On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:22:12 +0000, bcoombes bcoombes@orangedotnet
wrote:

Brian Gaff wrote:
Now, don't get all hot about it.
I have a dbx recorder or two here, and one can actually record bandwidth
limited squarewaves at higher levels. The one artefact you tend to see of
cours, is down to the finite time the processor takes to do things. You tend
to get level overshoots and undershoots and an obvious worsening of the
noise performance on louder recordings
I never really understood why everyone went to Dolby,

I remember when Dolby B first started appearing on cheaper Japanese cassette
players. It solved the hiss problem by simply slicing off everything above 8k.
Of course these days that wouldn't bother me...unfortunately

The cassette deck might have sliced everything above 8k off, but Dolby
B didn't. With a good deck, good tape, careful alignment and a low
recording level it was possible to get a flattish response to18-19k.

The problem was that the decks had to be carefully set up in
conjunction with the tape that was to be used, other wise the
processing exacerbated frequency response variations.

BTW Dolby B only operates at low recording levels; at high recording
levels the FR errors should only be those due to the inadequacy of the
machine/tape.