David Looser wrote:

wrote

In my career in the audio industry most of the greatest recent
advances have indeed come from the lunatic fringe. There hasn't been
any serious R&D in this field for over two generations.

Most people don't realize that sound reproduction was the equivalent
of the "space race" during the 1920's and 30's. Most every topology,
circuit, and interconnection methodology can be directly traced back
to the work of Bell Labs and their competitors, much of it for
military applications.

I strongly disagree with the above.

Are you really suggesting that digital audio was *not* the result of some
serious R&D?

As for "Most every topology, circuit, and interconnection methodology can be
directly traced back to the work of Bell Labs and their competitors" I guess
it depends on what you mean by their competitors. If you mean that "Most
every topology, circuit, and interconnection methodology can be directly
traced back to the work of somebody or other who worked in the fields of
audio electronics" then yes, it's true, but totally obvious and therefore
not worth saying.

'Bell Labs' etc working invariably involved matched 600 ohm etc circuits
together with all the limitations thereof.

Liberating audio from that horrible restriction was one of the best things that
ever happened for high quality audio.

Graham