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Comment Re:An exercise for the reader (Score 1) 255

Well, for the record, I've not been rejected, but I've only published within AES once.

It's not an attack, it's more a statement of truth. The AES publishes all sorts of things. Papers with interesting ideas and no data (eg, the J. Dunn 'equiripple filters cause preecho' paper, which presents a fascinating insight, even if it doesn't work out in practice), papers with data that are effectively WTFLOL (the famous Oohashi MRI paper) and papers that are more careful controlled studies. It runs the whole gamut on both sides, just as I said.

Do you deny that a substantial portion of the membership, including many elders of the group, are not 'bigger numbers are always audibly better' audiophiles? It was Andy Moorer himself who, with no hard data, kicked off the insane sampling rate race that now has some hardcore audiophiles wondering if 192kHz is enough.. they're holding out for 384kHz!

Is the AES a worthless cesspool? Oh heck no. Never said that. But treating its publications as more than a good industry rag (where it's sometimes hard to tell the research from the advertisements).. or perhaps an advanced debating club... is probably not a very good idea. Treating any one AES paper as gospel is just insane.

Comment An exercise for the reader (Score 1) 255

Assuming from the press release that this is an apodizing filter that 'removes' Gibbs effect preringning... how many peer reviewed studies can we compile here below my post that indicate anyone can hear these 'artifacts'?

Ready, on your marks, go!

Be careful of publications from the businesses that are pushing these filters (eg, Meridian audio / J. Robert Stuart). AES papers count only if the results have been independently reproduced (the AES is in the business of publishing 'interesting ideas', and the papers run the gamut of careful science to raving lunacy).

"I listened and _totally_ heard a rounder, fuller sound with better staging" is not data. It's what audiophiles have said of every nonsense breakthrough of the past 40 years. The one true breakthrough, digital audio, they generally still roundly pan and feel the need to 'fix' by sprinkling fertilizer all over it. It's like holy penguin pee, only it smells bad.

'Proofs' and explanations are nice, I indulge in them myself, but the blind listening data is the final authority.

Comment So long and thanks for all the fish (Score 1) 320

We had about six years where Linux wasn't the unsupported red-headed stepchild of the Web. It was nice while it lasted.

Firefox is losing market share, so it's understandable that they want to avoid the following: "We notice you have an unsupported browser. Please download Safari or IE to view this content". That wouldn't really serve anyone's interests.

Unfortunately, this just pushes the problem onto Linux as a whole: "We notice you have an unsupported OS. Please use Mac OS or Windows to legally view this content."

Comment Re:The article writer is a deaf idiot (Score 1) 841

If you turn the samples up until you can hear the noise floor, you can easily hear the difference. Of course, at those levels, a full range signal would launch your speaker cones out of the cabinets. So is that a fair comparison of 16 vs 24?

There are any number of ways to cheat an ABX test to your own satisfaction. If the goal is to delude yourself, you'll probably succeed.

Comment Re:The article writer is a deaf idiot (Score 4, Insightful) 841

Indeed. One of the overlooked but highly important issues with sampling rates is that although you can represent up to Nyquist in a periodically sampled signal, that is the limit for infinite length recordings. For finite-length recordings, it isn't all or nothing, represented perfectly or not at all -- instead the uncertainty (read: representation error) increases as you approach Nyquist.

Too bad Shannon and Nyquist are dead. It seems they've completely misunderstood the math. How embarrassing they passed on before you could correct their mistake. Now they'll never know.

Comment Re:Can we stop using the word "truthiness," please (Score 5, Informative) 841

Truthiness refers to a specific kind of lie-- a lie that sounds true, and that a large segment of people really want to be true. The kind of thing that's close enough to true for AM radio talk show hosts.

And now... I'll get off your damned lawn. Don't forget to take your teeth out before falling asleep.

Media

Submission + - Why Distributing Music As 24-bit/192kHz Downloads Is Pointless (xiph.org)

An anonymous reader writes: A recent post at Xiph.org provides a long and incredibly detailed explanation of why 24-bit/192kHz music downloads — touted as being of 'uncompromised studio quality' — don't make any sense. The post walks us through some of the basics of ear anatomy, sampling rates, and listening tests, finally concluding that lossless formats and a decent pair of headphones will do a lot more for your audio enjoyment than a 24/192 recordings. 'Why push back against 24/192? Because it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, a business model based on willful ignorance and scamming people. The more that pseudoscience goes unchecked in the world at large, the harder it is for truth to overcome truthiness... even if this is a small and relatively insignificant example.'

Submission + - Device Could Make Ships 'Invisible' to Waves (sciencemag.org)

An anonymous reader writes: The weird science of invisibility has entered uncharted waters. By altering the sea floor in just the right way, it should be possible to hide an object floating on the sea from passing waves, a fluid mechanician predicts. The technique might help to protect ships and floating structures from rough seas. And because the scheme works entirely differently from the "cloaks" developed to hide objects from light and other electromagnetic waves, it breaks new ground for research.
Advertising

Submission + - Proceeds from Vita ad donated to Anonymous (playerattack.com)

dotarray writes: German band Atari Teenage Riot was recently featured in the "Never Stop Playing" ad campaign for PlayStation Vita — today founding member Alec Empire has announced that all royalties and other money arising from the ad will be donated to a website supporting hacktivist group Anonymous.

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