Precision Rectifier...what's going on here?

[bountyhunter]

Hearing the audio systems that we use every day at home maybe we get used to their "1% distortion

Yeah, be careful what you wish for. I have some pretty decent Infinity speakers bought around 1980, but when I bought my studio grade Sennheiser headphones they spoiled my ears for everything else. We really do get used to listening to a lot of distortion and resonances. When they go away it's kind of strange at first.

My brothers car use to have a bumper sticker that said:

Clean air smells funny.

When you first hear unadulterated sound, it sounds kind of funny too.

 

[bountyhunter]

The producers of the TV show must be deaf and stupid because why don't they feed the signal not the sound to the TV network?? Is all they care about is that we can hear the applause from the audience?

It's for realism..... if you listen to golf tournaments you can hear some loud bird chirping: it's added in. Some birdophiles actually complained to the networks they were using the wrong species of bird calls for the locations of the tournaments and that was bugging them. Seriously.......

 

[spec]

I always use a wave guide between my amp and speakers
spec

 

[spec]

Yeah, be careful what you wish for. I have some pretty decent Infinity speakers bought around 1980, but when I bought my studio grade Sennheiser headphones they spoiled my ears for everything else. We really do get used to listening to a lot of distortion and resonances. When they go away it's kind of strange at first.

My brothers car use to have a bumper sticker that said:

Clean air smells funny.

When you first hear unadulterated sound, it sounds kind of funny too.

Many people don't like hifi sound- they think it sounds tinny- where is the base boost control and the treble cut. And where is the bass resonance.

spec

 

[spec]

I have just bought a new used DAC amp to be used with my phones. It comes in matt black or silver case. I had to bite my tongue too when an expert said that the silver cased ones sound better.

spec

 

[Rich D.]

Yea. I use a nice, affordable, AC lamp cord or extension cord wire for speaker wires. As long as it's not too long, a 16 gauge wire works very well, and is only a fraction of an ohm. I use a very rugged 14 or 12 gauge AC power wires for my more powerful PA system speakers.

With the money I save, I can spend it on better speakers than some guy who buys Monster Cable brand at retail prices to use with his crappy speakers.

 

[Rich D.]

I have just bought a new used DAC amp to be used with my phones. It comes in matt black or silver case. I had to bite my tongue too when an expert said that the silver cased ones sound better.

spec

OMG, we all know that black sounds better!!! I had to replace all my vintage 70's stereo equipment with newer black-faced components in the 80's. See, the reflection of the light waves on the silver components interfere with the sound waves, producing beat frequencies. Many of them are ultrasonic, but some create intermodulation distortion in the audio frequency range, unless you get the upgraded models with the flux capacitors.

 

[Rich D.]

Many people don't like hifi sound- they think it sounds tinny- where is the base boost control and the treble cut. And where is the bass resonance.

spec

Yes, Sennheiser makes some sweet sounding headphones! I use a pair for monitoring in the studio when mikes are live and I can't turn on the monitors. I have to endorse AT (Audio Technica) also, I have a pair of them I like just as much.

Many years ago I bought a pair of Technics home speakers (SB-L95's?). They were 3-way models with a whopping 15" woofer, and an acoustic lens on the tweeters. To my ears, they sounded great. I was amazed at the high-frequency dispersion of the with the acoustic lens (a shaped plastic baffle / grille in front of the driver). Years later, a buddy looked up the model and told me that they were not rated very high in sound quality. Having not seen the data, I stated "I'll bet that the problem is that they are weak in the 3-to-5 KHz region." I've learned before that my ears were overly sensitive to that audio range, if too loud, it just sounds harsh to me. We looked up the data which included a frequency response chart, and sure enough there was a significant dip in the 3-5 KHz region, but the low and high end was very wide. They do sure pump out the low end though. Who needs a subwoofer when you have 2X15" drivers already in the speakers?

The moral of the story is - and many speaker buying tips will state this - always listen-test speakers before you buy, since everybody has different tastes in sound. I ended up with speakers that very well suit my ears and I still use them to this day.

When I was just starting out in recording and mixing music, I used those very speakers with an Akai (liquid cooled!) amplifier. Sounded awesome. Many years later I found the same model speakers at a discount sale and bought them immediately. So now I have two sets of them. Skip ahead another 10 years and I finally was able to afford some good studio monitors. They were Event brand, self-powered, bi-amped bookshelf/studio monitors, and they cost about 10X the cost of those cheapie Technics speakers. I hooked them up and of course A/B 'd them with the other speakers, and frankly once I adjusted the volume levels, I couldn't hear the difference between the two! To be fair, the Technics were run through a 15-band eq fine-tuned over the ears to my personal taste, while the Event speakers were sent a straight-flat signal.

 

[bountyhunter]

Many years ago I bought a pair of Technics home speakers (SB-L95's?). They were 3-way models with a whopping 15" woofer, and an acoustic lens on the tweeters. To my ears, they sounded great. I was amazed at the high-frequency dispersion of the with the acoustic lens (a shaped plastic baffle / grille in front of the driver). Years later, a buddy looked up the model and told me that they were not rated very high in sound quality. Having not seen the data, I stated "I'll bet that the problem is that they are weak in the 3-to-5 KHz region." I've learned before that my ears were overly sensitive to that audio range, if too loud, it just sounds harsh to me. We looked up the data which included a frequency response chart, and sure enough there was a significant dip in the 3-5 KHz region, but the low and high end was very wide. They do sure pump out the low end though. Who needs a subwoofer when you have 2X15" drivers already in the speakers?

My Infintys are three ways with 12" woofers that had something they patented called "variable Q". They always sounded pretty good. Their shining glory was the EMIT ribbon tweeter which was the only tweeter I ever heard in my life that had natural sound and perfect dispersion. Mine are like these:

**broken link removed**

 

[spec]

Yes, Sennheiser makes some sweet sounding headphones! I use a pair for monitoring in the studio when mikes are live and I can't turn on the monitors. I have to endorse AT (Audio Technica) also, I have a pair of them I like just as much.

Many years ago I bought a pair of Technics home speakers (SB-L95's?). They were 3-way models with a whopping 15" woofer, and an acoustic lens on the tweeters. To my ears, they sounded great. I was amazed at the high-frequency dispersion of the with the acoustic lens (a shaped plastic baffle / grille in front of the driver). Years later, a buddy looked up the model and told me that they were not rated very high in sound quality. Having not seen the data, I stated "I'll bet that the problem is that they are weak in the 3-to-5 KHz region." I've learned before that my ears were overly sensitive to that audio range, if too loud, it just sounds harsh to me. We looked up the data which included a frequency response chart, and sure enough there was a significant dip in the 3-5 KHz region, but the low and high end was very wide. They do sure pump out the low end though. Who needs a subwoofer when you have 2X15" drivers already in the speakers?

The moral of the story is - and many speaker buying tips will state this - always listen-test speakers before you buy, since everybody has different tastes in sound. I ended up with speakers that very well suit my ears and I still use them to this day.

When I was just starting out in recording and mixing music, I used those very speakers with an Akai (liquid cooled!) amplifier. Sounded awesome. Many years later I found the same model speakers at a discount sale and bought them immediately. So now I have two sets of them. Skip ahead another 10 years and I finally was able to afford some good studio monitors. They were Event brand, self-powered, bi-amped bookshelf/studio monitors, and they cost about 10X the cost of those cheapie Technics speakers. I hooked them up and of course A/B 'd them with the other speakers, and frankly once I adjusted the volume levels, I couldn't hear the difference between the two! To be fair, the Technics were run through a 15-band eq fine-tuned over the ears to my personal taste, while the Event speakers were sent a straight-flat signal.

I know exactly what you mean Rich- choose the kit that suits you. One thing I have learned though, is never listen to anything better. For years, I was quite happy with my set up- all home made apart from record deck- until my son got older and started out in HiFi. At first my system was his benchmark as, being a student, he couldn't afford much. But he started reading up on sound reproduction and ended up with a really good system, all store bought.

On engineering grounds, I trashed all his talk about HiFi. For example I argued that the record deck and arm made little difference, provided that they were basically sound, but was shocked when I heard his system. By comparison my beloved system sounded thin, bland and lacking in detail, even though it had an extended bass response (transmission lines) built with some of the best speaker chassis available.

So, in the end, I upgraded my system and it was like having a new record/tape (reel to reel) collection- you simply heard things you had never heard before. The recent DAC amp upgrade was because I heard his system again. Also, like you, I have Sen phones, which are nice, but he has Fostex. OMG you wanna hear them.

BTW sounds like you have a great job.

spec