Re: Data compression, twitch factors, knee jerks and God

[Adam Levin <alevin@ari.net>]

On Thu, 15 Jan 1998, Fmplautus wrote:

> <<Many people seem to have developed a knee-jerk reaction to the 
>presence 
> of data compression, but I think that a lot of that is people listening 
> to the spec sheet instead of with their ears.  
> >>
> 
> The LoOpDoctOrs don't agree...we listen with our ears and we hear that 
>hard
> disc recording kills what we can afford for analogue and we love the 
>freedom
> allowed by our computer.  
> 
> However, we find it alarming that manufacturers will play God with 
>recorded
> human history.  And we have been around recording long enough to remember
> "perfect sound forever," the initial hype when Phillips/Sony introduced
> digital.  It turned out to be far from perfect and the forever part only
> applies to the painful aural butchery that that was made immortal in 
>early
> digital recordings.
> 
> In short, we trust our ears and nobody's spec sheets.  And we are HIGHLY
> suspicious of faux scientific explanations as to why we should accept 
>"less"
> as "more."  That includes marketing/compression schemes.  Bang for the 
>buck is
> one thing, but don't tell our ears they're related to jerky knees.   The
> "twitch factor" for marketing types with profit line incentives is much 
>higher
> then the 
> "knee jerk" factor in musicians.
> 

Umm, so are the Loop Doctors saying that they actually hear a degradation
in sound from the compression schemes used in MiniDisc recording?

-Adam

---
       "...if one strives at hearing for the sake of constant virtue,
       out of seeking liberation from cyclic existence, gradually one 
                           becomes a Hearer."
                           - Chandrakirti