AES 2009 Audio Myths Workshop
Reply #238 – 2010-03-24 17:13:17
the metal in the valves sings along with the music ... tap the valves, you can hear the tapping through the speaker. I suppose you could call that reverb, but I call it ringing because it has a single dominant frequency. Either way, it's one very good reason to avoid tubes in all audio gear.I hope you don't think I'm being too harsh, but this renders the whole exercise a bit meaningless for me. It's turning from "this characterises any audio component" to "this characterises any audio component, except the ones it doesn't". There's a problem: who is to decide which ones it doesn't characterise? It's not meaningless IMO. The whole point of the "four parameters" is to define what affects audio reproduction . This word is in the title of my AES Workshop , and it's also clear in the script which I uploaded the other day and linked to in an earlier post in this thread. The script is HERE , and the exact wording is:The following four parameters define everything needed to assess high quality audio reproduction: Defining what affects audio reproduction has always been the entire point of my four parameters. I go out of my way to explain in forums (again and again and again) that I don't include intentional "euphonic" distortion in the list because that's a creative tool. As is reverb. This is why some people get so upset when I claim that a $25 SoundBlaster card has higher fidelity than the finest analog tape recorder. They immediately see red, and go on about how people prefer the sound of analog tape. And tubes. And hardware having transformers. And all the rest. But subjective preference was never my point or my intent. --Ethan