pricey pro software. Plus — a sneaky way to hook multiple speakers to a stock Mac.

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David Battino has a bunch of cool tips related to surround sound and your Mac. There are a number of tips in here which are brand new to me. It’s great to see people thinking and talking about surround sound and the DIY and consumer level.

Pushback on HD Radio in AM: Citadel Turns off Nighttime AM

Criticisms of problems in using HD Radio encodings for AM stations date back to the earliest days of the technology: The FCC approved nighttime broadcasting of HD Radio over AM a few months ago, but there are still relatively few AM stations using HD Radio, and thus problems are only starting to emerge.
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Radio World reports that Citadel Broadcasting, which has HD Radio enabled on 16 of its 66 AM stations, decided to turn off the 10 stations that were broadcasting digital signals at night due to reports of interference. The problem occurs when listeners hear “hiss” and stations on nearby channels hear noise.

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I first heard of this problem a couple of years ago while sitting in on a talk at the AES convention in NYC.

Congressional Support Grows for ‘White Spaces’ Wireless Mic Interests

The FCC has rescinded its October deadline for issuing new regulations governing use of the hotly-contested “white spaces” within the TV spectrum. Sandy LaMantia, president and CEO of Shure Inc., lauded the continuing efforts of a growing bipartisan group on Capitol Hill lending its support to wireless microphone interests.

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