On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:07:42 -0000, "BBC is biased towards DAB"
wrote:

You have now made the
extraordinary assertion that all these things that we hold self
evident are in fact false. This extraordinary claim must be proved.


No, YOU are the one making the claims, so the onus is obviously on you
to prove them.

So there we go. You can't pass a simple listening test, and you now
realise that you have just foolishly disagreed with a whole raft of
well known and accepted truths. Competence isn't exactly shining
through is it?

But I am happy to get the ball rolling.

1. Classical music is more complex and demanding than modern pop.
First, it is longer - that demands a greater concentration span.
Second, it is generally written in several movements in varied time
signatures, as opposed to modern pop, which is typically in a simple
4/4 or 8/8 signature.
Third, it makes great use of interpretive rubato - something which
can't be done with a pop tune locked to a click track.
Fourth the harmonies are varied and often not those which would
immediately suggest themselves. Contrast the simple thirds and fifths
of pop music - when there are any, that is.
Fifth the performance must be great because unlike pop, vocoding
devices to bring the performances back in tune can't be used.

2. The CD has more definition than the human auditory system.
Frequency range - the CD is flat from 0Hz to 22kHz. At normal
listening levels, human hearing is down about 20dB at 20Hz and 20kHz.
Linearity - The CD has vanishingly small distortion over almost 100dB
of dynamic range. Human hearing is only marginally linear at mid
frequencies, and heavily expansive for treble, and particularly bass.
Resolution - the CD has effectively infinite frequency resolution. The
human ear suffers masking, resulting in the ability to hear low level
sounds close in frequency to a high level one.

3. It is not easy to compare CD and SACD.
The DACs are not the same, so accurate levelling is not simple.
They do not go through the same mastering process so there is no
like-for-like material available to make the comparison.

4. Developments since the CD have not improved audible quality.
The answer to 2 above already demonstrates this, but to see the truth
of this you need only look at what the developments are.
MP2 - a compressed version of CD, therefore by definition not better.
MP3 - ditto
AAC - ditto
Minidisc - ditto

I think I will leave that there.

OK - I'm done. Now time for you to put your money where your mouth is
and demonstrate that all of those are false.

d