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From: wunder@wdl1.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Re: CD musings and freqs gt 20 kHz
Message-ID: <220@wdl1.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Jan-85 00:03:44 EST
Article-I.D.: wdl1.220
Posted: Fri Jan 25 00:03:44 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 28-Jan-85 07:40:44 EST
Sender: notes@wdl1.UUCP
Organization: Ford Aerospace, Western Development Laboratories
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Nf-ID: #R:itm:-22600:wdl1:2200007:000:1238
Nf-From: wdl1!wunder    Jan 24 19:18:00 1985

The other A/B test was done long ago by RCA.  Hi-Fi amplifiers
were new, and many people thought that the extra high-frequency
response made them sound worse.

RCA used an acoustic low-pass filter with a cutoff of 7Khz.  The
filter was made of vertically mounted slats which pivoted so that
the filter could be opened and closed, sort of like a sideways
mounted Venetian blind.  There was a live instrumental combo behind
the filter and a curtain in front of it.  Groups touring the RCA
facility would come into the room, sit down, and do a blind A/B test.

The results were overwhelmingly in favor of the high frequncies.
RCA's explanation of why the Hi-Fi amps sounded bad was this:  before
anybody could play back thngs in Hi-Fi, nobody put much effort into
recording things in Hi-Fi -- thus the high frequencies were badly
distorted and really did sound bad through good equipment.

I read about this in Pop Electronics or some such.  The article was
titled something like "The Experiment that Saved Hi-Fi".

Many times I have wished that somebody would bring back that neato
acoustic low-pass filter technology and wrap televisions in something
that cut the flyback whine (what?  you can't hear it?  but that's
only 15KHz!).

wunder