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  1. J

    The Direct to Disc thread

    About Thelma and Whitney -- oddly, they are NOT related!!! Strange, huh? BTW, I used to have the vinyl back some 40+yrs ago, but the CD is pure DolbyA, and shreaks... John
  2. J

    A new, perfected DolbyA (well, not Dolby endorsed) compatible decoder.

    My DolbyA compatible decoder (it is called DHNRDS -- there is a www site for pros) is digital only -- takes .wav files specifically 16bit, 24bit and floating point. It always outputs 24bit or floating point as appropriate. Also, it creates/uses the BEXT and RF64 stuff as needed. (It always...
  3. J

    A new, perfected DolbyA (well, not Dolby endorsed) compatible decoder.

    First -- this project DOES decode DolbyA encoded material in a superior way, but isn't *really* Dolby related (they said that they weren't interested in the market anymore -- surprise!!! So, the project is now complete -- source code has been protected and pretty much stashed away. It matches...
  4. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    I might not agree with all of your statements (all of us make mistakes -- you and me included, it is just a matter of being human.) However, your statement above about recognizing defects is SOOO TRUE. When I work on the audio processing software --normally released audio material sometimes...
  5. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    All of the big ones -- for re-issues are cheap cheap cheap... I don't know enough about recent releases of new material, but since it is all digital, probably it is all done correctly. For Japanese -- I found something very interesting. It seems like they have a higher probability of not...
  6. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    PS -- I mistakenly uploaded the wrong file -- will have to take it down in 1Hr -- it is a full quality copy of 'With a little help from my friends..' Didn't mean to make a mistake -- might as well take advantage just to show the damage that mp3 causes -- the flac is pretty good. It will...
  7. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    Spend lots of money -- or just get the best possible quality (that hearing can perceive) without heroic measures using current technology? Note that I saw the rumble directly on a digital spectogram -- it is easy for digital. It would be interesting to actually measure the rumble for any high...
  8. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    Good -- if they can do a good job without feedback -- that is a GOOD thing. With all of the mass and the high speed necessary, that would be a pretty tricky and overshoot-prone control system...
  9. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    There is an endemic problem on the production side WRT digital between approx late 1960s through early 1990's... That is, because of the historical processes of backing up tape from analog to analog, and then analog to digital, an important step in digital production has been skipped. This...
  10. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    Then, I agree with you about what you think... I will NEVER contest your (or anyone's) perception. If someone would claim that they like a Victrola over a 45rpm record, but think that 192k/24bits is in between per their perception, then I'll agree with that also (but be confused about it.)...
  11. J

    Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66/Herb Alpert....which version to go for?

    I have a copy of both albums -- but JUST SO HAPPENS, they have DolbyA encoding left on them.. I only have some metadata online, but it is a 1991 release. After DolbyA decoding -- they are wonderful. I wouldn't reccomend them without a decoder. If there is any request, I'lll see about putting...
  12. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    WRT feedback... First, the feedback used in cutting the master is meant to be a mechanism to more accuratly position the cutter head and cutting needle. Feedbac isn't just the 'howl' in audio PA applications. Feedback is also a tool that helps all sorts of electronic (and also mechanical)...
  13. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    There is definitely a problem with accurately detecting the signal on vinyl. But cutting the master (forget what it is called) is electronically and mechanically a heroic effort. The feedback systems for positioning the cutter and the vast amount of power to be able to create the high...
  14. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    All one has to do is to look at a spectogram of signals from vinyl -- the rumble noise says much of the problem. The other distortions become mostly obvious -- the problem are partially the limitation of the equipment used to try to sense the information on the disk -- some of the problem is...
  15. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    The 'electrical interference' is very interesting to look at on a spectogram. I often see 50 or 60Hz (usually one or the other). Most often, the hum isn't bad enough that harmonics are created. Also, there is often a 9600, 19200 or 28000 (or other) band through the spectogram. In addition...
  16. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    Well, blaming non-mp3 issues on mp3 -- even bringing up mp3 when comparing with 'digital' in general doesn't make any sense. The only reason would be a strawman. I don't like mp3 either, but sometimes need to use it. Digital (that is, 44.1k/16bits) for audio presentation purposes is...
  17. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    I agree -- arguments against mp3 as the epitome of digital is a strawman argument. mp3 is simply a convenience for storage space, with a quality tradeoff still mostly superior to vinyl. I only use mp3 myself for casual comparisons -- limiting ONLY for the casual situations because the temporal...
  18. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    For fun, I am adding a link of some vinyl vs. CD (both Polar music) ABBA recordings. Also I have the same recordings as decoded by my precise and better (wrt intermodulation distortion and transient respons) DolbyA decoder -- I also have a lot of other pop recordings (from between late '60s...
  19. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    I am going to throw a monkey wrench into the whole works -- even though as an EE analog/DSP/Real-time & operating systems person (40+yrs experience), I agree with your statement above 99.999%, there is another problem with the quality reaching the listener... Variability in mastering. Whether...
  20. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    Whether or not it was designed to be superior -- 90+dB is much greater dynamic range than vinyl -- esp below 100Hz. Also, the distortion of properly dithered digital simply cannot be replicated by vinyl. Note that the stairstepping or whatever hoax is a hoax, because think about this -- cell...
  21. J

    Interesting Piece on the Dynamic Range of Vinyl vs. CD

    One sometimes needs to be careful when comparing pre-recorded CD material (or any digital source) vs. vinyl. Here is one major problem with some of the older digital releases -- not 'digital' per se. This matter is about recordings made between late 1960's and early 1990's. This does not...
  22. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    A super major breaktrhough on the DolbyA compatible decoder. This version has a full solutoin to the intermodulation problem -- plagues real DolbyA HW units even worse. The solution is pretty much complete, and resolves the intermod issue practically down to the theoretical limtis. If you...
  23. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    Straightforward answer about the decoder -- it takes a DolbyA encoded .wav file in, and produces a decoded .wav file. There is a very signficant amount of commercial and archival material that is DolbyA encoded, and believe it or not, some consumer material has leaked out into distribution...
  24. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    NOTE: the repository was updated a few hours after the original post -- I grabbed the wrong files -- these WILL blow any ABBA listener away!!! The DolbyA compatible decoder does run in realtime on X86_64 type machines of Haswell (4700 series) are newer. It 'works' on older machines -- but is...
  25. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    Last minute note -- I have uploaded some examples (needed for something else.) ABBA hasn't sound so good since they were in the studio before the processing/DolbyA. They actually sound clean/clear -- not perfect, but also not that ugly sound. If you like ABBA, you might even want to keep some...
  26. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    Update on the decoder -- there have been major/fantastic quality updates -- one of the targets is archivists, and the quality standards must be near perfection. As it now, the decoder can take such problematical material as many of the ABBA choruses and clarify the vocals tremendously. On...
  27. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    Sorry for the 2nd reply. I forgot about a repo with some recent examples, so I just uploaded them to a temporary site. These are demos, but only mp3, so lose significant amounts of clarity (many of the examples are prone to spatial shifting or mashing together vocals or quickly repeated echoed...
  28. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    I am very well aware of the 'setting threshold by ear' issue, and it is time consuming for me. The use of the decoder SHOULD NOT be day-to-day, but rather one-off to have a good copy of what you have purchased (if in the consumer world without tones, it can take a few minutes per album.) With...
  29. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    Please refer to my demo, and I have information from people who are 'in the know' and I trust very highly (they have no benefit, in fact the opposite) for misinforming me. It really weirded me out about 1yr ago when I started seeing/hearing what I have been seeing/hearing. (I can provide...
  30. J

    Announcing a new DolbyA decoder -- more useful than you might think

    Update on the DolbyA decoder. Well good news, and some intelligence from the 'mastering' world. Firstly, there is interest now on the 'archives' front -- that is, those people/organiizations responsible for keeping the heritage recorded, and the DolbyA compatible decoder just might be used to...

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