30 Years of Perfect Sound?

Markh,

Now I am curious, why the interest in this particular article?

Thanks.

About KR.

Dunno anything else about him. He has a nice website though! And nice photography.

Nice looking kids too!

Nonoise,

With your moniker, i could see where computer audio might not sit well.

There are effective ways to isolate stereo from computer. Network players like squeezebox with a wireless connection and outboard dac perhaps if desired are hard to beat.

"Nothing is lacking unless you are addicted to noise and pleasant distortion?"

I am currently in a state of remission.......

WIth a quick read, and without time to re-confirm the math, I might nitpick a things, but the article as a whole seems to be pretty good and reasonably accurate.

My first player was a first or second gen Magnavox, one of the early popular units. It was a mixed bag. My digital has only gotten to the point of competing with my vinyl in recent years. That is more due to me and my priorities than the state of the technology at any particular time I would say.

I do think that the sound quality of many CDs started to peak in the 90's sometime. Earlier CDs still sound good sometimes but were more hit or miss. SOme seemed to be just cranked out with little thought prior to meet the demands of the new burgeoning market.

"He should listen to gear more and report what he hears rather than make technical conjectures why he thinks something must sound better. "

His site seems to be a nice mix of facts and opinion.

Listening and reporting is only an opinion. Anyone can do that. Doing the technical research to understand why one might hear what they hear is a lot harder. If you look at his site, he appears to do a good job with technical research relating to photography first and audio second. Photography and audio are not unrelated technically.

I gather he is 100% bought into digital photography and audio despite being old enough to recall what preceeded it and I think even working professionally in these areas.

I like his site. Not for analog buffs mainly though he does review some interesting vintage audio gear perhaps not well known to high end audio affectionados.

"I'm still not sold on his premise that 44.1/16 is enough bits, as I've heard some pretty great 96/24 stuff, but I have to say that I've heard A LOT of great 44.1/16 stuff too."

I think there may be some cases where more is better, but I do think the CD medium was well thought to meet the needs of most (similar to how 33 1/3 vinyl was in its day) which is part of the reason it has lasted as long as it has despite much technical progress in the last 30 years that should have rendered it totally obsolete years ago and still more to come down the road.

Hmm, I think if one has a website about technology (photography and home audio) one should offer up more than just opinion based on listening.

For the average Joe listener, nothing wrong with listening and deciding, but a little understanding of the technology can never hurt.

BTW, I just realized that his subtitle "30 years of perfect sound forever" is probably the biggest offense. Clearly nothings perfect nor forever. A bit of exaggeration in writing can help make a read more interesting and controversial albeit less accurate.

"The only thing that computer audio has murdered is the sound.'

Come hear mine. Maybe I can change your mind.