[BC] Internet STLs

[Mike McCarthy]

In the golden era hey-day of hi-fi (70'S/EARLY 80'S), many folks had
golden ears. Their hearing hadn't yet been destroyed by ear buds/Walkman
headsets or the thumping subs of car stereos. Many of them actually KNEW
what clipping and/or IM or other artifacts sounded like. Doing A/B/X tests
back then were excruciating. Hi-fi actaully meant something. It was a
goal.

Today, "golden ears" are something of a lost art form since hi-fi is
easily attained with off-the-shelf stuff bought at Best Buy. Very few
people outside of the fine arts know the "sounds" and can detect CRAP
audio without a comparison to a better sample.  Unfortunately most PD's
these days fall into the latter "can't objectively detect crapola"
category and simply put anything sent to them on the air.

At our music station a while back, the PD once complained about how the
music sounded so brittle. I then handed him an orignal CD of Heart's Magic
Man and Barracuda. Loaded it in to the automation system (normalized
levels), and then played it on the air. You can pretty well guess what
happened next...he finally "got" the fact the stuff they'd been importing
was terribly handled before arriving at the station.

MM

> On Friday 12 February 2010 03:06 am, Broadcast List USER wrote:
>>  Curt:
>>
>>  I (mostly) respect that attitude.
>
>  Thanks....
>
>>  MANY people don't have good systems, or even ears.
>>
>>  On the other hand, many do.
>
>  You say many, I say some.
>  In the "general population" I really just don't know.
>  That's one of those things I *expect* the PD to know.
>  That is part of their job, right ?
>
>>  But, here is the real issue:
>>
>>  Many listeners have OK systems, and they don't know why they hate bad
>>  audio, or even what bad audio is.
>>
>>  They just tune out.
>
>  On that, we are in total agreement.
>  That's why we both agree, "good enough" isn't !
>
> --
> Cowboy