[Gllug] MP3 player recomendations

Nix nix at esperi.org.uk
Mon Sep 3 06:57:19 UTC 2007


On 2 Sep 2007, Chris Bell outgrape:
>    I have listened to music under as near to ideal conditions as possible,
> where the expense of equipment is virtually no problem, and have been able
> to immediately compare what I have heard with the original live music. The
> quality possible is extremely high, but really does depend on the listening
> conditions.
>    Studio monitoring is done in a very well soundproofed room, with walls
> lined with thick sound absorbent covering to avoid colouration, and there is

... and indeed I don't have this sort of equipment available, and I'm not
audiophile enough to care. It's not that `the sound isn't exactly what it
would be if I were in the room'; quite often classical concerts happen in
venues with pretty awful acoustics anyway.

It's that I can feel that the music is missing hunks of itself.

>    Many microphones are designed to work a little away from the sound
> source, but many performers think that they need to almost swallow a
> microphone.

Hah. Another advantage of classical music. The number of cellists who
swallow their microphone is very low :)

>              This can result in continually variable sound quality as they
> move,

The number of cellists who move around much as they play is also low :)

>    There was a carefully considered and calculated write-up in a technical
> magazine which compared the dynamic range of sounds in a studio environment
> and the average background noise level in a normal environment. Adding the
> two together required several kilowatts of sound power in a reinforced
> concrete room, with infinite space behind a bank of speakers built into the
> wall, and no neighbours for several miles. (Published early one April).

The irony here is that the recording environment is highly unlikely to
be anywhere near that insane, so part of that lunacy is going on
reproducing background noise *in the original recording*.
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