Holographic imaging

Roger,

“The Doppler detectors used in H-CAT require close to 200db of gain.” Huh, huh…… that’s an amplification factor of 100000000000. On a 1 V scale you are talking about a tenth of a nano-volt to produce a 1 Volt output and typical outputs. And you obviously only require a micro fraction of a volt for correction right? This is very interesting stuff indeed.

Everyone is entitled, at least here in the U.S.A., to the opportunity to earn a buck and you certainly are no different. But please give your audience a little more credit as some of us are educated enough to see right through your convoluted explanations and deceiving use of the English and pseudo-scientific descriptive language.

This is not a condemnation on your design and its sonic benefits but rather on the charlatan like marketing and communication practices.

I'm not surprised that Norm finds the H-Cat's processing appealing, as I have used/tried the same "process" in my reference system. "Multi-Tap Delay" circuits have been around since the 70's; there's nothing new here. Sorry to burst your bubble but this sham has gone on far too long in my honest opinion!

If I'm off base here than please explain your breakthrough (without devolving the proprietary details of course) in scientific terms commonly used for communication and explanation of acoustic or psychoacoustic phenomena in terms of Physics and Electrical Engineering in audio design.

Again, I believe that Multi-Tap Delay processors" are valid in their psychoacoustic effects and enhancements but I can not respect your convoluted explanations; simply state that it's a "Proprietary Process" and offer no explanation as others have suggested; rather than keep trying to swirl and convolute pseudo-scientific gibberish in a science-fiction type of way; please give some of us some credit as some of us not only possesses advance degrees in Physics but also in electrical engineering; and understand a thing or two about Spatial Audio and Psychoacoustic processing.

Is your process patented? Is it "patent pending"? I would like to see if you have submitted your breakthrough to the patent office; if you have then please send me the number as I would like to review it. I run across many "patent pending" statements in my business only to find out that it was never submitted nor was it ever intended to be submitted. Not for legal or financial reasons but rather for lacking any new technical discovery or breaking new ground.

You know how the old saying goes.... "If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck......"

By the way, the million dollar question...... Just to play along with you in your theoretical world......How do you correct and compensate for something that you can not measure????? It would seem to me that a circuit smart enough to compensate for these so call velocity, I mean "Doppler Effect" errors would need some sort of a "sense" circuit with predefined threshold triggers..... But then again maybe I’m just being logical and scientific about this whole matter!!!!!!

Roger,
Maybe I gave you too much credit in saying that you had implemented a Multi-Tap Processor circuit in your products.

Your theories, analogies and explanations have left me wondering what your academic credentials are.

I believe that Norm possesses a minor in Physics and how a person like that, trained in logical and scientific thinking can swallow your convoluted and non-factual theories and descriptions is beyond me.

It also leads me to wonder what you actually pot in those encapsulated modules?????????

Has a CAT preamp with the latest "Doppler Detectors" and "Velocity Correction" circuits been submitted to Stereophile for review? I really would like to see John Atkinson's measurements on this unit.

I'm curious to see if the "WTC" control actually does anything or like some claim "it does nothing at all". BUT I will not be dropping any of my money on your products after the ABSURD stands you have taken and the way you have presented your theory, logic and their lack of scientific basis in the exchanges here.

I almost feel bad for your customers who have dropped their money on your product only to read the quality, validity and lack of foundation of your responses here. Most of us want to substatiate the quality of our components on more solid grounds than just faith alone. A designer should be able to address his design and design choices or say nothing at all if he wishes. It is one thing to be vague but what you have done on this thread is something else!

If I were you, I would stop now, as with each of the exchanges here you lose more and more credibility!

Norm,
I'm not passing any judgment on the H-CAT. I have not even seen nor heard one. It may well be the great sound reproducer that you attest to. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I have used Multi-Tap Delay circuits to good effect and results in my own system. Based on everything that Roger has said, it lead me to believe that he may be using this process but then again he may not.

My only issue here is the lack of foundation in his theory, hypothesis and attempts at technical communication on Rogers part.

If you like what you hear from his equipment than more power to you. To each his own and at the end of the day it is one's (the product owner)ears which are the final test and judge.

Keep enjoy it. I will try to listen to his gear if given a chance. Maybe Roger is just not an eloquent communicator, who knows, but these exchanges do not reflect well on his technical soundness.

Norm,
I agree with you that 95% of the High-End product have a hard time justifying their cost but I would venture to say that a good 70% of them are technically sound and can be defended in terms of theory and science.

An amplifier circuit is as you say nothing new either in tube or solid-state form but it either works or it doesn't. In other words, it either does what it claims, amplifies, or it doesn't. A Preamplifier has to by definition switch between inputs and adjust gain or it does not do its job.

But when it comes to tweaks, cables, power conditioning to a certain extent, isolation devices and so on; I whole heartily agree with you that most of the claims are unfounded and are faith driven.

Remember the title of my upcoming book: "The Great Audiophile Swindle!"?

I recently read a review where the reviewer says: "yes, like many other audiophools, I have a bad tendency to equate price with performance"

Audiophiles for the most part are gullible and will take these faith based products at face value. The ear is a powerful tool but it can be misguiding as what may sound neutral and true to the original to me may not be true to you nor anyone else on this forum.

This subject fascinates me as we are all after that "Absolute Sound" and spend thousands of dollars trying to achieve it. But in reality their is no such thing as we were never present at the original performance to base it on and compare it to; and even if we were all there we would all hear a slightly different account of the performance. The "absolute sound" that we all seek is a VERY personal thing that only makes a one-to-one connection and that is to ones self by ones self.

I could go on and on but I wont. The bottom line is that at the end of the day, ONLY you have to be able to live with what you have purchased and it sound like you and I and the rest of the people on this forum have; but don't expect the H-CAT to be the cats meow to everyone else.

My only problem with Roger is his lack of technical foundation, and when he does try to get technical he makes some outlandish claims.

Norm do you happen to know Roger Paul's academic credentials?

There in lies the rub:

Norm there are a number of ways to enhance the spatial image and its dimensionality. BUT according to Roger Paul he's not processing the signal in any way other than purely amplifying it. He claims no processing nor signal manipulation!.....So what does the H-CAT "WTC" controller actually do? That is the crux of the matter and so far Roger has not been able to address that with any type of factual response.

Spatial processing is an area of interest to me and I have well over 40 type of processors (both analog and digital) that are designed to enhance spatial cues; but they are and do not claim to be anything other than "audio processors". I'm actually able to manipulate the stereo image as I wish in either the digital or analog domain with these processors to obtain my desired effect.

Roger Paul claims to be able to correct "Velocity Errors" captured by his "Doppler Detectors" and claims to do all this in the classic straight-wire with gain approach; so we go back to the WTC...

Let me ask you a series of questions that will shed some insight into the H-CAT (at least for me):

1. Does it have great dynamic range or does the volume/spl of the presentation seem to stay on an average level?

2. When you play the "soundstage" track (track # 10) on the Stereophile Test CD#2 where the person is clapping from one side wall (one edge of the stage) to the other and then from the far wall all the way back up the stage (Piano), does the sound presentation follow the diagram and the description on the CD booklet of what took place? Or does most of the sound appear to originate from the middle?

Give me the answers to those two questions as they may shed some insight into what "non-process" he's using.

Others on this forum and on Audioasylum have claimed that adjusting the WTC controller has no effect so it makes me wonder if this is 100% a placebo effect.

Whatever is potted in those encapsulated components is either manipulating and enhancing the spatial image as you claim or is not doing anything as Roger Paul claims.

I'll await your responses.