Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site opus.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!cires!nbires!opus!rcd
From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: CD Don't you just love 'em?
Message-ID: <515@opus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-May-84 00:59:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: opus.515
Posted: Wed May 30 00:59:33 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 31-May-84 20:13:29 EDT
References: <405@houxa.UUCP> <1625@sunybcs.UUCP>
Organization: NBI, Boulder
Lines: 55

How many postings to this group have something substantive to say, and how
many are just grinding axes?...
>  You have got to be kidding.
>  CD's suck.
...well, we've set the stage for some heavy technical discussion.

>  They have no place in a home or high end system.
>  They would have a place if there existed a truely digital system.
>  From CD --> Preamp --> Amp --> speaker  all digital.
>  Converting to analogue at the first arrow kills the entire process.
How many times do we have to hit this idea on the head before it will
die???  Look, the technical principles are simple:  If you start with a
completely analog reproduction chain, and you replace some subsection of it
with a process that goes thru an A/D converter (ADC), digital handling
which preserves the digitized data, and a D/A converter (DAC), you replace
whatever "problems" (noise, distortion) the analog subsection had with the
problems of the ADC-DAC combination.  If the ADC-DAC introduces less noise
and less objectionable distortion, you win.  Generally, this means that the
more stages you replace, the more you're likely to win (since each analog
stage necessarily introduces some noise) BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO REPLACE THEM
ALL.  You can't get rid of the ADC and the DAC (in any practical sense)
because you're dealing with analog signals.
 
>  Passible systems of analogue nature deal with the hiss and pop
>  problems by simply taking care of the vynal and the stylus.
Pardon my humble self for not having perfect media.  (Does anyone know
where I can get a perfectly pressed copy of Mars Hotel?  It's only been out
of print for 8 years or so...)  BTW, the hiss comes mainly from the master
tape (at least, when it's analog:-).  It's hard to get rid of that by
caring for the vinyl and stylus.
 
>  Digital (period) on an analogue system produces bad sound.
Die, foul legend, die!  This sort of a statement conjures up images of
digital gremlins attacking analog sorcerers.  If you can say it's bad, at
least say what's wrong with it!

>  (the purists even hate the digitally recorded vynal)
Even a purist can be pigheaded...the purists will always find someone who
will tell them what they want to hear and take their money, in exchange for
which they will usually get a decent but vastly overpriced audio system.
(The reason the purist systems are generally at least decent, I conjecture,
is that if one sets out with even a vague idea of what to do, and optimizes
enough parameters, one can hit on the correct ones even if only by chance.
Stated somewhat differently, it is possible to reach a valid conclusion
starting from false premises.)

>  The question available for discussion is whether a totally 
>  digital system will produce an acceptable sound.
It may be available for discussion, but I find the possibility so remote
with anything like current technology that it's a fairly academic idea.
(When I think of a totally digital system, it conjures images of trying to
control a speaker mechanism with a bang-bang servo.)
-- 
...Stop to smell the flowers.				Dick Dunn
{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd				(303) 444-5710 x3086