Digital EQ the room (Off Topic)

by PeterSt. , Netherlands, Friday, December 21, 2007, 13:00 (5963 days ago)
edited by unknown, Friday, December 21, 2007, 13:57

In the other thread ( http://forum.bd-design.nl/index.php?id=14901 ) someone (maybe it was mr. Duelund) made a remark about that we never know what reality is/was on broader sound stage and all ...

Let me first stress on how very very much the stage (width, depth, height) already varies with bit perfect playback over different XXHighEnd versions, those versions only differing in jitter.
Other means (with the phenomenon consistency as a key word) determine what would be the best jitter signature, and from (a.o.) that follows the stage ...

That stage, varying per album/recording has -to my determination- one recognizeable property only : very flat is never good.
Or to my subject : very flat will not have been reality (from in-room normal recording, or from mixing). But :

Everything else but flat is IMO not determined. Instead, I must just trust that where the jitter signature is ok, what is perceived is reality.

What is the message ?
The message is that a wider stage says completely nothing about "good" or reality. The message is also, that with DSP stuff id is dead easy to create e.g. a wider stage. Is that good ? no.
The only thing you would be doing is masking the other anomalies in your chain.

As often, things can be compared with photography;
When you have an unsharp picture, you can sharpen it just by adding noise. It really works. Sadly, now there's noise in the picture and you now see *that*.
With (computer) music playback too, you can add noise (Foobar has a plugin for that somewhere). The result ? exactly the same as with images : a more crispy sound.
But be honest ... *knowing* that this is achieved by adding (audible) noise, would you go for that ?

I put myself to the task of achieving the best SQ possible by means of one thing only : as much 1:1 playback as possible. This is applied in XXHighEnd to my best knowledge, this is applied in the nos-DAC I use, this is applied in the (speed of the) CrazyAmps I use, this is applied in the "distortionless" representation of the Orphean horn loudspeaker I use.

Do not take the direct or underlaying messages in the latter as some blahblah and "I have the best playback system on the planet". It is *THE* thing to hunt for (1:1 playback), and it just BRINGS you the best system on the planet. Don't believe it ? hop over again.
Bert again is not invited.
He has such a system himself.

Guys, I and a few others have been there for the past 24 months or so, where indeed in all directions the 1:1 playback principle was applied (mind you, this is the opposite of DSPing). The improvements by it are not known in this Milky Way, if you only think about the short time where it happened.
A lot of you share these improvements, although for a small part only : XXHighEnd. I can tell you that at least the same efforts were applied to the Orphean-MKII, as well as the development of the CrazyA amplifier. This is (except for a few) what you NOT have, which makes you blind in judging.

Ehh ... about what ? right, about applying digital means in the DSP area, which only WILL destroy.
Oh, it might come to you as better allright, and in your situation it might even be completely legit. As legit as a masking cable to cut sharp highs ...

Lastly, and GC said it in the other thread, fooling around with digital is much more, say, "persistent" as fooling with analogue. Digital fooling has an impact that surpasses analogue fooling by far. Think of this one small example only :
Not bit perfect playback, in most of the (well tweaked PC) systems emerging from (unnecessary) dithering only, implies unintentional (not on the recording) volume changes of the smallest digital step of 1/65536. You wouldn't even be able to twist the volume knob that little !. But it's audible anyway ... (various anomalies are the result, but think of the stage changing).
Btw, did you know that the best way to perceive stage changes is to listen at "sweet spot distance" but right in front of one of the speakers ? This is the best means to perceive sound coming from the left speaker only (when sitting at the left side), or the sound coming still from the middle(ish). The more the latter happens, the better it is.

Peter

PS: Probably for the good cause this subject was split from Digital EQ by the mighty mod (it *was* slightly offtopic there of course), so I hope all is still a bit consistent within itself.

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