[BC] Could our concept of audio be all wrong?

[Jim Tonne]

Jim wrote in part:
> It's just a bunch of square waves and sounds like crap.  Why do they do 
> this?

Rich replied:
> For the same reason we do it in radio - loudness.

I am not so sure about that.  First, CDs have a huge dynamic
range.  I just plain don't buy the "My CD is louder than your CD!"
argument.  To make it loud, turn up the volume control.  You
are not comparing CDs' volumes by pushing a button as  you
can do with a car radio setup.

What I think HAS happened is that over the past few decades
people who have no experience listening to a live performance
have become used to the sound of a short-recovery-time
processor and some clipping.  That's what they now expect
to hear.

I was apalled when I examined some rock-n-roll CD tracks
on an oscilloscope several years ago.  I noticed the AGC
attack time was up in the few millisecond range (which is
about where the ear likes it), then the overshoots were
clipped (ugh!) and THEN the signal was pre-emphasized
(presumably to the 50us/15us CD time-constants).

Sometimes I think the Audimax/Volumax weren't all that bad!

:-)

- JimT