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Re: [OM] Re: HiFi

Subject: Re: [OM] Re: HiFi
From: Dirk Wright <wright@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 09:35:24 +0000
>However, if you carry on listening with your old system, and instead of 
>listening to the hifi you put on a nice record/CD/tape (yes, I know, an old 
>cassette tape!) and actually listen to the performers, you *may* realise 
>that the new component isn't really necessary.
>

That's due to the relatively short aural memory that humans seem to possess. 
However, I can relate a story about the first time I heard horn loudspeakers. 

Back about 1990, a friend of mine had an interest in these things, and 
gathered, thanks to an extensive scientific library here at the Patent 
Office, many articles about them. He convinced me that horns, in theory, were 
better than direct radiators (cone's and dome's in boxes). Somehow, he 
contacted a local fellow that had a set of Kilpschorns that he had made 
himself from plans and arranged an audition. We went over, and he popped a CD 
into an ancient Sony player, hooked up to a quadraphonic Marantz receiver 
from the '70s, using only two channels via about 30 foot lengths of 22 gauge 
(really thin) speaker wire to the horns in the corners of a large room. I was 
astonished at the sound. It was natural. It was real. The bass was soooooo 
clean. The highs were clear. The imaging sucked, which was not surprising 
with the speakers about 30 feet apart, but the sound quality was outstanding. 
I went home to my cones and domes and just cried. The bass was thick and 
slow, the highs were scratchy, I wanted horns NOW!

So, I set about doing the research and buying the parts. No commercial horn 
systems existed at the time for home use. I bought math software and designed 
my own bass horns. I paid someone to build them. I bought the midranges and 
tweeters. With tube electronics, the sound was out of this world! I solved 
the imaging problem by vertically aligning the drivers for each channel. It's 
so real you can just about touch the performers! Horns rule!

So, for some of us, good sound is the holy grail. For others, it's just a 
radio.....

But, you know, when was the last time you went into a photo store and above 
each collection of brands was a selection of photos taken with that gear? 
This would be equivalent to going into a hifi store and listening to all the 
different brands and attempting to discern a difference. In the photo world, 
we are far too attached to test results than to the subjective quality of 
lenses. The sales people are all basically convinced that most gear can take 
pictures well enough that you can't tell the difference, so they sell based 
on price and features rather than performance. But, what would a "hi end" 
photo store look like? Nice, plush interior, comfy chairs in front of light 
tables, with lots of lupes and sample slides handy. Then, there would be the 
"slide show demo room"!!! "Ah, but sir, you have to be really serious before 
we let you in there." Black velvet covered walls, ten foot tall projection 
screen, the very best in slide projectors, more comfy chairs, people spending 
hours at a time analyzing the differences between lens brands, get the 
picture????? 


-- 
Be Seeing You.
Dirk Wright
Be a better psychiatrist and the world will beat a psychopath to your
door.


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