On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 17:20:28 +0200, "Iain Churches"
wrote:

As an ex-patriot, I am probably often far more patriotic than
someone actually living in the UK. (Maybe distance lends
enchantment to the view:-)

The situation here in Scandinavia is much more healthy, it seems
to me.

In Sweden, everyone who knows anything at all about audio
can tell you about Per Johansson and the Swedish group of
researchers and experts from the renowned German Fraunhofer
Institute, who invented MP3.

Any Finn, who knows anything about audio is justly proud of
the achievements of Matti Otala, the man who first realised the
significance of intermodulation distortion in audio amps in 1973


ITYM transient intermodulation distorion; plain old IM had been known
about for decades.

His achievement was only significant in terms of publicity. TIM was
just another name for clipping inside the loop due to poor design and
was, AIUI, understood by competent designers well before Mr Otala
produced his obfuscations.

Present at this conference was Svein Erik Børja, a Norwegian record
and broadcasting producer, and a great audio enthusiast.
Svein Erik Børja was one of the most famous of the Golden Ears
breed. He took part in a large number of both sighted an non-sighted
tests, and had a remarkable ability to detect linear imperfections of
a very low order in audio amplifiers. He had been deeply dissatisfied
with the sound of transistorised audio, and the lecture given by
Dr. Otala about TIM also was an explanation to Svein Erik for
the imperfections he himself had noted in audio amplifiers.

The Danes too have a long tradition in audio design, with many fine
products. Lyrec, B+K etc etc.

We British have been undervaluing our products and
achievements for so long that people are starting to believe us:-)


Iain