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

"Eeyore" wrote in message
...


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

One of those accidents of history. Since the earliest amplifiers used in
broadcasting and recording were adapted from telephone repeaters (which
naturally had 600ohm balanced inputs and outputs) that became the de-facto
standard in pro-audio for more or less the entire valve era. And until the
advent of negative feedback it was hard to make amplifiers with low output
impedance anyway.

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

More a matter of convenience than "high quality". There's nothing wrong with
600 ohm terminated lines except that you can only connect one load to each
source.

David.

wrote in message


In my career in the audio industry most of the greatest
recent advances have indeed come from the lunatic fringe.

No, they were ported in from other industries.

There hasn't been any serious R&D in this field for over
two generations.

Agreed.

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.

True for analog and tubes, but not true for SS and digital.

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
. ..
wrote in message



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.

True for analog and tubes, but not true for SS and digital.

Not even true for "analog and tubes".

David.

David Looser wrote:

"Arny Krueger" wrote
wrote

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.

True for analog and tubes, but not true for SS and digital.

Not even true for "analog and tubes".

Absolutely definitely not true for sure.

Even NFB hadn't been 'invented' back then IIRC, so circuits ran open-loop
with truly horrible levels of distortion.

Graham

"David Looser" wrote in
message
"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
. ..
wrote in message



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.

True for analog and tubes, but not true for SS and
digital.

Not even true for "analog and tubes".

Yes it was. The concepts of nonlinear distortion and bandwidth were indeed
developed by Bell Labs for the purpose of optimizing the telephone system.
Negative feedback for amplifiers was invented by Bell Labs to facilitate the
long distance telephone system. Bell Labs even developed the first good
methodologies for ensuring that NFB amplifiers were stable, partially
because they were the first adopted of NFB for amplifiers. It was
communications audio, but it was audio.

Home hi fi audio started out when people started liberating components from
movie theatres, PA systems, and telephone systems and using them to build
home audio systems.

Arny Krueger wrote:

wrote

In my career in the audio industry most of the greatest
recent advances have indeed come from the lunatic fringe.

No, they were ported in from other industries.

There hasn't been any serious R&D in this field for over
two generations.

Agreed.

Uh ?

How about all those nice new ADCs and DACs with near 24 bit performance ?

Graham

"Eeyore" wrote in
message
Arny Krueger wrote:

wrote

In my career in the audio industry most of the greatest
recent advances have indeed come from the lunatic
fringe.

No, they were ported in from other industries.

There hasn't been any serious R&D in this field for over
two generations.

Agreed.

Uh ?

How about all those nice new ADCs and DACs with near 24
bit performance ?

Based on communications technology, just taken to an extreme. Initially
justified for pro audio.

" wrote:

In my career in the audio industry most of the greatest recent
advances have indeed come from the lunatic fringe.

NONE have ever come from them. It's all been retrograde such as the new
tube/valve religion.


There hasn't been
any serious R&D in this field for over two generations.

Where the **** have you been ? In the real world ? It seems not !

Graham

"Eeyore" wrote in
message
" wrote:

In my career in the audio industry most of the greatest
recent advances have indeed come from the lunatic fringe.

NONE have ever come from them. It's all been retrograde
such as the new tube/valve religion.

Agreed.