Don Hills
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Someone posted a link to a 1978 edition of Wireless World, in the Intermodulation thread. An advertisement caught my eye:
"If QUAD amplifiers are so perfect, why does it still sound better in the concert hall?
In real life, the sounds from all the instruments and sometimes parts thereof are independently radiated and so are not `phase locked' together nor are they subjected to common eigentones.
These mutually incoherent wavefronts are subjected to tiny but important reflections at the pinna and finally end up as just two channels representing the pressure at the two ear drums. It is not possible to achieve this transfer accurately by means of loud -speakers or headphones however good these components may be.
Nevertheless with good amplifiers and loudspeakers (and on those occasions when the people at the recording and transmitting end get it right) a musical experience can be achieved which is extremely satisfying and one of the greatest pleasures of our time."
"If QUAD amplifiers are so perfect, why does it still sound better in the concert hall?
In real life, the sounds from all the instruments and sometimes parts thereof are independently radiated and so are not `phase locked' together nor are they subjected to common eigentones.
These mutually incoherent wavefronts are subjected to tiny but important reflections at the pinna and finally end up as just two channels representing the pressure at the two ear drums. It is not possible to achieve this transfer accurately by means of loud -speakers or headphones however good these components may be.
Nevertheless with good amplifiers and loudspeakers (and on those occasions when the people at the recording and transmitting end get it right) a musical experience can be achieved which is extremely satisfying and one of the greatest pleasures of our time."
